another Windows Firewall Control?

Ha, guess what!

So just what does running wfc.exe do?
Is wfc.exe the program itself, not an installer per say, but running it the first time does run an initialization (install) routine.

And if that is the case, is all that is needed now to copy 'wfc_3705 (windows firewall control) - Copy.exe' into my desired location, then rename it back to wfc.exe?

When I noticed the icon, I thought I was done, but not yet.
The UI will open, but like the "installer", it is all but grayed out. I can switch to the different tabs (Profiles, Notifications, Options, ...) but I am unable to affect any changes. The only thing I can do is to close (hide) it with the X button, or exit from the context menu.

The world is not homogenous & should take me into account .

 

Yes the file is the installer and the file itself. If you run it and it does not find that it is already installed, it will go through the setup routine. After you install the program, you can run it. The same exe file is used, just it has to be named wfc.exe.

1. In the installation folder do you have 2 files ? wfc.exe (GUI) and wfcs.exe (Windows service). The file wfcs.exe is embedded into wfc.exe and is saved on the disk at installation. The service is registered as a Windows service automatically and then it is started. When you start wfc.exe it tries to connect to wfcs.exe to read the status of the program. If it can't connect to the service, all options are greyed out, because anyway you can't modify nothing. All tasks are done by the service, wfc.exe only contains the sliders, the checkboxes, etc.

2. If you run "services.msc", in the list of Windows services, do you see Windows Firewall Control service ? It should be set to Automatic and running.

3. Do you install the program from a standard user account ? If the answer is yes, please try to install it from an administrator account.

4. The installer handles every exception that may occur during the setup. In the event of any error, the Exit button become active again and the text of it become "ABORT", so you can close it. If you hover the mouse over the Abort button a tooltip with the error that have occurred will appear.

5. Did you redirected your application data folder ? The temp folder ? They are used at installation.

6. Do you use any encryption software on your computer ?

Looking forward to hear from you. Thank you for your patience and your support.
Alexandru

 

> 1. In the installation folder do you have 2 files ? wfc.exe (GUI) and wfcs.exe (Windows service).

No, there is nothing nowhere.

Once I thought that maybe the file name was the issue, I renamed back to wfc.exe & ran it. Expected that it would say it was already installed, but it did not. At first I thought nothing had happened, but then I saw the tray icon. At that point, I thought ah, so that's it & I was done, but again, not.

After the first failure, then the rename, the only place that wfc.exe existed was in my download directory.

wfcs.exe is never run/started, does not exist.

> 2. If you run "services.msc", in the list of Windows services, do you see Windows Firewall Control service ?

Again, no. Windows Firewall is there, as expected, but no Windows Firewall Control. If the service had ever started, I would have been notified of that fact. It did not.

> 3. Do you install the program from a standard user account ?

I run under an Administrative account.
(Yes I know, but to me the way elevation works, in that you are no longer you, but actually a different user, is horrid & flawed.)

> 4. The installer handles every exception that may occur during the setup.

I'd argue that point .

> In the event of any error, the Exit button become active again and the text of it become "ABORT",
> so you can close it. If you hover the mouse over the Abort button a tooltip with the error that have
> occurred will appear.

That never occurred. What I saw was just like the time before. See the screenshot, 1 page back.

> 5. Did you redirected your application data folder ? The temp folder ?

Not sure what you mean there?

> 6. Do you use any encryption software on your computer ?

No.

Windows Firewall Control does show up in Add or Remove Programs (Uninstall or change a program, what a farce!) but will not uninstall that way, so let me manually ...

 

At some point, not sure when exactly, it looks like the registry was probably updated correctly:

Code:

REGEDIT4

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\Windows Firewall Control]
"DisplayIcon"="C:\\DEV\\FIREWALL\\Windows Firewall Control\\wfc.exe"
"DisplayName"="Windows Firewall Control"
"DisplayVersion"="3.7.0.5"
"EstimatedSize"=dword:00000281
"HelpLink"="http://binisoft.org"
"InstallationPath"="C:\\DEV\\FIREWALL\\Windows Firewall Control\\wfc.exe"
"Publisher"="BiniSoft.org"
"UninstallString"="C:\\DEV\\FIREWALL\\Windows Firewall Control\\wfc.exe -uninstall"

I kind of expected the last entry, so let me try ... No that didn't pan out either.

 

Manually remove the Registry entry

Rename wfc back to "wfc.exe"

Run
UAC, Yes
I Agree
Browse ... C:\DEV\FIREWALL\Windows Firewall Control
(uncheck) Start automatically
Install

Just like before, Please wait... & nothing more
No files created, no service started
Registry entry is recreated
No Abort in the -Setup dialog
All I can do is to close it with the X box

 

Same procedure, though this time do not uncheck, Start automatically.

Same results.

About the only thing left is to not redirect the install location...

 

And that too has made no difference.
Same results.

E:\Program Files\Windows Firewall Control was created, but empty, Registry entry recreated.

Nothing more.

So now, I am really clueless?

I have no file named *wfcs*.
wfc.exe only exists in my download directory.
There is no *wfc* service.

Exited MBAM from the System Tray, no change.

I run a clean system. Other then MBAM (which I may not even always have running) I run nothing "security-wise". Running a Beta version of my file manager (Altap Salamander) & that does load up a Bug Reporter module that some programs have interacted poorly with (not the fault of Salamander), but exiting Salamander & installing from Windows Explorer or even first selecting Run As Administrator from Windows Explorer & then installing again changes nothing.

 

(Bug?) Report
I really don't know it its a bug or a limitation of Windows but "Click to allow" doesn't work when the window is running with admin rights.

 

Oh, that is what you mean.
Well of course I do!
I (try to) install nothing to my system drive.
I try to keep nothing on my system drive, other then Windows itself.
And of course I have redirected %TMP%.

Code:

C:\WLIB\LeechFTP\LeechTMP>ECHO %TMP%
[b]C:\Local\RUBEN\Temp[/b]

C:\WLIB\LeechFTP\LeechTMP>ECHO %APPDATA%
E:\Users\RUBEN\AppData\Roaming

 

Ok, thank you for this info, I will try to do this on the test system and debug WFC on this scenario. I will post it here after I finish the testing.

 

I have tried this but I couldn't reproduce this problem. It works here as expected. What program do you try to "Click to allow" and does not work ?

 

Here is what I did:
In a Standard User Account
1. I right clicked, run as administrator this set-up file -http://www.mirekusoft.com/downloads (version 1.1.98.0 for Windows 7 x64)
2. Since I don't have the Visual C++ Redistributable it will open a new setup.exe that will download the needed files.

I think the reason of click to allow not working is that the new setup.exe used to download is dropped in the tmp files of the admin account, and the standard user account can't see it? I'll try it again, maybe I did something wrong.

 

I have recreated your scenario:

1. I have downloaded the file from http://www.mirekusoft.com/downloads
2. I have executed the installer. WFC was set on Medium Filtering and the Notifications were set to Disabled.
3. I have created a rule to allow the setup by clicking on it, but even if the rules was just created, the setup did not continue. The rule was created for the path: C:\users\alexandru\appdata\local\temp\ixp000.tmp\setup.exe
4. I have restarted the installer and it continued to download the needed files because there was a rule for it.

5. I have deleted the rule and I have set Notifications to Medium level.
6. I have started the setup again.
7. A new notification appeared from WFC and I have allowed the setup. The setup did not continued.
8. I have restarted the setup and it continued to download the needed files because the rule was created before from the notification.

My opinion: The setup of this application can't retry to reconnect if it was blocked in the first place, and this is the reason why it just hangs there and does not continue, even if you have created a rule to allow it.

Solution 1. Restart the installer after you have created the rule, and it will work.
Solution 2. Change the profile to Low Filtering while installing a new trusted software. In this way you are sure that it will download any needed files and will complete properly.

 

I have redirected my Temp folders to my E drive instead of C. The installation went fine again. I think there is something on your system which prevents WFC from installing properly and also from reporting the installation errors. The installer is full of try{} catch{} and it should catch any exception, but it doesn't on your system. I have already mentioned all the possibilities and where to look to find the problem. WFC is used by thousands of users, and no one have reported this kind of behavior. I think there is something that I miss, but I can't recreate your scenario. I will do some more tests. Please, if you have the possibility, try to install WFC on a different machine or on a virtual machine to see if the problem persists. Thank you for your support and your patience.

 

Both Temp variables are redirected, if you didn't check for that.

Code:

C:\TMP\SM213.2.release>ECHO %TMP% && ECHO %TEMP%
C:\Local\RUBEN\Temp
C:\Local\RUBEN\Temp

VM I can try but I've been waiting on a replacement HDD, & until that comes in, I'm free drive space limited at the moment.

 

Hi alexandrud,

I have being sending you some personal emails, and after you told me about this thread, it's prefer to post my opinions and ideas in here than on PM of future editions of WFC.

To begin, your application is indeed very useful, it gives me a sense of security on Windows 7, something that it should have been embedded on Windows itself, but it's alright that someone had the opportunity to develop this frontend for a powerful firewall.

One thing that I find a little bit annoying is querying about outgoing connections of Microsoft Signed applications, if it's signed by Microsoft and presuming that MS has no intention on delivering malware to third parties, why don't you create an option for WFC to ignore all applications that are Microsoft signed, this would ease very much some unnecessary notifications, like asking for Internet Explorer to sign to Internet, or all the applications of MS Office, I find this a little bit annoying albeit, giving me at the same time a feeling of security

Other improvement would be a notification of new editions of WFC, like a check in telling us of an update.

Thanks and continue the good work

 

Registered users can choose the Low level in the Notifications tab to auto allow digitally signed files from trusted vendors. With this level of notifications, all digitally signed applications (Microsoft or 3rd party) are allowed automatically and only notifications for the files that are not signed are displayed.

Many malware applications try to impersonate the process iexplore.exe and this is the reason why this application is not auto allowed. It is up to the user to manage his rules. I can't presume the taste of every user.

Also, explorer.exe, svchost.exe, etc, are not digitally signed, even if they are from Microsoft. The reason is that a signed application needs to verify the signature and this takes resources. In the case of some key files of the operating system, signing them is not feasible. For this reason, your proposal can't be implemented in the way you were thinking.

I don't like the programs which try to connect to the Internet. This is why the check for a new version is not done automatically. On the About tab there is a button named "Check if a new version is available". You can click on it and WFC will check if a new version is available. But this is done only at the request of the user. Just remember to press on that button once a month or visit the website from time to time.

 

Even if I said I will release a new version today, there are more new features than I have planned and I will postpone the release date with one week.

What will be new:
- New: Added support for Fast User Switching.
- New: Added support for creating and editing rules for *.dll files.
- New: Notification timeout can be changed
- New: Notification sound can be customized
- New: A new type of notification is displayed when an external program tries to create a rule in Windows Firewall.

Below is a sample screenshot.


Have a nice weekend,
Alexandru

 

I discover something weird, I disabled everything in my inbound rules and I can still connect to the internet. (I don't do printing, filesharing, etc in my laptop so I guess I'll leave it at that. Although when I tried to disable all the outbound rules for Core Networking, I lost connectivity through my router after a reboot.

 

This is absolutely normal. By disabling inbound rules you disable the ability of external applications to connect to your computer. You don't disable your ability to connect to the network or the Internet. Inbound rules are needed usually for server applications. For example you need an inbound rule to allow connections to SQL Server which is installed on a central computer and the clients need to connect to it. Or if you have a printing server and you want the members of the network to be able to print through this printing server. In this case, you need an inbound rule. For home users inbound rules are required only for a small amount of applications. So, the answer is: It is normal to be like that.

 

Okay, thanks.

 

Just a suggestion, make it so a 'right-click' on the tray icon to change the notifications instead of a mini window opening and selecting; High, Medium, Low.

 

Mini feature request:
Remember the "Display" in the Manage Rules Window.

AFAIK, it used to be that way.

 

I second this. Would be really helpful for the way I use WFC.

 

In the older versions, there was a context menu containing all the settings of the program. Because the number of them tripled, I changed the context menu with something more easy to manage than a context menu. Also, there are much more users which are not registered users than the registered ones. A new comprehensive context menu will not be implemented. There is the Control Panel of the program from where a user can change the settings.

This can be done and it will be included in the next version.