The rule is correct, the profiles are right, the file is right — and the app still sails online. Before you rebuild everything, ask a ruder question: is Windows Firewall even the firewall in charge of this PC? On many machines, it is not.
Many antivirus suites install their own firewall and quietly take over. When that happens, Windows steps aside: program rules you create in wf.msc sit in a rulebook nobody is reading, and the suite's firewall makes every decision. The fix is not to fight it — it is to put your block in the firewall that is actually on duty.
wf.msc and read the overview page — when a vendor controls things, the page and the linked settings make the arrangement visible, and many options effectively defer to the suiteIf Windows Defender Firewall is named everywhere, it is in charge — then your problem is the rule itself, and the still-connects guide in this series is the right page.
Every major suite with a firewall has an application-rules area — it may be called Firewall, Application control or Program rules inside the antivirus's own settings. The recipe is the same idea with different buttons:
Do not create the block in both places and hope — while the suite is in charge, only its rules count, and duplicate Windows rules just confuse the next person who debugs the PC.
You usually can switch a suite's firewall component off, at which point Windows Firewall takes over again and your wf.msc rules start working. But be honest about the trade: that suite's firewall may be part of the protection someone — possibly your office, possibly whoever set up this PC — deliberately chose. On your own PC the choice is yours; on a work laptop, ask IT first. The zero-risk path is always the same: one firewall in charge, and the block written in that firewall.
On company laptops there is a second landlord: domain Group Policy. Admins can push firewall rules from the server and control whether local rules merge with them. Your local block usually survives — program blocks rarely clash with policy — but a policy rule can outrank it, and some settings can be greyed out entirely. If your rule exists, is correct, and still loses on a work PC, that is policy doing its job, not a broken PC. The remedy is a request to the IT team, not a workaround — attempts to bypass managed security settings on a company machine can breach your employer's policy.
Watch the video for the Windows Firewall method — and use this page if that method seems to be ignored.
▶️ Watch Full VideoNo. Suites without a firewall leave Windows Defender Firewall fully in charge, and plain antivirus scanning never interferes with firewall rules. Your problem then lives in the rule itself — check the file path and profiles.
Then Windows Firewall is on duty and the takeover theory is dead. Go back to basics: wrong exe, wrong profile, or the app connecting through a service — the still-connects checklist in this series covers all three.
In practice Windows prevents a true double-firewall fight: when a registered third-party firewall is active, Windows Defender Firewall yields for program decisions. That handover is exactly why your Windows rules appear to be ignored.