How to block program (MSI Command Center) from connecting to internet?

[Mark Kaine]

I've tried to block it in firewall outbound rules, but it still apparently connected to the internet to tell me there's a new update available... and since I've heard terrible things I certainly don't want to update and it's tedious to click the "no" button every time, I've also already several times pressed "yes" by accident which led to me yanking out the ethernet cable asap (also not exactly a great solution) 

 

Thing is I need it, it's the only way to control 2 of my case fans (that port just doesn't respond to any motherboard settings...) 

 

So anyway the problem is twofold, I'm not sure I set everything right, and maybe I just needed to restart the PC? Something I rarely think about doing... 

 

And the other problem is I have simply no idea which processes I actually need to block - I blocked like 5 or 6 "Command Center" or seemingly related exes... but I'm pretty sure I missed some, there are so many (MSI did a good job obfuscating those lol) 

 

So if anyone would have some ideas or knowledge on how to proceed that would be great!

 

Thanks.

 

 

 

[The_russian]

What steps did you take when creating the firewall rule? Here's a guide on how to do it (not necessarily the best guide, just the first one I found and better than I could write up quickly):

https://www.howtogeek.com/227093/how-to-block-an-application-from-accessing-the-internet-with-windows-firewall/

 

There's an interesting section in the middle about editing the path to the .exe file from the auto-filled out path. Their example is changing

 

%USERPROFILE%\Documents\MaxthonPortable\App\Maxthon\Bin\Maxthon.exe

 

to 

 

C:\Users\Jason\Documents\MaxthonPortable\App\Maxthon\Bin\Maxthon.exe

 

That's worth taking a look at. The windows firewall rule should be adequate to block a program from accessing the internet, I have done it in the past to stop questionably acquired programs from communicating with update or license verification servers. I remember also editing the windows hosts file to remove some hosts that are added by the program you are trying to limit, I don't remember the location of that file or if that was done for a different reason, just something to maybe look at. 

[Worf1337]

You could try using NetLimiter

[Mark Kaine]

13 hours ago, The_russian said:

There's an interesting section in the middle about editing the path to the .exe file from the auto-filled out path. Their example is changing

 

%USERPROFILE%\Documents\MaxthonPortable\App\Maxthon\Bin\Maxthon.exe

 

to 

 

C:\Users\Jason\Documents\MaxthonPortable\App\Maxthon\Bin\Maxthon.exe

Ok, wow that's tedious considering there are so many of them "MSI exes" (at least 5, but I'm pretty sure I saw more MSI folders somewhere else) 

 

But worth a try I agree and thanks.

 

Yeah i followed a guide although I don't understand why it couldn't be done in the normal firewall setting, and instead has to be done in "advanced"?