The remove button greyed out in Windows defender firewall

xchen 21

I want to remove some empty items listed in Windows Defender Firewall, but the Remove button is greyed out, why?

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Michael Taylor 54,316 Reputation points

2021-07-20T14:19:56.19+00:00

This UI won't let you remove all rules. I'm not sure of the requirements but I think it has something to do with how it was added (installer, etc). For some entries you can remove it and for others you cannot.

The workaround is to go the Advanced Settings in Windows Defender and delete it from there.
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xchen 21 Reputation points

2021-07-20T14:49:36.907+00:00

Thanks for the reply!

Another finding that bothers me, some of the entries in the above dialog box has empty Details, why?
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xchen 21 Reputation points

2021-07-20T14:57:05.033+00:00

Following your suggestion, i looked into the advanced setting, and i noticed one entry in the simpler setting has six similar entries in the advanced setting, is it normal?
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Michael Taylor 54,316 Reputation points

2021-07-20T15:22:36.217+00:00

Yes it is common. This is the advanced details and there can be multiple rules for a single app. In this case they are the same but this is likely because the installer that adds the rules just blindly adds them and doesn't check to see if they are already there. This is common when an app has an update and it basically reinstalls the app.

AFAIK if an installer doesn't remove the rule on uninstall then it'll leave it around. I consider the firewall to be a list of just rules. They aren't associated with the program installer. So you can easily get orphans and this is actually pretty common.

Sunny Qi 11,041 Reputation points Microsoft Vendor

2021-07-21T04:36:24.713+00:00

Thanks for cooldadtx's answers and glad to see that the issue has ben resolved. If there is anything else we can do for you, please feel free to post in the forum.
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The remove button greyed out in Windows defender firewall

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