[Software] How to block internet access for a program in Windows 10 Firewall

[WilkerCSBD]

Although it is not usually a problem that an application has access to the internet, and we are usually interested in having it, especially in the case of online games or browsers, among other programs, sometimes there are also occasions when we want to block access to internet of a specific application.

This can be due to several reasons, for example, to avoid the automatic update of an application that does not need internet access for its correct operation, to heal us in health and have greater control over what the application can do out, or even when We use programs obtained in less legal ways, where it is not surprising that we need the application not to be able to connect to the internet to continue working.

In any case, in this guide we will show you how to block internet access for a specific application in Windows 10, so that we can be sure that it cannot communicate from or to the outside.

Locate the desired program to block Internet access
One of the first things that we will have to do is locate the executable of the program to which we want to block access to the internet, and that is that, although we might think that direct access is sufficient, there are cases in which updates to a program are managed by a separate executable, so we will have to take a quick look in the program folder to verify this.

In this case, where we have a shortcut on the desktop, we will right-click on the icon and click on Properties, where a window will open with the properties of the shortcut. Once there, we will click on Open location, and it will take us directly to the folder that houses the executable.

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As we can see, it is a simple application that does not have multiple executables, so we can be sure that blocking the main executable will be enough. In the case of programs that have a separate service, we will probably find names that end in "update" or similar, so that if we find multiple executables, we can search for information online to determine which files we want to block. .

In any case, we will not close the window, as we will need it later.

How to access and navigate Windows Firewall
Now we will proceed to access the Windows Firewall, something that we can do in several ways, as we will see below.

The simplest thing is to open the start menu and write Windows Defender Firewall, where the option that will appear selected is the one that interests us despite having a longer name. We can also choose to look for the Windows Firewall in the control panel, and once inside, look for the advanced settings, something that will take us to exactly the same place.

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Finally, we can also make use of the Windows execution window, because by pressing the Windows + R key combination and typing "wf.msc" in the window that will appear, it will allow us to quickly access the Windows Firewall configuration .

In any case, we are already in the advanced configuration window of the Windows Firewall, something that may seem somewhat intimidating at first, but it is really simple to use.

Block internet access for an application in Windows firewall
At this point is when we can begin to block the internet access of our application, something that we will do by applying inbound rules and outbound rules.

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The first field will be that of entry rules, and as we click we will see how there are a good number of applications that we will be able to recognize having allowed their access to the internet over time, something typical when we start a game or program for the first time and we request internet access through Windows Firewall.

To create a rule, we will click on the “New rule…” button in the Actions menu on the right side, and we will select the “Program” option among the options that are given to us, where by clicking Next we will be asked for the application path .

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This is where we can return to the folder where the application is located, where we can see the properties of the program to copy the path where it is located and the name of the application, as we see in the example screenshot.

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