Windows Firewall Control (WFC) by BiniSoft.org

1. These rules for Steam will be recreated even if they exist but they are block rules ?
2. Try to disable the rules that Steam creates. Are they created again ?
3. No matter how you set these automatically created Steam rules, if you modify them, Steam recreates them again ?

 

1. Yes
2. Yes
3. They can be modified to some extent without recreating. For instance, Description can be written.

 

Windows Firewall Control v.4.5.1.0 - New version
To enjoy more the newly released Windows 10

What's new:
- New: Pressing on the Process Id from the notification dialog will open Task Manager.
- New: Added the functionality to change the Group of a rule from the context menu. The user can select multiple rules and add them to any group name from the displayed rules. To add multiple rules to a new group, modify any rule and set a new group name and then the new group will appear in the 'Add to group' context menu choices.
- Updated: Multiple choices are again available when creating temporary rules, including the custom timeout which is customizable from the Notifications tab. The context menu was added again to avoid creating new rules by mistake. A context menu was added also when creating temporary block rules.

New translation strings
794 = Add to group
823 = Allow temporarily
Updated translation strings
213 = Custom timeout for temporary rules is
824 = Block temporarily
825 = Until WFC restart
Removed translation strings
826 = Allow for

Download location: http://binisoft.org/download/wfc4setup.exe
SHA1: 6921251092d4841c743efe3b28a5bb11a62ac7e4

Have a great week,
Alexandru

Thank you for your feedback.

 

@Alexandru

We have a serious problem now with the new Windows 10 and it's new rule-values (possibilities)! I would not say it's a WFC bug, because Windows 10 RELEASE is VERY new of course, nevertheless IT IS a REAL problem:

It exist new rules as follow (picture from Original Windows Firewall):



"Besitzer des lokalen Benutzers" = Owner of local User (or so)
"Anwendungspaket" = App-Paket or Program-Paket (or something like that)

Those rules have NO Program or so defined and have (for Inbound) even set the EDGE = ALLOWED.

In WFC, we see "nothing" about the new values, like so ...



If such a rule is duplicated whithin WFC, WFC allows ALL, means: does NOT copy the new values!

Please look into this, thank you!

Kind regards
Alpengreis

PS: Thanks for new update!

 

I will not call this a real problem. Just a minor one The next version of WFC will be able to handle the new values too.

 

@Alexandru

I'm having a small problem with rendering when selecting 'Blank Rule' - see images. Basically, the initial window is blank but mousing over the area causes the fields to be displayed. This is on Windows 10 with WFC 4.5.1.0. I don't recall the issue being present in earlier versions of WFC...

 

Try to install the latest graphics drivers from your vendor. I had yesterday similar displaying problems with Firefox, Skype, etc. This is not a WFC problem. It seems a graphics driver problem which does not render the WPF controls as it should.

 

Ok, no worries. I'm on the latest drivers already, it was one of the first things I looked at. It's not really a big problem, as it only affects this single window.

Thanks anyway,.

 

Okay okay you know me!

Thank you!

Have a nice weekend, Alexandru!

 

Since upgrading to Windows 10 x64 has anyone else had the problem with some third party software services (including wfc) not starting even though set to automatic?
Read an old thread on serverfault.com about time service that recommended setting to automatic(delayed) so am trying that.

 

I have an issue here , sometimes when I want to open WFC from the taskbar it freeze for a while before it works well .. I think this issue does not exist in the past ..

PS: I don't know if it occurs only at the first run ( after restarting/resuming ) or it occurs from time to time.

 

I have updated to Windows 10 but WFC will not connect: "Can't connect to Windows Firewall Control service"

 

Updated from Windows 8.1 w/ WFC v4.5.0.x, to 10 pro worked seamlessly. : ) Thanks once again.

 

I have two Windows 10 machines and I did not see this behavior.

When you install an update to the Microsoft .NET Framework, the installation process may fail and roll back. After the rollback is complete, some Microsoft .NET Framework files in the global assembly cache (GAC) are deleted. Therefore, some Microsoft .NET Framework applications may not run or may run incorrectly. Source: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/2260913

Now, back to your problem, I have seen this delay in the past. The first launch of the Main Panel or of the Manage Rules window takes a while and from the second opening, they open-up faster. This happens randomly after some .NET Framework updates were installed through Windows Update. Sometimes the cache is not updated anymore and this creates a delay when certain assemblies are required, because they are recompiled at each run by the .NET Framework.

Try to install .NET Framework 4.5.2 and see if this helps: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=42642

Unfortunately, this is not a WFC problem, but a .NET Framework problem.

1. Make sure that Windows Firewall service is up and running. Also, post here any Windows services you have disabled on purpose, if any.
2. Follow the following steps to manually uninstall WFC if the integrated uninstaller does not work:

A. Let's manually uninstall WFC:

a) Close the process wfc.exe by exiting the WFC tray icon.
b) Run a CMD window with admin privileges.
c) Execute the following commands:

sc.exe stop _wfcs
sc.exe delete _wfcs
reg delete "HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\Windows Firewall Control" /f

B) Delete manually the installation folder and any other related files: wfc.exe and wfcs.exe.

C) Now your system should be clean of any WFC installation. Let's start again a clean installation of the latest version 4.5.1.0.

 

Thanks for the info. I have tried the above but it still remains a problem. I have the latest Net framework 4.5.2. and WFC 4.5.1.0
I can get WFC to work only by pressing the Windows icon, selecting WFC, and run as administrator. I also tried changing properties to always run WFC as an administrator but this had no effect.

 

WFC should be executed with standard privileges, not as administrator. However, when you launch it with administrative privileges, it will first try to start Windows Firewall service and Windows Firewall Control service. Make sure that the Startup Type of these two services is set to Automatic and check after a computer restart if this really happens. Also, you should remove the Run this program as an administrator flag from the WFC shortcut.

 

Windows Firewall Control Servie (4.5.1.0) did not start when booting my Win7.64 system this morning, although the service is set to "automatic".
I had to start it manually through services.msc.
This happens very infrequently... so this is just to let you know.

 

Small (maybe) feature request:

Would it be possible to add a whitelisting feature to the Secure Rules option, or other means to exempt a single application from having its rules deleted by WFC? I like the feature, but I also have an application (game's launcher) that insists on recreating its own rules every time I run it.

If that isn't a reasonable feature I'll take it up with the game developer, as it seems like poor behavior for an application anyway.

Thanks.

 

Windows Firewall Control v.4.5.2.0 - New version

What's new:
- New: Added a shortcut to "Windows Firewall with Advanced Security" in the properties dialog of a rule to easily access WFwAS when the user wants to modify properties which are not available in the WFC user interface.
- Fixed: On Windows 10, when duplicating a rule, the following properties are not copied for the new rule: Application Package, Authorized Local Principals, Excepted Local Principals, Authorized Computers, Excepted Computers, Local User Owner.
- Fixed: On Windows 10, the partial policy import/export does not preserve the defined authorized computers, authorized users and the application package.
- Fixed: On Windows 10, duplicating a rule with Action set to Encrypt or Secure does not create the duplicated rule.
- Fixed: "Add to group" context menu available in Manage Rules window should not contain the Windows Store apps groups.

Note:
1. Partial policies exported with previous versions of WFC can't be imported in this version due to the file format change. Make sure that you reexport your partial policy files.
2. The new properties that are available in WFwAS in Windows 10 were not added as new columns in Manage Rules window and will not be added. The info that is received from Windows Firewall API contains some internal codes which cannot be converted to something useful to be displayed in WFC. I could not find a way to translate them to what we see in WFwAS. To test the output, export a partial policy with some Windows 10 specific rules and then check the file in Notepad.

Download location: http://binisoft.org/download/wfc4setup.exe
SHA1: 7ae208d18a0930ce3bd53752c45013f07a4d8cbb

Thank you for your feedback,
Alexandru

 

@alexandrud

Thank you very much for update, Alexandru!

Feature request
now for users with Win 10: could you add the possibility to show the new columns too?

Kind regards!
Alpengreis

PS: DE-Translation is in work ...

 

Please read the note 2. There is nothing to display that a user would understand, just internal codes and GUIDs. There is no plain text that would have a meaning.

 

@alexandrud

Did you ever add the capability for WFC to alert when WFwAS is disabled ?

Is there a compatibility issue with VooDooShield ? If so, can you give any details ? I will report to VS developer...

Best Regards,

HJLBX

 

Alert what ? That the Windows Firewall is disabled ? There is a notification from Action Center when this happens. Also, the user can see the icon of WFC which indicates the same thing when it is red. Or maybe you refer to something different ?

Regarding VoodooShield, there is an incompatibility. When it is installed, it does not allow WFC to install. Even if it is disabled, VS still blocks WFC installer. You must uninstall VoodooShield, install WFC and then reinstall VoodooShield. The reason might be the fact that wfc4setup.exe that the user downloads and which is just a GUI, spawns another process named also wfc4setup.exe which is executed from the temporary folder. This is the actual installer for which the user receives the UAC prompt.

 

Tried WFC 4.5.2.0 on Windows 10 and had issues where mouse cursor would start stuttering if WFC control panel is open. There seemed to be an overall slowdown. I have a 144 Hz display so it's easy to detect any stutter and have never had any issues on Win 7. I uninstalled WFC before upgrading to Win10 and then reinstalled the latest version when it was done.

 

Try to install the graphics driver from your vendor, not the one that comes with Windows 10. The included display drivers gave me a lot of problems, not only with WFC, but also with other programs which were displayed wrong. See if this changes anything.