Windows 11 Open Ports

Take a few minutes today to run netstat -ano on your Windows 11 PC. Look through the list of listening ports. Check the process IDs against your Task Manager. You might be surprised by what you find—and that knowledge is the first step toward a more secure system.

: Not sure what a service does? Search online using the process name or port number before terminating it. Blocking essential Windows services can break printing, file sharing, or system updates.

Port 135 is the RPC Endpoint Mapper. It acts as a directory service for DCOM (Distributed Component Object Model) applications. When a client wants to communicate with a remote Windows service (like the Registry or Service Control Manager), they first query port 135 to find the dynamic port assigned to that service. windows 11 open ports

: Used for faster, less reliable communication (e.g., streaming or gaming). Dynamic Port Range

This article explores:

These ports support legacy network browsing and name resolution. While modern networks utilize DNS, Windows maintains these ports for backward compatibility with older devices and legacy network discovery methods.

: Use netstat -ano to see the Process ID (PID) , which you can then match in the Task Manager (Details tab) to find the exact application. Take a few minutes today to run netstat

PowerShell provides a cleaner, more modern way to view this data. Right-click the and select Terminal (Admin) .

Get-NetTCPConnection | Where-Object State -eq 'Listen' You might be surprised by what you find—and