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 10, 8.1, 8, 7, Vista, Server 2008, Server 2012.
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.
- 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.
- Display invalid rules with the possibility to delete them very quickly.
- Merge multiple similar rules or duplicate existing ones.
- Search for executable files through folders and create new rules in seconds.
- View recently allowed and blocked connections and create new rules from the Security log.
- Choose if you want the program to start at user log on.
- Import, export and restore all firewall rules or just the selected rules.
- Protection to unauthorized uninstallation.
- Possibility to restore previous settings at uninstallation.
- Global hot keys are supported and various shortcut keys are available.
- And many, many more. Just try it out.
Registered Users Features:
- Notifications System which provides notifications for outbound blocked connections. Four modes available:
- High - Display notifications for all outgoing connections that were blocked, including System and svchost.exe.
- Medium - Display notifications only for regular programs, without notifications for System and svchost.exe.
- Low - Automatically allow digitally signed programs. Notifications are displayed only for unsigned programs.
- Disabled - Notifications are disabled.
- Create temporary rules which are automatically deleted when they expire or on program restart.
Changes in version 5.0.0.0:
- New: Connections Log contains now an "Auto refresh on open" check box which will automatically trigger Refresh when the window is opened.
- New: Connections Log contains now an "Auto receive updates" check box which will automatically add the newest entries on top of the list. More info can be found in the user manual.
- New: Main Panel displays now the currently connected location of Windows Firewall.
- New: Added "Open the website" functionality in the About tab.
- Fixed: Duplicate notifications may be displayed if the location of Windows Firewall changes after WFC service start-up and there are rules defined for specific locations.
- Fixed: Merge rules functionality from Rules Panel does create the merged rule, but does not remove anymore the old rules.
- Fixed: Import policy displays a successful operation result, even if the import has failed due to a file access denied error.
- Fixed: Refresh does not work anymore in Connections Log after using the search. The window must be closed and reopened to be able to refresh again the data grid.
- Fixed: Some group names from Windows 10 are not recognized.
- Fixed: "mDNS" keyword is not valid in Properties dialog as local port when opening such an inbound rule for UDP protocol.
- Updated: The user manual was updated with new screenshots and updated topics.
Version 5.0.0.1 changelog:
- Fixed: During to a failed commit/build, the previous version did not display anything in the Action column. Rules Panel and Connections Log were affected.
Download: Windows Firewall Control 5.0.0.1 | 1.6 MB (Free, paid upgrade available)
View: Windows Firewall Control Website