Windows Firewall Control is a nifty little application which extends the functionality of the Windows Firewall and provides quick access to the most frequent options of Windows Firewall. It runs in the system tray and allows user to control the native firewall easily without having to waste time by navigating to the specific part of the firewall. This is the best tool to manage the native firewall from Windows 8, Windows 7 and Windows Vista. Windows Firewall Control offers four filtering modes which can be switched with just a mouse click:
High Filtering - All outgoing connections are blocked. This setting blocks all attempts to connect to and from your computer.
Medium Filtering - Outgoing connections that do not match a rule are blocked. Only programs you allow can initiate outgoing connections.
Low Filtering - Outgoing connections that do not match a rule are allowed. You can block the programs you do not want to initiate outgoing connections.
No Filtering - Windows Firewall is turned off. Avoid using this setting unless you have another firewall running on your computer.
Program Features:
- Intuitive and easy accessible interface in the system tray, next to the system clock.
- Full support with standard user accounts. Elevated privileges are required only at installation.
- Create temporary rules which are automatically deleted when they expire or on program restart.
- Disable the ability of other programs to add Windows Firewall rules.
- Multiple and easier ways of creating new rules in Windows Firewall.
- Integrated support of creating, modifying and deleting Window Firewall rules.
- Lock feature which can disable the access to the settings of the program and Windows Firewall.
- Shell integration into the right click context menu of the executable files.
- Search for invalid rules with the possibility to delete them.
- Search for executable files through folders and create new rules in seconds.
- View recently blocked connections and create new rules from the logs: inbound and outbound.
- Choose if you want the program to start at user log on.
- Import, export and restore the firewall rules.
- Protection to unauthorized uninstallation.
- Possibility to restore previous settings at uninstallation.
- And many, many more. Just try it out.
Registered Users Features:
- Learning Mode which provides notifications for blocked outgoing connections.
- Lock the current state of the program and Windows Firewall with password.
- Reset a forgotten password used to lock the current state of the program.
Version 4.1.6.0 changelog:
- New: Added support for defining paths of the rules with system variables. However, the path of the rule will contain the full path which is converted by Windows Firewall API. Is this now possible to define a rule like this: -"%windir%\notepad.exe" or "%ProgramFiles(x86)\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe"
- Updated: If the wfcs.exe service is not available at startup of wfc.exe, it takes 20 seconds to show the tray icon. Now it displays the error icon and retries to reconnect. If the reconnect is successfully, then the status is updated.
- Updated: The user interface can now detect if the service is stopped by pooling the service every few seconds.
- Updated: Logging was updated to offer more precise info when a problem is encountered. Possible solutions are also provided in the log when an error is logged.
- Updated: Some parts of the code were simplified to improve the responsiveness.
- Updated: Some misspelled words were updated.
Download: Windows Firewall Control 4.1.6.0 | 336 KB (Free, paid upgrade available)
View: Windows Firewall Control Website