How to Block a Program with Windows Firewall

This wikiHow teaches you how to prevent a program from accessing your Windows computer’s network by blocking it in the firewall. You must have administrator privileges to access the firewall and block the program.

Table of Contents

Steps

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Open the Start menu. Click the Windows icon located in the lower right corner of the screen or press the ⊞ Win key.

On Windows 8, you hover your mouse pointer over the upper right corner of the screen and click and the magnifying glass icon.

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Type Firewall into the search box in Start. A list of suitable programs will appear, one of which is Firewall.

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Click Windows Firewall . The program is usually at the top of the list of results.

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Click Allow an app or feature through Windows Firewall . This path is located in the upper left of the Firewall window.

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Click Change Settings . This option is in the upper right of the window, just below the list of programs on your computer.

Then you’ll probably have to click the Yes box in the pop-up to continue.
If you don’t have administrator rights on your computer, you won’t be able to do this.

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Identify the program you want to block. The program list in the middle of the page shows all the programs that the firewall is allowing or blocking; you can scroll down to find the right program to block.

If the program you want to block is not found, click Add another program and select the program from the pop-up results window.

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Click the checkmark to the left of the program. This will remove the check mark, which means blocking the program from bypassing the firewall.

If there is no checkmark on the left of the program, it means that Windows Firewall has been blocking the program.
Do not change the two check boxes to the right of the program (“Home/Work (Private)” and “Public”).

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Click the OK button located at the bottom of the window. This will save your changes and prevent the program from running on your computer.

Advice

Blocking a program through a firewall is a good way to prevent persistent malware and additional applications from slowing down your computer.

Warning

Preventing a Windows program from breaking through the firewall can cause some operating system processes to stop working.

Steps

Advice

Warning

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