How can I give a user permission to allow apps through the firewall without making them an admin

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How can I give a user permission to allow apps through the firewall without making them an admin

Mog0 0

My son plays a lot of Minecraft mods, and each of these triggers UAC to approve firewall access on first run.

I don't want to give my son admin access, but I'd like a way to allow him to approve the firewall access without needing me or his mum to approve every time.

There used to be a Users and Groups control panel for things like this, but I can't find it on Windows 11 - has it been removed?

Is there another way to give him permission?

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Answer 1

Michael Taylor 59,176

You have to be an admin to make firewall changes. AFAIK there is no explicit permission that can be granted to allow changing firewall settings.

What I don't understand is why you would need to do this anyway. I don't play Minecraft so I'm unsure how mods impact it but presumably they are just DLLs that load into the process memory.

Firewall rules are defined by the EXE. If you allow Minecraft (the EXE) through the firewall then it is allowed. It doesn't matter what it tries to do after that. If a mod tried to run its own EXE then a firewall rule would be necessary.

However that is a good thing because you wouldn't want your son to download a malicious mod that silently uploads all his personal data to a site. That is the whole purpose of using firewalls.

If you need more granular control over the firewall then search for "Windows Firewall with Advanced Security". This app gives you more control over what is allowed. The default firewall UX allows you to allow/deny a program on various network profiles. The advanced version allows you more flexibility such as allowing specific ports and whatnot.

Mog0 0 Reputation points

2025-04-24T08:07:16.64+00:00

The mods are on the java version and straightaway Java makes no sense 😉

Each time you load a different mod, it shuffles the files around and you end up with firewall rules for 15 different Java executables.

My understanding is that part of the problem is that the mods aren't using an API designed for this, someone worked out how to modify the application files to allow mods to be created.

Mojang are trying to push people to the "bedrock" edition, which is written using a proper language (C++, I believe) and has both a proper API and a store for mods, but so far Java edition remains dominant for mods.
Michael Taylor 59,176 Reputation points

2025-04-24T14:05:35.2+00:00

Unfortunately I don't see a way forward for you. You don't want to open up the firewall to allow arbitrary Java programs to run as that defeats the purpose of using a firewall. At the same time you don't want to make your son an admin as that would be a huge security hole (for anyone). Ideally you should be reviewing each "mod" that is being used to ensure it isn't malicious and then you could allow the app through at that point.

It sounds like Minecraft Java is behaving just like a malicious application would in that arbitrarily downloaded software can make unofficial changes to the application and hence you have no way of knowing whether the mod is legitimate or not. I think a manual review process makes the most sense. Perhaps you should consider having a discussion with your son about identifying the mods they want to use and then you can review them first.
Mog0 0 Reputation points

2025-04-24T17:15:09.9033333+00:00

My son is fairly sensible, so I trust him to pick the mods without me reviewing each one - they do come from a specific site that does have some safety controls - but not enough to be a full admin. He's actually a bit paranoid about playing something unsuitable and has turned off things he's come across that I was completely fine with 🙂.As you say, I don't want to allow ALL java apps through the firewall as that would be a big risk.

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How can I give a user permission to allow apps through the firewall without making them an admin

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