How to Allow or Block DLNA Devices in Windows 11

This article describes steps to allow or block a DLNA device’s access to your shared media in Windows 11.

DLNA media streaming in Windows allows you can browse, search and play the media on your Windows computer using a UPnP or DLNA-enabled devices such as a phone, TV, or game console.

We previously showed you how to turn on or off DLNA media streaming in Windows 11. When DLNA is off or disabled, Windows will not receive media from other computers and DLNA-supported devices.

If security is a concern and you don’t want to stream or allow specific devices to access your shared media in Windows 11, you can selectively block or allow DNLA devices. You don’t need to disable DLNA media streaming in Windows 11 completely.

How to block or allow media sharing from DLNA devices in Windows 11

As mentioned above, you can selectively allow or block specific DLNA devices in Windows 11 instead of completely disabling the feature.

Below is how to do that when using Windows 11.

First, open the Control Panel app.

When the Control Panel app opens, navigate to the path as described below.

Control Panel -> Network and Internet -> Network and Sharing Center -> Media streaming options

In the Media streaming option settings pane in the Control Panel app, click the button that says “Turn on media streaming” as highlighted below to enable DLNA media streaming.

windows 11 turn on media streaming button in control panel
Windows 11 turns on the media streaming button in the control panel

When media streaming is turned on, your network profile and firewall settings will be modified. So, you should only use media streaming on a trusted network such as your home and work.

The default media streaming settings will stream by default all content ratings from your Music, Pictures, Recorded TV, and Videos folders.

Block or allow devices

Now that DLNA media streaming is enabled, go down the list and selectively allow or block device(s).

  • The Allow All button will allow all devices access to your shared media.
  • The Block All button blocks all devices’ access to your shared media, and will turn on media streaming
  • If you can’t block or allow all devices, then go down the list and selectively uncheck the Allowed box to block a device’s access to your shared media.
windows 11 allow or block dlna devices
Windows 11 allow or block dlna devices

That should do it! You can close the Control Panel app.

Conclusion:

This post showed you how to block or allow DLNA devices access to your shared media in Windows 11. If you find any error above or have something to add, please use the comment form below.