[quote user="ZeroSum"]Except that Windows Firewall defaults to block unless specified to do otherwise, so it's not a WTF at all... If all MS products always allowed all MS products full access we'd have anti-trust issues.
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Except that any program run with Administrator or better rights (anything you run if you're logged in as an admin) can tell the Windows firewall how to treat it, automatically, behind the scenes, no user interaction required.