[ad_1]
For troubleshooting, testing, or other similar purposes, you may need to disable the Windows 10 or Windows 11 firewall. It’s easy to disable this feature on your PC, and we’ll show you how.
RELATED: Windows Firewall: Your System’s Best Defense
Don’t disable the firewall unless you have a good reason
Disabling Windows Firewall allows unauthorized network access on your PC. Therefore, unless you have a good reason to disable the feature, you should keep your firewall enabled at all times.
The only times you may need to disable your firewall is when you are troubleshooting a problem, testing an application, or using a third-party firewall on your computer. Even then, if you’re disabling the firewall to allow an app to traverse your network, add that app to the firewall’s exceptions list instead of disabling the entire feature.
When you’re done with your task, remember to turn your firewall back on to stay safe. You can do it with a few clicks, as we will explain below.
How to disable the firewall in Windows 10 and 11
In both Windows 10 and 11, you’ll use the built-in Windows Security app to disable and enable the firewall. In the following steps, we use a Windows 11 PC.
To get started, launch Windows Security on your PC. To do this, open the “Start” menu, search for “Windows Security” and click on the application in the search results.
In the Windows Security window, click “Firewall and network protection”.
On the “Firewall and network protection” page, select your network profile. To disable the firewall for your current profile, you’ll see “Active” next to that profile, so click that option.
In the “Microsoft Defender Firewall” section, turn off the option.
Advice: Later, to re-enable the firewall, turn on the option.
Select “Yes” to the “User Account Control” prompt and your Windows firewall is now disabled. You can now continue with troubleshooting, testing, or other similar tasks.
To customize your firewall, did you know that you can create advanced rules for it? Check out our guide to learn how to use them.
RELATED: How to create advanced firewall rules in Windows Firewall
[ad_2]