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Help: Enable or disable Windows Firewall notifications

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Applies To: Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2003 R2, Windows Server 2003 with SP1, Windows Server 2003 with SP2

To enable or disable Windows Firewall notifications

  1. Open Windows Firewall.

  2. Click the Exceptions tab.

    To enable notifications, select the Display a notification when Windows Firewall blocks a program check box, and click OK.

    To disable notifications, clear the Display a notification when Windows Firewall blocks a program check box, and click OK.

Notes

  • To perform this procedure, you must be a member of the Administrators group on the local computer, or you must have been delegated the appropriate authority. If the computer is joined to a domain, members of the Domain Admins group might be able to perform this procedure.

  • To start Windows Firewall, click Start, point to Control Panel, and then click Windows Firewall.

  • You can also use the netsh command with the firewall context to perform this procedure and configure other Windows Firewall settings.

  • You can also use Group Policy settings to perform this procedure and configure other Windows Firewall settings.

  • You can configure Windows Firewall settings in the standard profile or the domain profile. The domain profile is used when a computer is connected to a network in which the computer's domain account resides. The standard profile is used when a computer is connected to a network in which the computer's domain account does not reside, such as a public network or the Internet. Make sure Windows Firewall is using the correct profile when you perform this procedure.

  • If a Windows Firewall setting appears dimmed in the graphical user interface, and on the General tab, you see For your security, some settings are controlled by Group Policy, the setting might be managed by Group Policy. If all Windows Firewall settings appear dimmed, and on the General tab, you see You must be a computer administrator to change these settings, you do not have administrative rights to configure Windows Firewall.

  • On Windows Server 2003, Windows Firewall is turned off by default and the Windows Firewall/Internet Connection Sharing service is disabled by default. You might have to start the Windows Firewall/Internet Connection Sharing service if you try to perform this procedure and you have never started Windows Firewall.

  • Windows Firewall is not included in the original release of the Windows Server 2003 operating systems.

  • Windows Firewall cannot display notifications if you select the Don't allow exceptions check box in Windows Firewall in Control Panel or if you enable the Do not allow exceptions policy setting in the Group Policy Object Editor. There are no Windows Firewall settings that allow you to override this behavior.

  • Windows Firewall does not display notifications for programs that rely on the Winsock driver to dynamically bind to a UDP port. If a program uses this method (sometimes referred to as wildcard binds) to bind to a UDP port, you might be able to use the netstat command and other troubleshooting tools to determine which UDP port is being used.

  • Windows Firewall does not display notifications for system services or programs that run when there is no user logged on to the computer. Most system services run this way, as do many server programs. However, Windows Firewall does write an event (Event ID 861) to the security event log for any system service or program that attempts to listen on a port, no matter if a notification is displayed.

See Also

Concepts

Help: Understanding Windows Firewall notifications
Help: Enable auditing of Windows Firewall events
Help: Administering Windows Firewall with Netsh
Help: Administering Windows Firewall with Group Policy
Help: Determine which profile Windows Firewall is using