This build brings many usability improvements and fixes many issues, but it also contains large changes to the underlying mechanisms so it may have introduced new issues.

Changelog

Added

• added fitlering mode indocator to tray
• tweak change notification are not displayed in an own notification window tab
• added new access presets InBoundAccess and OutBoundAccess
• added rule hit counter
• added protocol filter to connection log

Changed

• cleaned up some old code
• now all new connection notifications can be discarded at once
• moved firewall API to own library
• refactored the code, improved IPC structure

Fixed

• fixed IPC issue with DNS blocklist
• fixed issues with programwnd
• fixed some app package ID's not being resolved
• fixed high cpu load when sorting by program column
• fixed potentiel crash in GetAppResourceStr

Finally a new build it features major internal rework in project structure for better maintainability and a reworked IPC mechanism for better performance. It also adds a powerful new feature "Control Presets" With those you can control groups of options (tweaks and firewall rules) from the tray or from its new preset page.

For example you could create a preset "Windows Store" that would enable the windows store GPO, enable required the msft account service and allow the store app to access the internet.
Or you could create a "Windows Update" preset that enables windows updates and sets the appropriate firewall rules
or or or... its up to the user to define those presets but in a later build some useful defaults will be offered.

Changelog

Added

• added a few for windows update
• added tray options to change filterming mode
• added rule status column

Changed

• when adding a rule from the notify window the rule window is also topmost
• notify window now also shows allowed connection attempts when in blacklist mode

Fixed

• added service update to installer
• fixed rule list not being updated in fulscreen mode
• fixed some new issues with the IPC mechanism

Finally a new build it features major internal rework in project structure for better maintainability and a reworked IPC mechanism for better performance. It also adds a powerful new feature "Control Presets" With those you can control groups of options (tweaks and firewall rules) from the tray or from its new preset page.

For example you could create a preset "Windows Store" that would enable the windows store GPO, enable required the msft account service and allow the store app to access the internet.
Or you could create a "Windows Update" preset that enables windows updates and sets the appropriate firewall rules
or or or... its up to the user to define those presets but in a later build some useful defaults will be offered.

Changelog

Added

• added a few more tweaks
• added new preset control mechanism

Changed

• All microsoft binaries under System32 are now classifyed as system components (not only services and kernel)
• moved shared code to a helper library
• splited the project in separated UI and service components
• reingeniered the IPC mechanism for better performance
• notification window now displays all changed rules also those that changed when the client wasn't running
• reworked client start

Fixed

• list sometimes opening in the wron mode
• fixed issue with program and program set description resolvationo
• fixed some crash issues

This build introduced a major change in how services are handled!

Service Tag information is now ignored for all services which are not hosted in svchost.exe, hence all other service firewall rules are now applied as per the service binary path only.
This change was required as the way windows handles the service TAG information which is set on thread creation is not reliable. Threads created using thread-pool APIs do not get the Service Tag set. Hence network connections created from such worker threads are not attributed properly to the issuing service thus rules created for the service will be ignored.
To remedy this misbehavior its required to whenever possible create rules for the service binary itself and not set the Service Tag field. Such rules will apply to all sockets of all threads created by the issuing process.
And since, aside of windows itself, using shared service host process is not really a thing this workaround should have no drawbacks.

Update Note

The tool should properly import old configuration data, but it is recommended to make a settings backup before updating.
And to DISABLE rule guard actions, just in case, to ensure if an issue occurs the firewall configuration does not get messed up.

[0.74] - 2019-12-21

Changed

• changed service tag handling to only apply to svchost.exe hosted services
  • all other services will only be handled as regular programs identifyed by their path
  • the program window now by default always sets the service binary path when a service is selected

Fixed

• when opening the program window comboboxes were not properly disabled
• fixed issue with updating service PID cache