Re-enable remote desktop, pings, and a remote shutdown/hibernate Android app

Microsoft Defender Firewall updates playing havoc?

Occasionally, Microsoft's updates can change things on your computer that have somewhat adverse effects on the things you use day to day. I believe the Windows Defender firewall changes recently have really played a little havoc on the features I use on two Windows computers in my house. But no worry, they weren't tough to fix.

First problem leads to other issues (blocked pings, Android app, remote desktop)

The most recent issue I had was when a PC Shutdown Android app I use to remotely shut down one of my PC's, stopped working. When I started debugging this issue, I noticed I can't ping either PC (Windows 8 and Windows 10) in my house. I also tested Microsoft's Remote Desktop Connection application which was not currently working either but admittedly I think this remote desktop problem occurred a while back (probably with a different Defender Update) and I hadn't tried to fix it yet

Disable Firewall? Don't do it

I believe all three of these issues are caused by Windows Defender firewall rules. The quick test for this theory was to disable the firewall. When I did that, sure enough, all three problems went away. But this isn't a good solution as the firewall is there for a reason.

Solutions

Long story short I had to do the following to fix these problems:

Ping

A site here has instructions so I won't paste them here. The short version is you need to enable the Windows Defender Firewall rule "File and Printer Sharing (Echo Request - ICMPv4-in).

Remote Desktop Connection

Firstly, I believe something changed my remote desktop settings so that remote desktop access was once again turned off. Make sure that is on. You can easily google those instructions. Secondly, I believe the resolution for the ping issue above is also needed.

Remote PC Shutdown

This issue probably requires the ping issue resolution above first (just to be safe). The main fix for this though was going into Windows Firewall->Allowed apps and allowing the Java platform public profile. I'm assuming this is because the PC Shutdown app uses java.