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We publish a Windows 10 64-bit desktop app with a Wix (.msi) installer. Our support staff occasionally has to direct a user to allow our app through Windows Defender Firewall (Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Windows Defender Firewall\Allowed apps).

Windows Defender Firewall's list of apps...

After a recent release, users began reporting that our app was no longer listed there. We haven't changed anything obvious in our (Wix) installer, and I can't find anything online about what governs whether or not an app appears in the Firewall's "Allowed apps and features" list.

Can anyone shed some light on this?

Scott Smith
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    Did you change installation location? Perhaps add a version number to file name or path or increment an existing one (thereby changing the absolute path - or full path with file name if you like). – Stein Åsmul Sep 16 '20 at 11:56
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    WiX has this built-in feature to add firewall exceptions. I have not used it, but [here is a random sample from github.com](https://github.com/microsoft/RTVS/blob/46a8f4579e4fd56219af3bb2cf3fd15b84464874/src/Windows/Setup/RHostRemote/Product.wxs). WiX documentation: https://wixtoolset.org/documentation/manual/v3/xsd/firewall/ – Stein Åsmul Sep 16 '20 at 12:22
  • @SteinÅsmul - I think you've put me on the right track. I **did** add version number information, but we're still putting the EXE in the old path (without the version number). I'll bet that's the issue... – Scott Smith Sep 16 '20 at 13:40
  • @SteinÅsmul - I was just looking into this today. We were planning to make that part of the installation anyway, so I think I'll resolve the problem by adding explicit Firewall exceptions. Thank you! – Scott Smith Sep 16 '20 at 13:42
  • Sounds like a good plan. Do try that WiX firewall feature I like to above. [Custom actions are hard to do right](https://stackoverflow.com/a/46179779/129130). I would use anything "ready made" for reliability. – Stein Åsmul Sep 16 '20 at 21:25

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