Windows OS

Introduction

Microsoft Windows is one of the world's most widely used operating systems. While many of its features and settings are familiar to most users, others are less well known and can be especially useful depending on your professional needs, workflow, or creativity.

In this section, I share useful tips, less-known features, and practical Windows configurations that can help you get more out of the operating system. You may also discover features that inspire new ways to customize Windows and adapt it to your specific needs.

Block an Entire Software Application in Windows Firewall

Sometimes you may need to prevent an application from accessing the network through Windows Firewall. This can be useful for applications that do not need internet access, software that you want to keep offline, applications that generate unwanted network traffic, or situations where you want tighter control over which programs can communicate with the internet.

At first, you might think that adding the application's main executable file—for example, Setup64.exe—to the firewall is enough. However, this may not work as expected. A software application can contain multiple executable files (.exe) located in different folders, and different components may use different executables for network communication. Manually finding and adding each executable file to Windows Firewall can be time-consuming and error-prone. To make this process easier, the batch script provided by me can automatically finds the executable files within the application's folder and creates outbound firewall rules for them.

The script will display a summary of the executable files for which firewall rules were created, as well as scripts that cannot be added to Windows firewall rules.

You can read more about this scripts and have it from my GitHub: View in GitHub

To verify the results manually, open Windows Defender Firewall with Advanced Security by running wf.msc, then go to Outbound Rules. You should see the rules created by the script there.

Stop Chrome and Edge Updates

This topic may raise an obvious question: “Why would anyone disable browser updates and accept the associated security risks? Why not simply disable updates from the browser settings?”

The reason for this guide is a specific situation that has occurred during severe Internet disruptions in Iran. During periods of extreme Internet restrictions, Internet traffic has become very expensive, $7 for each Gigabyte of traffic at 1 Mbps speed. A connection running at only 1 Mbps could become significantly worse when a browser started downloading an update in the background while the user was performing normal browsing.

Because of these conditions, users sometimes had to conserve every bit of available Internet traffic. One common solution was to enable Windows Metered Connection for the Wi-Fi network. However, Chrome and Edge can still perform update-related network activity, and simply marking a connection as metered does not necessarily provide complete control over browser updates.

As a result, I looked for a way to prevent the browsers' update programs from accessing the Internet. I found that blocking the relevant updater executables through Windows Defender Firewall can prevent them from communicating with their update servers.

Later, several people asked me how I had done this, so I decided to document the method here. I am sharing it mainly because I could not find a simple, practical guide specifically addressing this situation.

Disclaimer: Disabling browser updates can create serious security risks.

Browser updates contain security fixes, bug fixes, and other important improvements. This method should therefore only be used when there is a specific reason to temporarily prevent update traffic, such as severe bandwidth or connectivity restrictions.

If you use this method, periodically re-enable the firewall rules and update your browsers. Do not leave browsers permanently unpatched unless you fully understand and accept the security implications.

This guide is intended for educational purposes and may be particularly useful for users in Iran during severe Internet disruptions.

Why Not Use Group Policy?

Group Policy is a legitimate way to manage Chrome and Edge updates, particularly in managed environments. However, that approach is not always practical for personal laptops or Windows computers that are not joined to an Active Directory domain.

The method described here instead uses Windows Defender Firewall to block the updater programs directly. It can therefore be useful on standalone or workgroup computers where centralized policy management is not available or desirable.

How It Works

Chrome and Edge use separate update components to check for and download updates. By creating outbound firewall rules that block these updater executables, Windows can prevent them from accessing the Internet.

The relevant executable locations can include the following:

Google Chrome

• • C:\Program Files (x86)\Google\Update\GoogleUpdate.exe

  • C:\Program Files (x86)\Google\GoogleUpdater\<VERSION>\updater.exe

Microsoft Edge

• • C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft\EdgeUpdate\MicrosoftEdgeUpdate.exe

The exact paths can vary depending on the browser version, installation method, Windows architecture, and updater version. In particular, the <VERSION> portion of the GoogleUpdater path is not permanent and may change after an update or reinstallation.

Blocking the Updaters with Windows Firewall

Adding these executables manually through Windows Defender Firewall with Advanced Security → Outbound Rules can be inconvenient, especially for users who are not familiar with Windows Firewall.

For this reason, I created a simple .bat script that adds the required outbound firewall rules automatically.

You can view and have code from my GitHub: View in GitHub

Note

If you use this method because of severe bandwidth restrictions, periodically disable the firewall rules and allow your browsers to update. Once the browsers have been updated, you can re-enable the rules if the bandwidth restriction still exists.

Change the Windows User Interface Font

Sometimes, the Windows user interface (UI) font may be difficult to read because it is too small or too large, depending on your monitor size and resolution. You may think you can solve this by adjusting the display scaling settings in Windows Settings. However, display scaling changes the size of other elements on the screen as well. This can reduce the amount of content visible on the screen and may cause display or layout issues in some software.

There is another way to keep the current display scaling unchanged while changing only the UI font and its size. On Windows 10 and Windows 11, you can use Advanced Font Changer, a third-party utility that allows you to change the font and font size used by different Windows UI elements.

After selecting the appropriate font and size for each section, click Apply and close the application.

Finally, sign out of your Windows account and sign in again for the changes to take effect.