here are some excerpts from VlC forum page https://forum.videolan.org/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=125083
with VLC 2.2.0 on XP:
- start VLC, it disables windows firewall
- exit VLC, it enables windows firewall
All I need is to play some local files... not anything from the internet.
How can I prevent VLC from disabling (turning off) the firewall?
response from VLC: VLC does not touch the firewall configuration directly. Check your firewall settings.
response: I have Bitdefender on this machine. It has a feature called "auto-pilot".
I found that when auto-pilot is disabled the "firewall turn-off" problem disappears. Then if I turn auto-pilot on, the problem appears again.
However, there are no other issues with auto-pilot, except when starting VLC, firewall is disabled.
There might be a billion computers with Bitdefender, and all use auto-pilot as it's quite unique.
What could be done?