How to disable Windows Firewall on a Azure VM with a Custom Script

Imagine that you’re tweaking your Windows Firewall policies, but you realize that accidentally locked your self out from the VM, there is no console access to login and help your self back in to the system. One possible action to remediate this is to use custom script extension , where it is possible to disable the Windows Firewall to gain access again!

Step 1: Create a PowerShell script with the following code, give the script the name: DisableWindowsFirewall.ps1

Set-ItemProperty -Path 'HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\SharedAccess\Parameters\FirewallPolicy\DomainProfile' -name "EnableFirewall" -Value 0

Set-ItemProperty -Path 'HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\SharedAccess\Parameters\FirewallPolicy\PublicProfile' -name "EnableFirewall" -Value 0

Set-ItemProperty -Path 'HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\SharedAccess\Parameters\FirewallPolicy\Standardprofile' -name "EnableFirewall" -Value 0

Step 2: Log in to the Azure portal, and go to your virtual machine where you need the firewall to be disabled. Go the extensions, click on Add, and select a Custom Script Extension, and click create at the bottom. select the location where you save the script from step 1, and add this to the virtuall machine

Step 3: Now its time to (re)start your VM. This will allow the extension to be deployed. If you look at extensions you should see that the provisioning succeeded

Step 4: The last step is a final reboot to have the firewall really shut down. So reboot, and connect again!

I hope this helps, let me know if you have any questions

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