Almost every antivirus does that including defender which comes with windows (and is so misunderstood), and It can actually be done in many ways. You can exclude a folder from real-time scanning or manual scanning, you can whitelist or blacklist programs/files/folders, and you can revert (undo) any "wrong" decisions if and when they happen.
Sadly each antivirus does this in different ways, and we can't really tell you how to do it on all of them, so once you make your choice, you will have to either go through the various options to see how you can do this or read the manual/google on how to have exceptions and exclusions in that specific antivirus.
As for which a/v to use? Depends on your needs. I would recommend searching for legit tests like virus labs reports and avoid popular sites as those "tests" are paid promotions most of the time, and see what each one offers and which one you like. No matter what tho 50% of the protection comes from you. If you are careful about what you are doing and know where to download and NOT to download, that is 50% of the protection you need.
Hope it helped.
