How can I back up my recommendation to NOT disable the Windows Firewall service?

Solution 1:

You already know what the best practice is; the MS-supported thing to do. You've already seen how disabling the service can lead to unpredictable behavior and that it breaks other functionality that's tangentially tied to the service. If you, as an administrator, don't have the power to stop the idiots from doing idiotic things, then escalate this to the administrator who does and have him or her put in a GPO. Have the policy makers at your company make it policy that this service is not to be disabled. Then they're not just being idiots, they're violating company policy.

https://superuser.com/questions/137930/when-the-windows-firewall-service-is-disabled-i-cannot-remote-desktop-rdp-to-t

http://weestro.blogspot.com/2009/06/server-2008-and-windows-firewall.html