blocking "phone home" programs in windows firewall

hi all, just a newbee to this forum and have been reading. I'm an old fart
from florida and just learned something about blocking programs i have on my computer from phoning home. I never knew i could block programs i have from contacting their home site and sending info to them. but its easy and another way to tighten up your security. here is one result of my googling it:

http://www.howtogeek.com/227093/how-to-block-an-application-from-accessing-the-internet-with-windows-firewall/

anyway, i am enjoying Dave's site and learning a lot. Keep up the good work. win7, always sandboxed, macrium backups once a week. clas