When you’re looking for a way to disable Windows Firewall, many answers will tell you how it can be done. However, not all of them are accurate. Here is the full list of ways that can help in disabling or turning off your firewall and what they do:
1) Open up an elevated command prompt window with administrator privileges;
2) Navigate to C:\Windows\System32 (or wherever it might be);
3) Type “firewall” without quotes and hit Enter;
4) In the Command Prompt box enter this command: netsh advfirewall set global state disabled= enabled
The “how to turn off firewall windows 11” is a way for you to disable or turn off the Windows Firewall. There are many ways that you can use to do this and it will be explained in detail here.
“What is the point of disabling or turning off the Windows Firewall?”
There are several reasons to deactivate Windows’ firewall. Of course, not every excuse is valid, but there are several that are.
This post will show you how to deactivate the Windows firewall in a variety of methods. This article is for you, whether you’re in a single-machine configuration, a home network, or a corporate scenario.
You’ll discover how to disable the Windows software firewall in almost every method available!
- Using the administration console for the Windows firewall
- The command-line interface (cmd.exe)
- PowerShell
- Group rules
- If you’re using Azure virtual machines, you may also use the Azure Custom Script extension.
Let’s get started!
Prerequisites
Because this is a how-to, there are certain prerequisites that must be met in order to complete the task. Domain and non-domain environments are two examples.
In a Non-Domain Situation
- One or more machines with Windows 10 installed. You may complete the examples on a single machine, however certain procedures are only applicable to remoting.
- You’ll also need administrator privileges on those Windows 10 machines.
In a Domain-Based Environment
- A domain controller server running Windows 2019. A server running Windows 2016 should also work.
- One or more domain-joined Windows 10 machines on the same network.
Using the User Interface
Probably the quickest way to disable the firewall is using the included GUI tools in Windows. Using the User Interface is probably the easiest way to turn off the Windows firewall for home users.
The Windows Security App in Action
The Windows Security App is the first GUI tool to administer. On Windows 10, version 1703 and later, the Windows Security app is accessible.
- Start typing Windows Security into the Start button to open the Windows Security program. The Windows Security program will appear in the search results; click Open.
In Windows 10, open the Windows Security App.
2. You will see different menu items in Home of the Windows Security App. Look for Firewall & network protection and click to open it.
Home of the Windows Security App
3. On the Firewall & network protection page, you should see the different network profiles listed. These network profiles are Domain Network, Private Network, and Public Network. You can turn off the firewall for each of these network connection locations individually. In this example, you need to select the Private Network profile.
The Windows Security program has a list of Network Profiles.
4. The Private Network profile is chosen in this case. To turn off the Windows Defender Firewall, go to the Private Network settings and click the switch.
If you choose, repeat the instructions for the additional network profiles.
Using the Windows Defender Firewall Control Panel, disable Windows Firewall.
The Windows Defender Firewall Control Panel is another graphical user interface utility. Unlike the Windows Security App, which has a contemporary appearance similar to that of a Windows 10 App, the Windows Defender Firewall Control Panel has a traditional control panel style.
The Windows Defender Firewall Control Panel may be accessed in a number of ways.
Method 1: Go to Control Panel —> System and Security —> Windows Defender Firewall.
From the Control Panel, choose Windows Defender Firewall.
Method 2: Type windows defender firewall into the Start menu. Select Windows Defender Firewall from the drop-down menu.
Search for Windows Defender Firewall in the Start Menu.
Method 3: Open the Run dialog box and put control firewall.cpl into it, then click OK.
Open the Run Dialog for Windows Defender Firewall.
You should see a familiar list of network profiles in the Windows Defender Firewall Control Panel: Domain networks, Private networks, and Guest or public networks. Click the Turn Windows Defender on or off option on the left-hand side.
Windows Defender Firewall’s network profiles list
You may deactivate the Windows firewall for each network profile using the Customize Settings page. All network profiles in the sample below have the Windows Firewall turned off.
On each network profile, disable Windows Firewall.
Using the Command-Line Interface
As you may already know, most, if not all, of the GUI operations in Windows, have a command-line counterpart. Using the Command-Line Interface is at times quicker, as opposed to going to different windows location when Using the User Interface options.
Users may also script or automate the procedure using the command-line parameters.
Using the NETSH Command to disable the Windows Firewall
Netsh is an ancient but helpful handy application that may be used to control network settings on a computer, or to deactivate the Windows Firewall in this scenario.
You may deactivate the Windows Firewall on each site or all network profiles with netsh advfirewall set c.
- netsh advfirewall set currentprofile state off – this command turns off the firewall for the currently active or connected network profile. Assume the presently active network profile is the Domain network. This command will then activate the Firewall for that network profile.
- netsh advfirewall set domainprofile state off – only the Domain network profile is disabled.
- set privateprofile state off netsh advfirewall – disables just the Private network profile.
- netsh advfirewall set publicprofile state off – only the Public network profile will be disabled by this command.
- netsh advfirewall set allprofiles state off – disables all network profiles at once with this command.
Each of the instructions listed above is shown in the video below.
Using netsh, disable Windows Firewall.
Learn more about the syntax, contexts, and formatting of Netsh commands.
Using the PowerShell cmdlet Set-NetFirewallProfile
Windows 10, as well as Windows Server 2012 and later, have the NetSecurity PowerShell module. This NetSecurity PowerShell module includes cmdlets for configuring networks and network security. Set-NetFirewallProfile is one of these cmdlets, and it may be used to deactivate Windows Firewall.
The syntax for Set-NetFirewallProfile is provided below.
# Disable Windows Firewall for each specified network profile Set-NetFirewallProfile -Profile <PROFILE NAME> -Enabled False # Disable Windows Firewall for ALL network profiles Set-NetFirewallProfile -All -Enabled False
On the Public, Private, and Domain network profiles, the command below will disable the firewall.
Set-NetFirewallProfile -Profile Domain,Private,Public -Enabled False -Profile Domain,Private,Public
The following example demonstrates how to use Set-NetFirewallProfile to deactivate Windows Firewall using the command above.
On chosen network profiles, disable Windows Firewall.
The example below uses the -All parameter switch to deactivate Windows Firewall on all network profiles without supplying any profile names.
On all network profiles, disable Windows Firewall.
Using PowerShell to turn off the Windows Firewall remotely
It would be impractical to individually login to each computer and perform the instructions when you need to deactivate the firewall on a large number of systems. You can deactivate remotely using PowerShell, especially in a network environment.
Note that WinRM must already be enabled on the target machine for this technique to work. In most circumstances, WinRM is already configured for remote administration on domain-joined PCs.
Find out more: How to Make Windows Remote Shell Available
You may use the Enter-PsSession cmdlet to deliver instructions to one remote machine at a time if you want to deactivate Windows Firewall on that computer.
The command will be sent from the server named dc, and the remote PC will be called desktop1. Below is the command that will be used.
Set-NetFirewallProfile -All -Enabled False Enter-PsSession -ComputerName desktop1
Running the following code in PowerShell produces the same effect as the sample below.
Using PowerShell, disable Windows Firewall remotely (Enter-PsSession)
Only use the aforementioned method if you’re working on a few distant machines. However, if you need to deactivate it on a large number of PCs, you’ll need a scripting-friendly way. You may do this using the cmdlet Invoke-Command.
@(‘desktop1’) $computers ForEach-Object | $computers Set-NetFirewallProfile -All -Enabled False $ Invoke-Command -ComputerName
The names of the distant machines are saved as an array in the $computers variable, as you can see from the code above. The Set-NetFirewallProfile -All -Enabled False command is then issued by PowerShell looping over each of the remote PCs using the Invoke-Command cmdlet. The predicted outcome may be seen in the demo below.
Using PowerShell, disable Windows Firewall remotely (Invoke-Command)
Using Group rules
Systems administrators may disable the Windows Firewall for individual PCs or the whole domain by installing a GPO. Disabling Windows Firewall will be automatic once deployed since the configuration enforces it through policy on all PCs in scope.
Developing the GPO
To create a GPO, you need to launch the Group rules Management Console on the server. To do so, run In the Run dialog, type gpmc.msc..
In the Run dialog, type gpmc.msc.
In the Group rules Management console, expand the forest and then select the domain where you will create the GPO. In the image below, the GPO is created in the xyz.int domain. Right-click on the domain and click Make a GPO in this domain and link it to this page…
Make a GPO in this domain and link it to this page…
The dialog box for the New GPO will appear. In the Name box, type Disable Windows Firewall, then click the OK button.
Enter the new GPO’s name here.
Next, right-click on the new GPO and click Edit. The GPO will open in the Group rules Management Editor. Then, expand these folders Computer Configuration —> Policies —> Administrative Templates —> Network —> Network Connections —> Windows Defender —> Firewall —> Domain Profile.
Double-click Windows Defender Firewall: Protect all network connections in the right pane’s settings list to view its properties.
Group rules Management Editor
Change the value to Disabled after the settings property is available, then click OK.
Set the Windows Firewall to Disabled.
Repeat and apply the same option to the Standard Profile settings. Then, you can now exit the Group rules Management Editor window.
GPO Deployment to All Domain Computers
You must now deploy the GPO to the domain machines once you’ve generated it.
To apply the GPO, in the Group rules Management, select the Disable Windows Firewall GPO. Then, in the Scope tab, click on Add button under the Security Filtering section.
Filtering for security
Search for Domain Computers in the Select User, Computer, or Group dialog box and click OK. By doing so, you’ll guarantee that the GPO is applied to all machines in the Domain Computers group.
Look for and choose Domain Computers.
That’s everything! The firewall on those machines will be switched off the next time the client computers get the policy update.
You may now force a policy update to see whether the GPO is operating after it has been established and deployed. To test the policy update, run gpupdate /force on the client PC.
Update the policy through force
As you can see from the above result, the policy was implemented to the client machine immediately. The setting was performed to deactivate Windows Firewall. The settings are also modified by the system administrator, according to an Box with information.
Box with information
Note: The automatic update interval for Group rules is every 90 minutes for regular users and computers. Additionally, Group rules is also updated when the computer is started, or a user logs in.
Disabling Windows Firewall on Azure Virtual Machines with the Custom Script Extension
If you have an Azure VM that you can’t access because the Windows Firewall is blocking all communication, including RDP, you’ll need to contact Microsoft. Perhaps you made modifications to the Windows Firewall and locked yourself out by accident!
If you’ve done everything mentioned in this post and are still having trouble, there’s still hope. Using the Azure Custom Script Extension, you may deactivate Windows Firewall in the guest OS of an Azure VM. The Azure Custom Script Extension runs a script from Azure Storage or GitHub against the guest OS of your Azure VM.
The following are the high-level steps:
- Make a PowerShell script (*.PS1) with instructions to turn off Windows Firewall.
- Using the Azure Portal, install the Custom Script Extension on your Azure VM.
- The PowerShell script should be uploaded to Azure Storage.
- The script will execute once automatically on the Azure VM’s guest OS.
The test VM is called devmachine1 in this case, and the Windows Firewall is turned on.
Make sure you have the appropriate Azure RBAC role in your account before continuing.
Disable-Windows-Firewall.ps1 Script Creation
You studied which commands are available to deactivate Windows Firewall in the previous sections. The netsh tool will be used in this example.
Create a new file called Disable-Windows-Firewall in your preferred code or text editor. ps1. Add this line of code to the script: set allprofiles state off netsh advfirewall When you’re finished, save the script. Here’s how to accomplish it fast with PowerShell.
| Out-File.Disable-Windows-Firewall.ps1 | netsh advfirewall set allprofiles state off
Uploading the PowerShell Script and Installing the Custom Script Extension
After you’ve completed your script, you’ll need to install the Custom Script Extension and submit it to an Azure Storage location. The script will execute against the Azure VM automatically after the extension is installed.
- To begin, go to the Azure Portal and look for the Azure VM resource. The Azure VM name in this case is devmachine1. Then click the Add button in the Extensions blade.
- Locate and select Custom Script Extension on the New Resource page. Then choose Create. Click the Browse button next to the Script file (needed) box on the Install extension screen.
- Choose Storage Account from the drop-down menu. Storagexyz01 is the name of the storage account in this example. Then a selection of containers will appear; choose the container to upload the script file to. Cont1 is the name of the container in this case.
Note: To discover how to create an Azure storage account or container if you don’t already have one, go to Create an Azure Storage account.
- Click Upload after choosing the container and browsing for the disable-windows-firewall.ps1 file you prepared on your PC. Click the Upload button once you’ve picked the file.
- The disable-windows-firewall.ps1 file should now be present within the container. Click Select after selecting disable-windows-firewall.ps1 from the list. You’ll be sent back to the Install extension page, where you must click OK to continue the installation process.
At this point, all you have to do is wait for the extension to be installed, which will then run the script you provided. To see the whole procedure in action, watch the video below.
Using the Custom Script Extension, disable Windows Firewall in an Azure VM.
Summary
You learnt how to deactivate Windows Firewall using the built-in, accessible GUI tools in Windows in this post. You’ve also learnt how to deactivate Windows Firewall locally or remotely using netsh and PowerShell commands.
Also, you’ve learned how to create and deploy a Group rules Object that would disable Windows Firewall for domain computers. Lastly, you’ve learned how to use the Azure Custom Script Extension to disable Windows Firewall in Azure VM’s guest OS.
There are several methods for disabling Windows Firewall. This article explored some of such techniques. However, there are other options you might try on your own, such as utilizing PsExec to stop it remotely.
Additional Reading
The “turn off windows firewall” is a feature that was introduced in Windows Vista. It allows users to turn the protection of their computer on or off.
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