Windows Firewall Control (WFC) by BiniSoft.org

Would it be possible to add to an option to allow the "@" rules (or whatever Apps and the Store itself need to work properly) without sacrificing the Secure Rules feature? I'm having problems with the Microsoft Store app -it won't open at all- and I think Secure Rules might be related. Don't know if Secure Profile can also interfere.

While 5.1 is more 'hardened' than 5.0, it also seems a bit less flexible. If I understand correctly, the "@" rules are now completely disallowed with Secure Rules thus rendering the whole Apps environment problematic and buggy.

Not a fan of Apps but I'd still like to be able to use them like before, while keeping Secure Rules enabled.

 

I also remember that W10 was creating and updating the various "@" rules at seemingly random times, and not only when installing/updating apps. So, manually disabling/enabling Secure Rules to make this work is not really possible (not to mention very user-unfriendly).

 

Hello, i agree with AmigaBoy.

The new secure rule feature is great, but it should be more flexible allowing, for example, to create, delete and modify specific rules.

It would be great if we can define a white list of safe programs which are allowed to create, modify and delete rules, but i think that this is not possibile.

To allow some flexibility, i suggest that the program should allow the creation, deletion and modification of rules which have a specific group; the group is defined by the user in the GUI like in the previous implementation of secure rule.

I use a very great program, called Windows IP Ban Service, which ban the IPs that fail too much login attempt, for example via RDP. This program use a self defined windows firewall rule to ban these IP. Unfortunately, with the new strict secure rule it can not create/modify the self created firewall rule, becoming not effective at all.

 

No. This would mean to create a lot of useless rules. Just use Learning mode for a while and WFC will automatically create new rules for digitally signed applications, while it will display notifications only for unsigned applications. After a few days, check your rules, remove unwanted ones and disable the Learning mode.

For 2), I could update the logic by not removing the search term when doing a new refresh. This can be done.
For 3) and 4) there is no automatic refresh because you may want a combination of the filters. If you have the Display combo box set to All connections you may wait several tens of seconds until the data grid is filled up. You will have to wait multiple times if you want to switch the filters. Therefore, the refresh is only manual. I couldn't find a better way.

Not possible. I can confirm that Secure Rules will prevent Windows Store apps from creating firewall rules. The new Secure Rules is not aware when a software tries to add a new firewall rule, therefore WFC can't add a workaround for Windows Store applications. Currently you have two options, use Secure Rules as it is in version 5.1.0.0. or revert back to version 5.0.2.0. I will try to find a solution.

For the previous versions the received feedback was that Secure Rules is very complex and hard to understand. Now, the new version is simpler, but not flexible. Without Secure Rules is not good either. I will see what I can do.

 

I personally love the new version of Secure Rules. Tighter security for my firewall rules. I don't mind things being blocked until I decide to disable Secure Rules to install/update. Steam is one of the worst programs in history for making rules when there are already rules made for it in the WFC group when Secure Rules is off.

I could see how things like windows store and defender could cause issues with it, but I don't use either. Saves me one less program I have to disable, fix, enable. Just the thought of some program making new rules without my knowledge pisses me off. I will go into the logs and see what is talking to who before I allow it.

Like I said, this will cause some kind of issues for others who want to use Secure Rules. I hope you can find a nice medium for WFC that keeps the same security and will work for them as well. The only thing I would ask to change is when a program asks for access, right clicking the thing in the top right copies the whole path and would be much nicer if it copied just the file name. This might not be the same for all users, just a thought.

 

Ok, many thanks. I'll probably revert to 5.0.2.0 for now. Hope you can find a way. I know it's not an ideal situation and most people probably don't use Apps. I still believe it's a bit risky to interfere with the normal functioning of the Store and Apps, since they are part of the OS itself unfortunately.

 

Hi all,

I did a clean installation of Windows 10 on my laptop.
Use: windows 10 enterprise 2016 ltsb.
Then I did the installation and activation "Windows Firewall Control v5.1.0.0"
I set:
Profiles: Medium Filtering
Notification: Display notification
Rules: Outbound
Security: Secure Boot/Secure Rules/Secure Profile

I noticed that the new version of the program did not delete the original rules in the windows firewall.
I deleted all rules except WFC rules... (the same rules I had in the older version of the program)

Then I turned on the internet (All the drivers installed are OK)
But the Windows updates were downloaded but not installed... (about half of the update has been installed)
The next half of the update reported an error and even blocked the entire system... I did two more tests when the system was locked (frozen/BUG)
I did another virtualbox testing and the same result...

As the last test I installed OS + updates (without WFC installation) and everything is in order...

Can some older version of the program be downloaded somewhere?


PS:
I also turned off the firewall over WFC but it did not help, the updates were not installed properly (frozen/BUG)

 

Yes, I also read it...
But I would guess some official source of older versions of the program... (example upload to GitHub)

 

OMG... Yes. But I will not get to the older version!
(You are not a program developer, you can not know exactly which version is a problem)
The program can also behave differently on WIndows 7 and Windows 10... .etc
In the future, it would be best to save all versions of the program.

 

To alexandrud
Really want to get rid of the vertical scrollbar to see the window of "Customize and create" rule making at a glance. Such a transformation will really increase the usability of the program!

Now even on the big screen it is necessary to use a scrolling.

 

If some Windows Updates try to modify Windows Firewall state/rules, while you have Secure Rules and/or Secure Profile enabled, they will fail. Just disable these features from WFC and Windows Updates will install properly.

The binisoft.org website is the official palce. On GitHub you will find open source projects, which is not the case of WFC.

Not now, it is like this since a few years ago. I will think about it.

 

But

Please! The whole forum will be grateful to you!

 

1.

Windows Update is automatic.it is not possible to shut down program features before the system starts downloading and installing the update...

I wrote that half the update failed to install...
The system collapsed! (I was not able to restore the system)
Tested on a virtualbox on two notebooks!
This is not a hardware issue or an update error...

I tested today: WFC v5.0.2.0 (This version works in order)

2.
I thought you could upload older versions of the program to the web...
Example: MEGA, Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive,

3.
Why is not Windows FIrewall Control > Open Source?
- GitHub is a lot of projects that are still paid and have an activation process.
- Publishing the code would give you more credibility and popularity.

 

@aldist

Your suggested way would look really bad, you say you want to get rid of the scrollbar... why? is it causing you harm in some way, the window as is looks fine right now, and the scrollbar is a standard thing in literally any window like this, you do realize you can resize the window you are talking about or make it full screen and the scrollbar will be hardly there right. Also don't lump me into the "whole forum" group, I'm against.

 

Something like this ?

 

Can't speak for @aldist but it looks good to me

 

I'll agree that if you manage to put everything in a single, compact window (that fits in lower resolutions too) it's much better than having to always scroll down.

 

Looks great for me!

 

1. Secure Rules has a purpose which may not be suitable with all use cases. For example, users that use Windows 7 will not have any problem with it. Only Windows 10 users may experience problems because Microsoft aggressively want you to install everything they want, whenever they want. If the side effects of using Secure Rules give you headaches, you can disable Secure Rules. If security and privacy are more important, then keep Secure Rules enabled.
2. The program is available on the website which is official. Your examples are good if you plan to distribute warez, otherwise, I don't know any software vendor that publish their installers on these web sites.
3. What if GitHub will become the next Sourceforge? Not all projects should be open source projects.

 

binisoft.org may download an older version than v5.1.0.0?

 

Only the previous version: https://www.binisoft.org/download/old/5020/wfc5setup.exe
And the last version that supported Windows Vista: https://www.binisoft.org/download/old/4960/wfc4setup.exe
Supporting all versions of a software when you are a single developer, is very time consuming, therefore I won't provide download links for all previous versions.

 

Yes! Exactly!

 

You're perseverance it's going to pay back. If so, I'm glad it will.