Enable incoming icmp (ping) in Vista

By default, Vista has the Windows Firewall is turned on.
This means that all incoming connections are being blocked. This may be a good thing in certain cases, but not restrictive enough in most cases, because all outgoing traffic would be allowed, so either additional rules need to be set up, or Windows Firewall should be replaced by a third party firewall solution.
 
Anyhow, in the event that you need to use Windows Firewall, you will notice that incoming icmp is turned off as well. This means that your machine cannot be pinged (which may or may not be a good idea)
 
If you want to turn on incoming ping, at your own risk, then you’ll notice that (unlike with Windows XP), there’s no option to turn this on using the GUI
 
In fact, the only way to enable it, is by using the command line :
 
netsh firewall set icmpsetting 8 enable