Fix 0xC0220005: Provider Not Found in Windows Firewall

If you've seen 0xC0220005, you know the drill. You're trying to enable a firewall rule or start a VPN client, and Windows throws this at you: "The provider does not exist." It's annoying because the provider is standing right there — or so you thought. Let's fix it.

The Quick Fix: Reset the Windows Filtering Platform

Open an administrator Command Prompt. Not PowerShell unless you know how to run it elevated. Press Win+X and choose Windows Terminal (Admin) or Command Prompt (Admin). You'll see a UAC prompt — click Yes.

Type this command and press Enter:

netsh wfp reset

You should see: Resetting WFP... OK. If you get an error, your WFP store is corrupted, and you'll need the registry fix below.

After the reset completes, restart the computer. Not a shutdown-and-boot — actually restart. This gives the Windows Filtering Platform a clean slate.

If That Didn't Work: Restore the Registry Keys

Sometimes the reset command fails because the WFP registry keys are missing or damaged. We're going to import them from a default backup that Windows keeps.

Still in an admin Command Prompt, run:

reg delete HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\BFE /v Start /f
reg add HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\BFE /v Start /t REG_DWORD /d 2 /f

reg delete HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\MpsSvc /v Start /f
reg add HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\MpsSvc /v Start /t REG_DWORD /d 2 /f

sc config BFE start= auto
sc config MpsSvc start= auto
sc start BFE
sc start MpsSvc

After each command, check the output. No errors means the keys were set. If you see "Access is denied" or "The system was unable to find the specified registry key or value," you might be running as a regular user — double-check you're in the admin command prompt.

Now restart Windows again. After reboot, run ipconfig /flushdns in an admin prompt, then try your firewall rule or VPN client again.

Why This Works

The Windows Filtering Platform (WFP) is the backbone of the Windows Firewall and many third-party security apps. It stores its providers — like "Microsoft Windows Firewall" or your antivirus's firewall driver — in a database. When a provider's GUID is missing or the registry entry got mangled (common after a failed update, malware removal, or registry cleaner), WFP throws 0xC0220005.

The netsh wfp reset command rebuilds that database from scratch. The registry fix does the same but also restarts the two core services that manage the platform. Most of the time, the reset alone works. When it doesn't, it's because the services weren't set to start automatically, so the DB never got rebuilt properly.

Less Common Variations

1. Third-Party Firewall Left a Dead Provider

If you uninstalled a third-party firewall (Norton, McAfee, ZoneAlarm) and the uninstaller didn't clean up its WFP provider, you'll get this error. To check, open Event Viewer (Win+R, type eventvwr.msc), go to Windows Logs > System, and filter by Source = Microsoft-Windows-WFP. Look for event IDs 5440–5443. They list providers. If you see a provider from an app you already removed, that's the culprit. Use the netsh reset above — it nukes all providers and rebuilds them from the OS defaults.

2. Corrupted WFP Database After a Blue Screen

A crash during a firewall rule change can corrupt the WFP database. This is rarer but possible. In that case, run sfc /scannow from an admin prompt first (to repair system files), then do the netsh reset. If sfc finds corrupt files, reboot and run the reset again.

3. Group Policy Locks the Provider

If you're on a company-managed machine, group policy might disable the firewall service entirely. You'll see the error when trying any firewall or IPsec rule. Run rsop.msc to check policy, or talk to your IT admin. On a personal machine, you can check in gpedit.msc (Windows Pro only) under Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Network > Network Connections > Windows Defender Firewall > Domain Profile and look for the setting Windows Firewall: Protect all network connections. If it's set to Disabled, that's your problem. Enable it, or set it to Not Configured.



Prevention
Three things to keep this from coming back:

Don't use registry cleaners. They love to delete WFP keys. I've seen this error ten times from people running CCleaner's registry cleaner. Avoid them.
Uninstall third-party firewalls properly. Use the vendor's removal tool, not just Add/Remove Programs. McAfee has a Consumer Product Removal tool. Norton has the Norton Remove and Reinstall tool. Run it.
Keep Windows Update current. Microsoft fixed a lot of WFP corruption bugs in the 2022 and 2023 cumulative updates. Install all quality updates (not just security ones).

That's it. You should be error-free now. If you still see 0xC0220005 after both fixes, drop a comment with your Windows version and what you were doing when it appeared — I'll walk you through a deeper debug.