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Windows Firewall is a security feature that protects your system from unauthorized access and disabling it is not recommended unless it is absolutely necessary.
If there is a legitimate reason, there are plenty of ways to disable Windows Firewall.
Here’s how to do that, how to turn it off for a single program, and how to enable it again.
Let’s dig in.
If the built-in Windows Firewall is doing more harm than good, especially if there's another firewall program in place, here’s how you can disable the Windows Defender Firewall.
The easiest way to disable the firewall on Windows 10 (version 1703 and later) is through the Windows Security app:
Disabling Windows Firewall is also possible via the Control Panel:
In Windows, there is a command-line for most GUI operations. If you know your way around, turning off the Windows Firewall can be quicker than using the GUI options.
On top of that, Windows commands allow you to automate and script the task.
Disabling Firewall on Windows 10 can be done with the netsh advfirewall set command to turn off the firewall individually for separate networks or all network profiles:
Another way to turn the firewall off on Windows 10 is to use the built-in Net Security PowerShell cmdlet Set-NetFirewallProfile.
To use this cmdlet:
PowerShell also allows you to disable the Windows Firewall via remote access on one or more computers at once.
Note that this method will only work if the WinRM is enabled on the computer where you want to turn off the firewall.
If you need to disable the firewall on one remote computer you can use the Enter PsSession cmdlet and run the following command:
Enter PsSession - ComputerName desktop2
Set-NetFirewallProfile- All- Enabled False
If you need to disable Windows Firewall on more than one computer, you can use
the Invoke - Command cmdlet instead:
$computers = @(“desktop2”)
$computers| ForEach - Object {
Invoke - Command - ComputerName $_ {
Set-NetFirewallProfile- All- Enabled False
By running this command Windows Firewall will be disabled for all network profiles on each specified computer.
System administrators can use Group Policy– which you can create on the Group Policy Management Console on the server – to disable Windows Firewall on selected or all computers in the domain.
To do that:
You can apply the New GPO to the domain computers by doing the following:
The next time the client computers get the policy update, Windows Firewall will be disabled on every one of them.
Windows also lets users turn off the Windows Firewall for a specific program.
To do that:
Note: Disabling the firewall for a program/ app doesn’t prevent it from running on Windows.
Disabling the Windows Defender Firewall can have detrimental consequences for your computer if you do not have a proper anti-malware replacement software, so make sure to check out our list of top anti-virus software choices. |
The Windows Defender Firewall is a tool that protects your computer from all types of network-based threats. But, sometimes, you may need to turn it off. There are many ways to disable Windows Firewall, including via the Windows Security App, a command line, and through a group policy, depending on what exactly you’re trying to turn off.
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