How To Disable The Windows Firewall in XP SP2

One of the annoyances that comes with Microsoft Windows XP is the built-in system firewall which comes with SP2. The problem is that it remains active even when firewall software from another manufacturer is installed. It may seem like it has been disabled, but still remains running in the background in most cases. Having two different ones running at the same time is pointless and wastes memory which could be saved for other important things.

Here are the step-by-step instructions for disabling the Windows XP SP2 firewall if you have installed one from another company:

1. Click "start"
2. Click "Run..."
3. Where it says "Open:" type "services.msc" (without the quote marks). Doing this will open the list of background processes and will allow you to enable or disable certain ones from starting when the computer boots.
4. The list is alphabetical. Scroll down the list until you see "Windows Firewall/Internet Connection Sharing (ICS)" and highlight it. If it says "Started" to the right of it (under the Status column), that means it is started and needs to be disabled. If that is the case, go on to the next step. If it does not say "Started" then go no further.
5. Right-click it to pull down a small menu, then click "Properties".
6. Where it says "Startup type:" and has a pull-down menu, use the pull-down menu to select "Disabled"
7. Under "Service status:" click the "Stop" button and wait patiently for the Windows firewall to terminate.
8. When that is finished, click "OK" and you're done.