Windows has an inbuilt firewall since the days of Windows XP. But it has improved very much over the years and the one that comes with Windows 8 is more robust than ever. This advanced firewall can be used just like any other third party firewall to block or allow programs to access the internet. It can prevent you from hackers attacking your computer from outside. It can also prevent the malicious programs from downloading further malware. Sometimes, when you mess up the settings of the Windows Firewall, you wish if you can just restore the settings to their default state and start over. This is possible and actually is a very easy thing to do.
If you want to restore the Windows Firewall settings to their default values, then follow these steps:
- Press the hotkey Ctrl+X to open the administrator menu and select Control Panel from this menu. This would open the Control Panel window.
- In the Control Panel, select the System and Security followed by Windows Firewall. This would open the Windows Firewall settings in the Control Panel. You can also search for Windows Firewall in the Control Panel and open its settings.
- In the Windows Firewall settings, click on the Restore defaults link shown on the left side.
- This would open another window giving you some information about what is going to happen if you proceed. Click on the Restore defaults button to proceed.
- Click on the Yes button when asked. This would restore all your Windows Firewall settings to their default values and remove the settings that you have configured for various networks.