How to allow a program through the Windows Vista Firewall

June 13th, 2007 by Ross McKillop |  Print This Post

This brief tutorial will show you how to “allow” a program to access the Internet when the Windows Vista Firewall is enabled (which is by default).

Typically when a program attempts to access the Internet for the first time, you’re presented with a pop-up window asking if you want to allow or block its access (see image below). This isn’t always the case though, so to manually allow a program from accessing the Internet, follow the instructions outlined below.

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1. Click the Start Orb and select Control Panel



2. Select Allow a program through Windows Firewall from the Security section - if it’s available (it’s not always the default choice). If it is available, skip down to step 4. If it’s not, click Security and continue with step 3.


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3. From the Windows Firewall section, select Allow a program through Windows Firewall.


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4. When prompted to grant permission, click Continue.


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5. If it isn’t automatically displayed, select the Exceptions tab. From there, click the Add program… button.


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6. Select the program you wish to allow access to the Internet. If it’s not listed, click the Browse button and navigate to it. Once it’s selected, click OK.


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7. Make sure that the program you just added is now listed, and has a check in the box next to it. Click OK and that program will now be able to access the Internet.


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