How to block an application from accessing the internet in Windows

If you want to block an application from accessing the internet on Windows 11 and Windows 10 computers, here is how you can do that. There are mainly two methods to block Internet Access to Apps on your computer – using Windows Defender Firewall and using third-party software.

Let’s assume that you want to hand over your computer to your kid for educational purposes, and your kid needs to read some offline books. On the other hand, your computer is always connected to the internet due to some reason. At such a moment, if you want to prevent your kid from accessing the internet via a browser like Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, or Microsoft Edge, this tutorial will be handy for you. Whether it is a browser, game, or anything else, you can block that program from using the internet on your computer.

How to block an application from accessing the internet

To block an application from accessing the internet using Windows Defender Firewall, follow these steps:

Open Windows Defender Firewall on your PC.
Click on the Advanced settings option.
Select the Outbound Rules on the left side.
Click on the New Rule option on the right side.
Select Program and click the Next button.
Select This program path > click the Browse button.
Choose the program you want to block from accessing the internet.
Click the Next button.
Select Block the connection option and click on Next.
Select Domain, Private, and Public options > click the Next button.
Enter the name of the Firewall rule and click the Finish button.

To learn more about these steps, continue reading.

At first, you need to search for the firewall in the Taskbar search box and click on the individual search result to open the Windows Defender Firewall on your computer. Following that, click on the Advanced settings option on the left side and click the Outbound Rules.

On the right-hand side, you can find an option called New Rule. Click on it to create a new firewall rule to block the program from using the internet connection on your PC.

Here you can find multiple options, such as Program, Port, Predefined, and Custom. You need to select the Program option and click the Next button.

Following that, you will get an option to block a specific program or all programs from using the internet on your PC. If you want to block one particular app, you need to choose the This program path option, click the Browse button, and select the installer file.

Then, click the Next button. After that, you need to choose the Block the connection option and click on the Next option.

Now, you will find three options or types of connections – Domain, Private, and Public. You need to select all three options and click the Next button.

Lastly, enter the name of your firewall rule and click the Finish button.

Once done, you cannot use the internet on your selected program. To re-enable internet access, you need to delete the firewall rule. To do so, right-click on the rule you created to block the program from accessing the internet and select the Delete option.

Block Internet Access to Apps on Windows 11 using CMD

To block internet access to specific apps in Windows 11/10, you can also use Command Prompt.

Open CMD as administrator, type the following command, and hit Enter:

netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name="FF Block In" protocol=TCP dir=in action=block program="AppPath"

Here, replace AppPath with the actual path to the app.

How to block a program from accessing the internet using ProgCop

Blocking applications from going online is something that is possible by default in Windows 11/10 via the Windows Firewall software. While you can allow or block a program using the Windows Firewall, using free tools like OneClickFirewall or ProgCap makes things a lot easier.

When it comes down to adding programs for blocking, we suggest clicking on the first icon at the top with the green plus sign attached. Bear in mind that as soon as the program is added, it will be automatically blocked right from the start.

The user should see the Application Path, Process Name, and State, which should say BLOCKED in green.

If you want to delete an added software, don’t worry—it’s easy from our point of view. Simply select the program you want to remove, then click on the second icon above with the red minus sign.

Doing so should promptly remove the program from ProgCop in a timely fashion.

The easiest way to unblock a program is to remove it, but then you’ll have to add it all over again should the need arise to block it. With the two shields icon at the top, users can simply click them to block and unblock, that’s it.

It’s that easy, therefore, nothing else to do on the user’s part unless the changes need to be reversed.

In terms of the settings area, we must confirm that there’s not much to see or do here, and that’s great. The tool is already quite easy to use, and as such, it doesn’t need anything that could complicate matters.

The software doesn’t work on its own since it relies on the Windows Firewall API to get things done. As it stands, then, it was designed to work hand-in-hand with the Windows Firewall for optimal performance.

How to prevent an app from accessing the internet using third-party software?

If you do not want to go through all the steps as mentioned above to block a program from using the internet on your Windows 11/10 PC, you can use third-party software. There are plenty of tools available in the market.

For example, you can use ProgCop, which blocks any program from accessing the internet within moments. The user interface is uncluttered, and it is not much time-consuming to set things up. You can easily add a program to the list and remove it whenever needed.
The second tool is OneClickFirewall. At times, you might need to make all the changes right from the context menu. If so, you can use this software on your computer. The best thing about this tool is that you can get an option called Block Internet Access in the right-click context menu on all the programs.

How do I block programs from accessing the Internet except one?

You can block all programs from accessing the internet except a specific one with the help of the Windows Defender Firewall. You need to create a new outbound rule blocking all programs at once. For that, select the All programs option when it asks you to choose the program you want to block. You must create a new outbound rule that allows the desired application to access the internet.

How do I block a website on Windows 11/10?

If you want to block a website on Windows 11, then you can use a free third-party tool or some best free parental control tools like Microsoft Family Safety, Qustodio, etc. In addition, you can also block an IP or website using Windows PowerShell. You can also use a proxy script or a Hosts file to block websites in browsers (Chrome, Edge, and Firefox) on Windows 11/10.

That’s all! I hope this guide helped.