After updating to windows 11 my windows defender firewall has not been running

Question

Since upgrading (bad choice apparently) to Windows 11 my windows defender firewall has not been working. In services it is stuck on "stopping" and when I go into the Windows defender settings I cannot change any settings as when I click on "Use recommended settings" I get an error code - "Windows defender firewall can't change some of your settings Error code 0x800706d9"

Can someone assist please? I'm not very technical and all the articles I have seen have asked to do confusing things.

Answer 1

Hi Elliot,

Thanks for reaching out to Microsoft Q&A Forum. I understand that after upgrading to Windows 11, Microsoft Defender Firewall is stuck in a stopping state and shows error code 0x800706d9 when you try to apply recommended settings.

Before we proceed further, I would like to narrow this down a bit:

1. Are you currently signed in with a personal Microsoft account, or is this a work or school account?
2. Do you have any third-party antivirus or firewall software installed, even if it was installed before the Windows 11 upgrade?

In the meantime, you can try these steps:

1, Restart required firewall-related services

• Press Windows + R, type services.msc, and press Enter
• Locate Base Filtering Engine
• Make sure its Startup type is set to Automatic and that the service is running
• Then check Microsoft Defender Firewall and see if its status changes

2, Run system file checks

• Press the Windows key, type cmd
• Right-click Command Prompt and select Run as administrator
• Run sfc /scannow and wait for it to complete
• Restart the device once finished

3, Repair the Windows image

• Open Command Prompt as administrator again
• Run DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth
• Restart the device after completion

4, Check Windows Security service status

• Open services.msc again
• Ensure Windows Security Service is set to Automatic and running
• If it is stopped, try starting it and observe any error messages

5, Perform a clean boot to rule out software conflicts

• Press Windows + R, type msconfig, and press Enter
• On the Services tab, select Hide all Microsoft services, then click Disable all
• Restart the device and check if the firewall starts normally

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Answer 2

Hi Elliot,

The error 0x800706d9 occurs if the Windows Defender Firewall or the Base Filtering Service fails to start. It's caused by the corruption of the service registry keys.

Please follow the accepted answer in the following thread fix the firewall service. That should do the trick.

Windows Firewall 0x800706d9 - Microsoft Q&A

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See also:

(Resolved) Windows firewall error: 0x800706d9 - Microsoft Q&A