Do what serves your environment the most.

Initially when testing this, I did following to exclude my own device from my Windows Firewall GPO. You know what suits your environment best here, but having two separate authorities delivering settings to the same area, is never a good idea. I recommend that the devices, moving the management of Windows Firewall to Intune, are being excluded from the GPO(s) in question.

This will prove useful once everything is migrated/created over in Intune. I’d prioritize this to a degree, where you’re pretty confident in what’s being managed and what’s not. Start off by familiarizing yourself with all the current settings of your Windows Firewall. This might also serve as a good opportunity to clean up old rules and tighten your security where possible.Moving the management to the cloud might seem intimidating, but have no fear. Managing Windows Firewall via GPO, is something we have done in almost decades.

Managing your Windows Defender Firewall settings from the cloud is not only convenient, but I’d argue also something that will increase your security posture. Obviously assuming on-premises AD as well as VPN requirement in this scenario, as this is still the reality for many.Speaking of remote work, moving workloads off of your on-premises Active Directory, and therefore being less dependent on your VPN, should be something to prioritize. Denmark is well into their second COVID-lockdown, and working from home and remote is yet again mandatory for many.

Firewall settings windows 10