How to Turn Off or On the Firewall in Windows 11

Windows 11 is the latest operating system from Microsoft and it comes with Windows Defender, which has been improved in recent years and has been rated as one of the best antivirus software by many media. More security means more privacy and tighter protection, which protects your computer most of the time, but can occasionally get in the way of daily operations, such as installing or using an application. In this case, you may want to temporarily disable your computer's firewall.

In fact, the way to disable the firewall in Windows 11 is basically the same as in Windows 10, you can refer to the following steps.

How to turn off Windows 11 Firewall

1. First, open the Settings app and navigate to "Privacy & security" > "Window Security" > "Open Windows Security". Or you can search "windows security" in the start menu and open it from the search result.

2. Click "Firewall & network protection", and then select "Public network".

3. Find the "Microsoft Defender Firewall" section, and toggle it off.

When you turn it off, you will see a notice "The public firewall is turned off. Your device may be vulnerable", indicating that this action is risky especially if your computer is not protected by any other antivirus software.

Also, turning off Windows Defender in Windows 11 is permanent, which means it won't turn itself back on. From a security point of view, it is not recommended to turn off the firewall for a long time. You can temporarily turn off the firewall and turn it back on when you are done with the operation you want to perform.

It's easy to turn it back on, just navigate to "Microsoft Defender Firewall" again by following the same steps, and then toggle it on.