Windows Firewall Control (WFC) by BiniSoft.org

Windows Firewall Control version 4 is out

Because the old thread is very long I propose a new thread dedicated to the new version.

What's new:
- New: The main window was redesigned from scratch to be more user friendly and intuitive. Now this view can be resized and has a better support for translated strings. All features were reorganized.
- New: Multiple instances of the notification dialog were removed. Instead, when a new notification is generated while an existing one is already displayed on the screen, it will be added to the existing dialog and the user can navigate through all of them very easy.
- New: All icons were redesigned from scratch and the entire visual identity of the program was updated.
- New: A custom installer was created. The file wfc.exe is not the installer anymore. Also, a new updater and a new uninstaller were created. The new uninstaller can be now translated as well.
- New: Added support for defining subnet masks when setting the remote addresses for a rule. For example, you can now define as remote addresses: 192.168.0.100/255.0.0.0
- New: The notification timeout can be now set by the user from 0 up to 999 seconds.
- New: Better integration in all views and dialogs with long translation strings.
- New: A lot of new messages were added in the interaction with the user to improve the usability of the program and the understanding of it.
- Updated: The translation file can have any name now. The program will auto search for *.lng files in the program folder and will load the first *.lng file found.
- Fixed: Profile is not synchronized in the Control Panel window if it is opened and the user changes the profile from the system tray context menu.
- Fixed: The notifications are not displayed on screen if the user is logged to the computer via Remote Desktop Connection.
- Fixed: Columns order is not restored on reopening of Manage Rules window.
- Fixed: Rules from Temporary Rules group are automatically deleted on service restart instead of the program restart.
- And many more...

Installation notes:
1. The new version can update any previous version but a clean install is recommended.
2. The activation status will be no retained in case of an update. To activate this version please log in into your registered user account and get a new activation code based on the new licensing scheme.
3. The old translation files are incompatible. For now, only English, Romanian, Spanish and Italian translation files are available on the website. The other translation files will be uploaded as soon as they will be available in the new format.

Other notes:
4. The website will change very soon and will have a different format. For now, it was updated with the new version. In the next weeks I will work on the new website.

Download location: http://binisoft.org/download/wfc4setup.exe
MD5: e6d75b2802199618f70beac2c0d44334

Please share your feedback regarding the new version.

Thank you for your support,
The developer

And a small visual preview:

 

This new version is awesome!
Very fast, very intuitive!

Thank you again for your great work!

 

... and I like the new symbol!

Matches perfectly with the MSE-symbol!

 

Hello,

Great job! I see improvements across the board! It seems both lighter and faster while consuming less resources. Well worth the brief wait...

I have been using it for about two hours now and only have experienced one bug. I have my options to play the default sound when a notification is displayed. When the display pops up, no sound. If I let the notification sit there until the next alert, there is the default sound. However if I click in that notification and close it, no sound for the next notification. So basically, the first notification in a pop-up give no sound but the subsequent one in that same pop-up do. I hope I made a bit of sense to you in my explanation...

 

Yes you are right. The first notification does not play the sound. I have fixed this and the next version will include the fix for this. Thank you for your prompt feedback.

 

Hello,

You are most welcome! As always, thanks both for the great new version and your speedy reply to my bug report!

 

Alexandrud,

Suggestion, for two additional settings to enhance functionality (to

High =existing HIGH
Medium high = as medium with pop-up granularity on protocol/port
Medium = existing MEDIUM
Medium low = as medium with auto allow for signed program
Low = existing LOW

Regards Kees

 

Love the new version.

No problem whatsoever.

2 's Up !!

 

Just a few questions:

Does this work on Windows 8 machines?

Will this run on both 32-bit and 64-bit?

What is the memory consumption and How many processes does it use?

 

Just donated, the new look did it for me.........

 

The profiles tab do not contain settings regarding the notifications. These two can be achieved from the Notifications tab in conjunction with the Profiles tab. For unregistered users, these two new profiles will have no sense. I don't see any improvement here.

It works on Windows 8 since Developer Preview version. It works also on Windows Server 2012, and yes, on both x86 and x64. It uses 2 processes, one GUI application (wfc.exe) and one Windows service (wfcs.exe). The memory consumption varies between 15MB up to 60MB with all windows opened. It is a NET application and NET applications have a larger memory footprint than classic applications. It is a managed application and the memory will be released as soon as it will not be in use. Skype without any window open, consumes 65MB on my system.

 

I have not tried the present or previous versions of Windows Firewall Control. I'm thinking about trying it. If I set WFC protection level to medium then will it prompt me when an application without a packet filter rule attempts to make an outbound connection or will it automatically block that application's outbound request without prompting the user? What I need is a FW that is going to prompt me when an application makes an outbound request if there is not a predefined packet filter rule for that application. That way I can deny the request if needed or go ahead and make a packet filter rule to allow applications as needed.

 

If you set the profile to Medium Filtering, all programs without an allow rule will be blocked. If you enable the notifications for outbound blocked connections you will be prompted with a notification dialog about the program that was blocked and you can easily continue to block it, allow it, customize the rule before create it, etc. However, the notifications are available only for registered users. To find out how to become a registered user click here

 

Nice job and congratulations on the new version. A lot snappier than previously (at least on my system)

 

Okay I don't use WFW4, so don't know about setting granularity in profile.

Why don't you see no benefits in auto allowing signed sofware? Would give you some advantage over TinyWall and Windows FireWall Notifier (both no donation needed to get full functionality) on Windows 7 rigs or Sphinx Windows Fire Control (also has paid and free version).

 

As I already mentioned, this combination can be achieved with the current version. Also with the previous versions.

1. Set the profile to Medium Filtering. This will block outbound connections and will generate notifications.
2. Set notification level to Low. This notification level will auto allow digitally signed applications and will display notifications only for unsigned programs.

Isn't this what you are looking for ? This is already implemented.

 

Uses between 15mb and 60mb.
This seems quite heavy for what it does really.I assume there are no notifications in the free version.?

I dont really see why i would pay when there are free fully functional firewalls out there with less of a footprint too.

The problem with the windows firewall seems to be outbound filtering and yet this function in WFC is being charged for.

Think i will pass.
Good luck with its development.

 

Yes, did not catch the first explanation, thought you did not see the benefits of the mechanism, but you already implemented this (maybe mention it in benefits of WFW control explicitely for people like me ).

 

There are no notifications for outbound blocked connections in the free version. This is a part of the benefits of registered users. But the program offers a lot more features than the outbound notifications. All the features can be found on the website

There are free firewalls full of ads, toolbars, special offers to buy a fully featured internet security suite, etc. It is up to the user what programs needs and wants and on what software a user will spend his money. A lot of users use my software and they have a benefit from using it. I invested a lot of time, effort and money to create this software and it doesn't seem wrong to me to have a benefit too. A 10$ donation for a lifetime license for all your home computers is not much in my opinion.

All the features can be found on the website. All settings are explained on this forum post. Even if it is not yet updated, the descriptions are still actual. The new website will be easier to follow and will include more info.

 

Windows 7 SP1 x64 Home Premium:

WFC4 loads very late in the boot process. I have MBAM Pro set to update and do a flash scan at each reboot. I removed it from the WFC4 white list, but MBAM was still able to not only check for an update, but it updated before WFC4 could stop it. If this was a malicious program calling home it would have been successful........Is this normal behavior?

 

Windows Firewall Control does not block or allow anything. Windows Firewall does based on your rules.

1. What profile do you use in WFC ? On Low Filtering profile, without a block rule any program can connect. Did you use Medium Filtering profile ?
2. What antivirus do you use ?
3. Do you have any software proxies installed on your computer ?
4. Have you checked your rules for a generic rule which may allow outbound traffic for all programs ?
5. Other programs are blocked or just MBAM is unblocked ?

Looking forward to hear from you.

 

Thanks for the update. Just a few comments:

1. I would say, all things considered, the resources consumed are on the high side.
2. Still no PID column in blocked rules screen.
3. Black and white doesn't really do it for me
4. The font, whilst clear, is a little small.

Other than that, it seems quite responsive and, so far, I've not had the problem with recently blocked not working.

 

1. It is a NET application. There are no memory leaks, tested and retested. This is how the NET framework manages the memory until the GC steps in. I really can't improve this from code anymore. All that it was in on my power I did already.
2. I forgot about this. I will add it in the next version.
3. I am already working on a color picker so the user can change the default black theme to any color. This is already 60% done.
4. I will try to increase the font size a bit to see if it looks better.

Thank you for your feedback.

 

1) Medium filtering
2) No AV, just MBAM Pro & WFC4. No realtime MBAM, just update/scan on each reboot.
3) No
4) I deleted all rules, set notifications to high, and only allowed svchost.exe, system, WMP, IE10, Chrome, MBAM
5) No programs blocked, just deleted the MBAM white list entry to see what would happen, and yet it still updated on reboot. After it did its update and scan, it closed, and I reopened it and checked for an update and I immediately received a WFC4 notification that MBAM was trying to connect to the internet. But it didn't stop MBAM on reboot.

 

DBone maybe the firewall service is starting delayed.

The developer says that he has build an interface ,but the core is the Windows service nevertheless.

I like the looks of it and i will test it myself