How To Block A Program In Firewall?

How to block a program in the firewall? It is recommended to use a third party firewall software, such as Comodo, rather than Windows’ built-in firewall. These third-party firewalls are more effective in blocking programs as they are more customizable and offer more features.

The Firewall was first introduced in Windows XP, and since then, it has been constructive for the users. Nowadays, most users use Windows 10, and the Firewall here is way better than the previous versions. Blocking a program on the Firewall is very easy. I have shown a few methods on how to secure a program in Firewall below.

Blocking from Control Panel

1. Open the Control Panel.
2. Choose the “Large icons” option from the drop-down menu as shown.
3. Open the “Windows Defender Firewall” program.
   
4. Click on the option “Allow an app or feature through Windows Defender Firewall” found in the “Left-Side-Menu.”
5. A list of all your installed app/programs will be shown.
6. Uncheck the Checkbox at the left of a program to be blocked.
7. If you want to want to block a program either on a public or private network but not both, then uncheck the boxes at the right accordingly.
8. If you cannot find a program to block, click on “Allow another app…” and add the program.
   
9. Then uncheck the box to block it.
10. Click “Ok” and exit the menu.

Tip: You can use the search button on the Task Bar to directly search for the “Allow an app or feature through Windows Defender Firewall” option and launch it without opening the control panel.

Blocking with Other Applications

You can use some applications to block the program in Firewall, for example, Firewall App Blocker (FAB). To use this:

1. Download FAB from the given link. A zip file will be downloaded.
2. Unzip the file and run the “Fab.exe” or the “Fab_x64.exe” file in the folder.
3. Click the green “+” icon to add the program that needs to be blocked.
4. Choose the “.exe” file of the program from the installed folder. (Note that a shortcut won’t work).
5. You can also drag the program’s “.exe” file and drop it in the FAB window.
6. The program you added will be automatically blocked.

Some similar applications can also be used. The procedure is almost as same as this one.

Directly Blocking a Program

You can use another application called “One Click Firewall” to directly block a program in the Firewall using the context menu of that program.

1. Download the “One Click Firewall” application from the given link.
2. Install the application in any drive/folder using the “OneClickFirewall-1.0.0.2.exe” file.
3. After installing, launch the “OneClickFirewall.exe” file.
4. After that, a new registry key will be added to your computer.
   
5. It will allow you to find the Firewall “Restore” and “Block” buttons in the context menu of the “.exe” file of any program.

Firewall Option in the Context Menu

If you don’t want to use any third-party applications but want a faster or shortcut way to access Windows Firewall options, you can do the following:

1. Go to this link and download the zip file.
2. Unzip it, and there will be two registry files to Add or Remove Windows Firewall Context Menu.
3. Launch the “Add Windows Firewall Context Menu” file and click “Yes” and then “Ok.”
4. After that, you will find the “Windows Firewall” option in the desktop context menu.
5. From there, you can configure or open advanced security options as you like.
6. If you want to remove it from the context menu, launch the “Remove Windows Firewall Context Menu” file.

Summary: Block a Program in Firewall

• Open Control Panel.
• Search firewall in the search box and click on Windows Firewall.
• Click on Advanced Settings, which is located in the left pane.
• Click on Inbound Rules and click on New Rule (located in the right pane).
• Follow the prompts as instructed until you get to Profile step.
• Select Private and Public checkboxes under Profile section and click Next to proceed further.
• Choose This program path option under Program step and browse for Following program path for that particular program that you want to block using Windows Firewall. You can add multiple programs here by putting a comma in between them.
• After selecting a program path, click next two times and finally click Finish button when done.