What's new in Windows Firewall Control 6.9.9.6

Mar 4, 2024
  • Fixed: When importing user settings the authorized groups list is not refreshed.
  • Fixed: The experimental feature which auto creates allow rules for certain paths generates duplicate rules if a blocking rule prevents certain connections.
  • Fixed: The tray icon does not offer any clue if the program runs in standard user mode or in elevated mode.
  • Fixed: Learning mode tray context menu item remains disabled even after elevated rights are granted.
  • New: Added a new WFC recommend rule for wwahost.exe which is required to reset a Windows PIN. Without this rule it is impossible to reset a Windows PIN.

New in Windows Firewall Control 6.9.9.4 (Feb 10, 2024)

  • Improved: Request elevation button will not restart wfcUI.exe anymore. Instead, it will remove the read-only state from the current non-elevated executing instance.
  • Improved: When a new rule is created by the experimental notification exception feature, Rules Panel will refresh if it is open.

New in Windows Firewall Control 6.9.9.3 (Jan 28, 2024)

  • Fixed: Create WFC recommended rules does not work in the latest installer.
  • Fixed: After installation 'Auto refresh on open' is set by default to true in
  • Connections Log instead of false.
  • Improved: Added read only access to Rules Panel, Connections Log and Notifications
  • for standard user accounts.
  • Improved: Run button will start WFC under the user account which started the
  • installer instead of the elevated user account.

New in Windows Firewall Control 6.9.9.2 (Jan 21, 2024)

  • Fixed: It is not possible to create a duplicate of the first rule in Rules Panel.
  • Fixed: Remote code execution vulnerability via gRPC named pipes.
  • Updated: Standard user accounts are allowed to perform elevated actions without
  • Requiring elevation authorization. Starting with this version, if wfcUI.exe is executed
  • As a standard user account, it has only read access for the user interface. The software
  • Must be elevated before being able to perform any write actions (CVE-2023-36631).
  • Updated: Run button was disabled in the installer to avoid executing the software under
  • An elevated account from a standard user account.

New in Windows Firewall Control 6.9.9.1 (Dec 14, 2023)

  • Improved: The notification dialog was updated to be able to add a notification
  • Exception for the full path too.
  • Improved: Loading time was decreased for Rules Panel and Connections Log with a new
  • Cache mechanism for program icons.
  • Fixed: Rules Panel may crash if there are hundreds of firewall rules and the rules
  • Are scrolled up and down multiple times.

New in Windows Firewall Control 6.9.9.0 (Nov 20, 2023)

  • Improved: When exporting rules, the sorting order and filters are now preserved in the exported wpw file. On import you get back what was seen in Rules Panel at export time.
  • Improved: The import and the export of the firewall rules are fully async now. This improves the UI responsiveness during these actions.
  • Fixed: When duplicating multiple rules at once, they are created in the reversed order.
  • Fixed: Authorized groups list has a display issue where it displays also the internal group names.
  • Fixed: When creating a duplicate rule in Rules Panel the Please wait message remains displayed and Rules Panel needs to be closed and reopened.
  • Fixed: Secure Rules disables custom groups names in the latest version.

New in Windows Firewall Control 6.9.8.0 (Nov 14, 2023)

  • Improved: Retrieving the group display names uses now shlwapi.dll. This fixes group names with dll names and resource ids.
  • Improved: Default option is now the third one in the uninstall dialog. This will leave the firewall rules untouched during uninstall.
  • Improved: The speed of importing a *.wpw file was improved by updating the internal cache mechanism.
  • Improved: The speed of deleting multiple rules at once was improved.
  • Fixed: Can't load language files which have a language code that is not 2 letters.
  • Fixed: Experimental feature that auto allows certain paths/file names does not work anymore.
  • Fixed: During uninstall restoring default/previous Windows Firewall rules fails if Secure Rules is enabled.
  • Fixed: Deleting multiple rules at once may fail if Secure Rules is enabled.
  • Fixed: Search functionality may result in a crash in Rules Panel and Connections Log.
  • Fixed: Revert profile timer is not updated unless the revert profile is unchecked and checked again.
  • Removed: Exporting/importing to/from *.wfw file (Windows Firewall format) was removed due to unreliable results. This still can be done from WFwAS, but not from WFC anymore.
  • New: Added translation for Serbian language.

New in Windows Firewall Control 6.9.7.0 (Oct 20, 2023)

  • Fixed: Can not delete invalid rules located under C:$WINDOWS.~BT folder
  • Fixed: Adding multiple rules at once to the same group fails if the rules have
  • No description set.
  • Fixed: Can not create a duplicate of a temporary rule.
  • Fixed: Notifications are disabled after WFC restart and must be re-enabled again.
  • Fixed: When unchecking the 'Blocked connections' in Connections Log, the notifications
  • Still appear as enabled when they are in fact disabled.

New in Windows Firewall Control 6.9.5.0 (Oct 18, 2023)

  • Fixed: Global hotkeys can't be set properly without restarting the software.
  • Improved: Uninstall dialog will now resize to content so that it displays the
  • Entire content in all languages.
  • Removed: Unmaintained language files were removed from the software.

New in Windows Firewall Control 6.9.4.0 (Oct 17, 2023)

  • New: Added compatibility with Smart App Control from Windows 11. The process wfc.exe was renamed to wfcUI.exe.
  • Improved: Replaced WCF with GRPC for inter process communication. WFC requires now NET Framework 4.6.2 or a newer version.
  • Improved: Global hotkey which can toggle between Low and Medium profiles can now toggle between all profiles.
  • Improved: User settings are now applied per user account. Only the settings from Security tab are still global per machine.
  • Fixed: Main Panel opens multiple times if you press fast on the tray icon.
  • Fixed: Secure Boot is not enabling High Filtering profile if wfc.exe is not running.
  • Fixed: Installer does not work if there is a WCF related problem with .NET Framework installation.
  • Fixed: After a failed policy import, notifications are not displayed anymore and a program restart is required to re-enable them.
  • Fixed: Notification dialog becomes unresponsive if a program generates a lot of blocked connections.
  • Fixed: WFC service fails to start if EventLog service is unavailable.
  • Fixed: Shell Integration allows creating new firewall rules even if WFC is locked with a password.

New in Windows Firewall Control 6.9.2.0 (Feb 15, 2023)

  • New: Added 3 new providers for WHOIS queries in Tools tab.
  • Improved: Removed file extension validation in Properties dialog to allow more rules to be created, especially for Windows Subsystem for Linux.
  • Fixed: Rules Panel hangs if a program path is a network path.
  • Fixed: The system tray context menu for notifications mode is not updated when changing the language.

New in Windows Firewall Control 6.9.0.0 (Feb 4, 2023)

  • New: Added support to change the notifications mode from the system tray context
  • menu and from CMD line. They are available only when Medium Filtering profile is the
  • current selected profile.
  • - New: Added support for negative search in Rules Panel and Connections Log. Use "!"
  • in front of a search term to exclude it.
  • - Fixed: Locking/unlocking the application does not work correctly on Windows 11.

New in Windows Firewall Control 6.8.2.0 (May 11, 2022)

  • New: Redesigned the global hotkeys to support more combinations.
  • Fixed: WFC installer was updated against exe hijacking vulnerability.
  • Fixed: Moving a temporary rule to a different group name does not clear the outdated
  • description.

New in Windows Firewall Control 6.8.1.0 (Feb 10, 2022)

  • Improved: The logic of disabling unauthorized rules was changed to update the rule
  • description instead of the rule name to avoid repeated rule creation as a result of
  • different rule name.
  • Fixed: The programs executed from Tools tab can be used for privilege escalation.
  • For standard user accounts, these tools will prompt the UAC dialog so that only
  • administrators can launch them with full privileges.
  • Fixed: Creating new rules for files with empty file description creates new rules
  • with an empty starting space. These rules can't be modified from WFwAS.
  • Fixed: Icon from profile switch notification is not the correct one.

New in Windows Firewall Control 6.8.0.0 (Feb 9, 2022)

  • Improved: The logic of disabling unauthorized rules was changed to update the rule description instead of the rule name to avoid repeated rule creation as a result of different rule name.
  • Fixed: The programs executed from Tools tab can be used for privilege escalation. For standard user accounts, these tools will prompt the UAC dialog so that only administrators can launch them with full privileges.
  • Fixed: Creating new rules for files with empty file description creates new rules with an empty starting space. These rules can't be modified from WFwAS.
  • Fixed: Icon from profile switch notification is not the correct one.

New in Windows Firewall Control 6.7.0.0 (Aug 23, 2021)

  • New: Global hotkey for toggling between Low and Medium Filtering profiles.
  • Improved: Replaced some user actions confirmation dialogs with Windows notifications.
  • In Windows 10 they will be displayed in the notifications area and on Windows 7 as tray
  • Icon balloon notifications.
  • Fixed: The ULRs used for the services from Tools tab were updated to use https
  • Instead of http.

New in Windows Firewall Control 6.5.0.0 (May 20, 2021)

  • New: The notification dialog displays now the count of blocked attempts for each
  • Program that is notified.
  • Improved: The keyboard shortcuts to switch between notifications were changed in
  • Notification dialog to Ctrl+Left and Ctrl+Right.
  • Fixed: Privilege escalation vulnerability was fixed in WFC service.
  • Fixed: Some group names are not displayed correctly in Rules Panel.

New in Windows Firewall Control 6.4.0.0 (Aug 17, 2020)

  • New: Added a new entry to Direction combo box in Connections Log. The user can see now both inbound and outbound entries in the same results list.
  • Improved: Updated the Time generated column in Connection Log to display the time zone.
  • Improved: Search in Connections Log and Rules Panel was extended to include the service column.
  • Improved: The x button from text boxes that is clearing their content is back.
  • Fixed: Learning Mode does not work anymore when language is not set to English.
  • Fixed: When multiple network adapters are found the Location displayed in Dashboard panel is Public instead of Private.
  • Fixed: When importing the user settings, restarting the application fails if it is
  • Executed only with standard privileges.

New in Windows Firewall Control 6.3.0.0 (Jun 27, 2020)

  • Improved: Detecting invalid rules is now made at service level instead of UI level, meaning that the rules defined for files that are not accessible are not detected anymore as invalid.
  • Fixed: Connections Log loading time increased after last update if Security logcontains older entries for processes that are not running anymore.

New in Windows Firewall Control 6.2.0.0 (Jun 23, 2020)

  • Improved: Remote addresses content is now expanding to fill the available space in Properties dialog so that more content can be displayed
  • Fixed: Properties dialog is not displayed anymore if two or more Windows services have the same Display Name
  • Fixed: The service name for svchost.exe notifications is detected only for the Windows services that are already running when WFC service starts. If a Windows service is started after, the notification will not detect the Windows service that triggered the notification
  • Fixed: Unhandled exception is logged if certain files are missing from the installation folder
  • Fixed: When editing a rule details in the Notification dialog, the rule name can be set as one or several empty spaces
  • Fixed: Properties dialog can't apply changes to a rule if the path of the rule is not accessible or not found. This limitation was removed. Also the tooltip was updated since a rule with red text does not always mean the file is not found, it can also mean the file is not accessible (file located in a folder of another user account encrypted location, etc)
  • Fixed: In Notification dialog the text (Yes, No, Not valid) under Signed property is not localized
  • Removed: The x button from text boxes that is clearing their content

New in Windows Firewall Control 6.1.0.0 (Jan 5, 2020)

  • New: Added keyboard shortcuts for the Notification Dialog. For more information
  • please refer to the 'Keyboard shortcuts' section from the user manual .
  • New: Added 'Select All' context menu item for all text boxes.
  • Fixed: Due to the latest SSL improvements on the hosting server, the check for a
  • new version does not work anymore.
  • Fixed: During install/update, after the UAC prompt, for 1-2 seconds is displayed
  • the previous page instead of the progress page.
  • Fixed: The uninstaller does not work if the WFC service can not be initialized.
  • Fixed: In some rare cases, the uninstaller may hang during the uninstallation.
  • Fixed: Sorting by Time Generated column in Connections Log does not work.

New in Windows Firewall Control 6.0.2.0 (Mar 4, 2019)

  • New: The notifications for svchost.exe include now the service name which generated the blocked connection under the Name. Creating a rule for svchost.exe from the notification dialog will always include the service in the newly created rule.
  • New: Connections Log has now a new column for the Service name which is used by svchost.exe. The lookup is made based on the ProcessID, therefore for older entries, the exact service name can't be detected.
  • Fixed: The width of some strings from Dashboard was extended to display properly when a different language is used.
  • Fixed: Rules properties are not updated in Rules Panel if they are open while changing the user interface language.
  • Fixed: Some group names are not displayed correctly in Rules Panel.

New in Windows Firewall Control 6.0.1.0 (Feb 27, 2019)

  • Fixed: The installer can't continue if another security software is registered in Windows Security Center with firewall capabilities.
  • Fixed: In some cases, the connected location is reported Public instead of Private.
  • Fixed: The uninstall process does not always remove all files.
  • Fixed: The tabs width in Main Panel has a fixed width which prevents the tab name to be displayed completely.
  • Improved: If the PDF user manual is downloaded and placed in the same folder as wfc.exe, when launching the user manual the local file will be opened instead of the PDF file located on the web site.

New in Windows Firewall Control 6.0.0.0 (Feb 26, 2019)

  • New: The user interface was updated to follow the Malwarebytes theme.
  • New: A new Dashboard tab was added which displays the state of Windows Firewall,
  • The status of inbound and outbound connections and the connected Location.
  • New: Multi language support was added in the Options tab. All available translation
  • Files are extracted automatically to a subfolder named "lang". Switching the language
  • Of the user interface is now easier.
  • New: The user manual was migrated from .chm to an online .pdf file. It can be
  • Opened by using the new question mark buttons from the user interface and also by
  • Pressing the F1 key.
  • Improved: When changing the profile in WFC, if the inbound connections are allowed,
  • Which is a security risk, they will be set to be by default blocked. If they are
  • Already set to be blocked or all blocked (through WFwAS) then their status will be
  • Preserved.
  • Fixed: The profile reported in WFC might not be accurate on the first run if the
  • Outbound filtering has different values for different locations.
  • Fixed: Pressing on "Check this file" in Rules Panel or Connections Log when the
  • Program path is empty generates an exception in WFC log.
  • Fixed: The connected location displayed in WFC is displayed as 'VPN' instead of
  • 'Public' when multiple network adapters are active.
  • Fixed: Checking for updates is made through http instead of https.

New in Windows Firewall Control 5.4.1.0 (Jan 4, 2019)

  • Fixed: After some Windows updates, the Connections Log may remain empty and the
  • Notifications might not be displayed anymore. The auditing settings will now be
  • Reapplied on each WFC startup to ensure the functionality.
  • Fixed: Search term is removed in Connections Log when the Refresh list is done.

New in Windows Firewall Control 5.4.0.0 (Aug 1, 2018)

  • New: The notifications system is now available for free and the program does not
  • Require activation anymore.
  • New: The installer and the files are now digitally signed.
  • Reverted: Secure Rules feature was reverted to the old implementation from version
  • 5.0.2.0. The implementation from versions 5.1.x.x-5.3.x.x creates too many problems
  • Than it solves.
  • Fixed: Under certain circumstances, Connections Log displays nothing in Windows 10.
  • Fixed: 'Use proxy configuration' is checked even if the user presses the Cancel
  • Button in the proxy configuration dialog.

New in Windows Firewall Control 5.3.1.0 (Apr 24, 2018)

  • New: Added a confirmation dialog before enabling Secure Rules and Secure Profile,
  • Informing the users that they should consult the user manual to understand the effects
  • And the side effects of enabling these features.
  • Fixed: The status of Secure Rules and Secure Profile are incorrectly reported in
  • The Security tab in Windows 10 version 1803.

New in Windows Firewall Control 5.3.0.0 (Mar 19, 2018)

  • Removed: Obfuscated code was removed in order to avoid false positives.
  • Updated: The documentation was updated.

New in Windows Firewall Control 5.1.1.0 (Mar 15, 2018)

  • Removed: 'Auto receive updates' functionality was removed from Connections Log, as
  • it consumes a lot of resources and make the entire application unresponsive.
  • Improved: The Properties dialog layout was updated so that it can fit better on low
  • resolutions.
  • Improved: When opening Rules Panel, the default focused element is now the search box.
  • Improved: The search string from Rules Panel will not be cleared anymore when
  • refreshing the data grid or when changing the filters.
  • Fixed: When Secure Profile is enabled, firewall rules created for executable files
  • located on mounted drives do not apply anymore. The user has to switch manually the
  • profile so that Windows Firewall will refresh the existing firewall rules.
  • Fixed: When the activation dialog is displayed, the Main Panel is displayed always
  • on top.
  • Fixed: When the vertical scroll bar is visible in toolbox in the Rules Panel and
  • Connections Log windows, the border on the right side is missing.
  • Fixed: When an item is selected in the notifications exceptions list, the foreground
  • color is hard to read.

New in Windows Firewall Control 5.1.0.0 (Mar 4, 2018)

  • New: 'Secure Rules' was rewritten from scratch. When enabled, this feature will
  • Prohibit adding, modifying or removing firewall rules from outside of WFC.
  • New: A new feature called 'Secure Profile' was added in the Security tab. When
  • Enabled, importing firewall rules and changing the filtering mode of Windows Firewall
  • Is possible only from WFC.
  • New: A dialog is displayed to the user if the uninstall is launched while the
  • Program is locked with a password.
  • New: A new global hot key can be defined in Options tab to toggle Secure Rules state.
  • Fixed: If the uninstaller is launched multiple times, the dialog is displayed
  • Multiple times instead of focusing the already running instance of it.
  • Improved: When choosing a custom notification sound for the notifications, the
  • Dialog will now open by default in 'C:WindowsMedia' folder.
  • Improved: Various user interface improvements.
  • Updated: The WFC recommended rules contain now some inbound rules required for
  • Accessing the computers from the local network.
  • Updated: The URL services from the Tools tab were updated.
  • Updated: The user manual was updated with new topics.

New in Windows Firewall Control 5.0.2.0 (Jan 5, 2018)

  • Fixed: After the fix that made it possible to deselect the last selected entry double click doesn't work anymore as expected in Rules Panel and Connections Log
  • Fixed: Properties dialog of the program is displayed under notification dialog instead of on top of it
  • Fixed: When creating a new rule in WFC, if the 'Name' or 'Description' contain special characters, they are removed even if the same values are valid when creating the same rule from WFwAS
  • Fixed: Sorting by 'Action' column does not work in Rules Panel and Connections Log

New in Windows Firewall Control 5.0.1.19 (Nov 29, 2017)

  • Reverted: Due to many requests, the required .NET Framework version is now back
  • 4.5 instead of 4.6.
  • New: Pressing right click on the program name in the notification dialog will
  • Open the file properties dialog. 'Check this file' was moved to the left click on
  • The program icon.
  • Fixed: Creating a new rule fails if the name or description contain invalid
  • Characters. WFC will automatically remove invalid characters, allowing the creation
  • Of the rule.
  • Fixed: Randomly, the program appears inactivated even if it was activated before
  • Restarting the operating system.
  • Fixed: Leaving Connections Log window open for several hours with 'Auto receive
  • Updates' enabled may lead wfc.exe to consume several GB of memory. From this version,
  • Older entries will be replaced with new entries. If there are 30 new entries received,
  • 30 oldest entries will be first removed, and then the new entries will be added on top
  • Of the list.
  • Fixed: In Rules Panel and Connections Log, once you make a selection, you can't
  • Deselect the last entry if you press outside of a valid selection.
  • Improved: The logging was extended with all details of a rule which fails to be
  • Created, modified or deleted, to be able to catch all scenarios when these failures
  • May occur.
  • Updated: The user manual was updated with new screenshots and updated topics.

New in Windows Firewall Control 5.0.0.2 (Oct 10, 2017)

  • Fixed: When connected to a VPN, the location displayed in Main Panel is empty.
  • Fixed: Secure Rules remains enabled in WFC service even when 'Reset all settings
  • To the default values' from the Options tab is executed. The Secure Rules checkbox is unchecked but it is actually enabled.
  • Fixed: It is possible to create new firewall rules through Shell Integration even if the program is locked with a password.
  • Fixed: Sorting on the Action column does not work in version 5.
  • Fixed: Visual layout fixes in Main Panel.
  • Updated: Installer was renamed to wfc5setup.exe.

New in Windows Firewall Control 5.0.0.1 (Oct 4, 2017)

  • Fixed: During to a failed commit/build, the previous version did not display anything in the Action column. Rules Panel and Connections Log were affected.

New in Windows Firewall Control 5.0.0.0 (Oct 4, 2017)

  • New: Connections Log contains now an "Auto refresh on open" check box which will
  • automatically trigger Refresh when the window is opened.
  • New: Connections Log contains now an "Auto receive updates" check box which will
  • automatically add the newest entries on top of the list. More info can be found in
  • the user manual.
  • New: Main Panel displays now the currently connected location of Windows Firewall.
  • New: Added "Open the website" functionality in the About tab.
  • Fixed: Duplicate notifications may be displayed if the location of Windows Firewall
  • changes after WFC service start-up and there are rules defined for specific locations.
  • Fixed: Merge rules functionality from Rules Panel does create the merged rule, but
  • does not remove anymore the old rules.
  • Fixed: Import policy displays a successful operation result, even if the import has
  • failed due to a file access denied error.
  • Fixed: Refresh does not work anymore in Connections Log after using the search.
  • The window must be closed and reopened to be able to refresh again the data grid.
  • Fixed: Some group names from Windows 10 are not recognized.
  • Fixed: 'mDNS' keyword is not valid in Properties dialog as local port when opening
  • such an inbound rule for UDP protocol.
  • Updated: The user manual was updated with new screenshots and updated topics.

New in Windows Firewall Control 4.9.9.4 (Sep 9, 2017)

  • Improved: The performance of Connections Log was increased by 47% on multi-core
  • systems by using parallel computing.
  • Fixed: In Windows 10, local/remote IP and local/remote port are switched for inbound
  • connections when they are displayed in Connections Log. The switching should operate
  • only on Windows 7 and Windows 8 since this is already fixed by Microsoft in Windows 10.
  • Fixed: Find duplicates functionality from Rules Panel does not detect some duplicates
  • if the path contains different upper/lower characters.

New in Windows Firewall Control 4.9.9.2 (Jul 27, 2017)

  • Improved: Added tooltips and color indicators in the activation dialog to make the
  • Activation process more intuitive.
  • Fixed: Removing hundreds of rules at once in Rules Panel makes the window unresponsive
  • Until the action is actually finished.
  • Fixed: There is no progress indication in Rules Panel for long running tasks, like
  • When importing a large partial policy file or when creating duplicate rules for multiple
  • Rules at once.
  • Fixed: The confirmation dialog which is displayed when "Blocked connections" check
  • Box is unchecked in Connections Log is not displayed in the center of Connections Log
  • But in the center of Rules Panel.
  • Fixed: When the program is locked, depending on where the mouse pointer is placed
  • Over the unlock button, the tooltip still displays "Lock..." instead of "Unlock...".
  • Fixed: The Local Addresses combo box from the Properties dialog should not contain
  • Any tooltip since this field does not support special keywords.

New in Windows Firewall Control 4.9.9.0 (Jun 23, 2017)

  • New: WFC installer accepts now switches for silent install/update. Check the user
  • manual to see how this can be used.
  • Fixed: Connections Log can't resolve the paths for executable files located on RAM
  • disks.
  • Updated: The user manual was updated with new topics.

New in Windows Firewall Control 4.9.8.0 (May 13, 2017)

  • New: The installer was updated and does not use anymore a second installer file
  • which is extracted in the TEMP folder. The UAC prompt is now displayed for the same
  • file, not for the extracted file from the TEMP folder.
  • Updated: The profile changing is now made through Windows Firewall API instead of
  • netsh command.
  • Fixed: The user manual file is not deleted at uninstallation if WFC is installed
  • into a folder different than the default proposed one.
  • Updated: The troubleshooting section of the user manual was updated.

New in Windows Firewall Control 4.9.7.0 (Apr 22, 2017)

  • Important: Starting with this version, WFC is targeted to use .NET Framework 4.6
  • instead of .NET Framework 4.5 which is outdated.
  • Important: Removed support for Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008.
  • New: Added "-nogpu" parameter to wfc.exe. This will turn off GPU hardware
  • acceleration when rendering WFC. Use this when connecting remotely to a machine
  • where hardware acceleration is not available.
  • New: Added the Action column in Connections Log so that the entries copied to
  • clipboard will contain also the action among the other properties.
  • New: When the WFC tray application can't connect to WFC service and the exclamation
  • mark icon is displayed in the system tray, left click on the WFC icon will open the
  • user manual to the Troubleshooting section. Also, a 'User manual' entry is available
  • in the right click context menu.
  • Updated: The troubleshooting section of the user manual was updated.

New in Windows Firewall Control 4.9.6.0 (Mar 26, 2017)

  • Updated: WFC recommended rules contain now the required rules for PING command for ICMPv4 and ICMPv6. Also, the recommended rule for WFC updater contains now the port 443 since the website uses now HTTPS instead of HTTP.
  • Updated: The disabled rules in Rules Panel and the entries in Connections Log use now system colors instead of hard coded colors. This improves readability when a high contrast theme is used.
  • Fixed: Inbound connections have local port and remote port swapped in Connections Log data grid.
  • Fixed: When choosing 'Customize and create' in Connections Log an inbound connection, the local port and IP should be swapped with the remote port and IP in order to create a working rule.
  • Fixed: Blank window with no message is displayed when trying to install an older version over an existing newer version.

New in Windows Firewall Control 4.9.5.0 (Mar 4, 2017)

  • Fixed: Context menu doesn't work on text boxes with watermarks if the watermarks
  • are visible.
  • Fixed: In some scenarios the system tray icon may become unresponsive.

New in Windows Firewall Control 4.9.4.0 (Feb 19, 2017)

  • New: The context menu of Rules Panel has a new entry named "Authorize group". This
  • will add the group of the selected rule in the authorized groups list and will enable
  • the rule.
  • Fixed: In Connections Log, for inbound connections, the Source and Destination IP
  • addresses are swapped.
  • Updated: The copyright info still display year 2016 instead of 2017.

New in Windows Firewall Control 4.9.3.0 (Feb 8, 2017)

  • Updated: 'Start automatically at user logon' is made now through Windows Registry
  • instead of the shortcut in 'C:ProgramDataMicrosoftWindowsStart MenuProgramsStartup'
  • folder.
  • Fixed: Importing policies from network shares does not work. The same applies when
  • exporting a partial or a full policy is made on a network location.
  • Fixed: In Connections Log, 'Local' has the meaning of 'Source' and the 'Remote' has
  • the meaning of 'Destination'. In Connections Log, Local Ports/Addresses were renamed
  • to Source Port/Address and Remote Ports/Addresses were renamed to Destination Port/Address.
  • Updated: The user manual was updated to reflect the new changes.

New in Windows Firewall Control 4.9.2.0 (Jan 2, 2017)

  • Fixed: At uninstallation the "Program Compatibility Assistant" is displayed. The
  • code was updated to avoid displaying this for WFC installer/uninstaller.
  • Fixed: After last update, the columns visibility is not remembered after reopening
  • the Rules Panel or Connections Log.

New in Windows Firewall Control 4.9.1.0 (Dec 22, 2016)

  • New: Added "Freeze first column" option in the header context menu of Rules Panel and Connections Log. When enabled, it will always keep the first column visible
  • Updated: When Secure Rules is set to disable unauthorized rules, WFC will automatically disable these rules and will add the "U - " prefix to the rule name
  • The group name is not changed anymore and the "Unauthorized Rules" group was removed
  • Fixed: Secure Rules delay when removing/disabling inbound rules with Edge Traversal set to "Defer to user"
  • Updated: The user manual was updated to reflect the new changes

New in Windows Firewall Control 4.9.0.0 (Dec 14, 2016)

  • Updated: The notifications system was redesigned in order to allow defining
  • exceptions. The High notification level was removed since the new notifications
  • system can be configured to achieve the same results. The existing modes were
  • renamed.
  • Fixed: In Properties dialog, the local addresses field should not accept custom
  • keywords like the remote addresses field since this is not allowed not even from
  • WFwAS.
  • Fixed: In Properties dialog it is not possible to select "Services only". Opening
  • such a rule result in an empty selection in Services combo box.
  • Fixed: Duplicate authorized group names can be added if the case is changed.
  • Updated: The user manual was updated to reflect the new changes.

New in Windows Firewall Control 4.8.9.0 (Nov 28, 2016)

  • Improved: When enabling Secure Rules, if there are rules with no group names, WFC offers the user the possibility to add them to the WFC default group name.
  • Improved: Added better support for handling inbound rules with EdgeTraversal set to "Defer to user". This affects the editing of these rules, group renaming and the relation with Secure Rules which could not add these rules in the Unauthorized Rules group.
  • Fixed: The rules from "mDNS" group are not recognized correctly on Windows 10.
  • Fixed: The updater does not work if the previous service executable file (wfcs.exe) does not exist on disk anymore.
  • Fixed: Exception message is displayed if the service is closed and immediately the user presses the Exit button from the tray icon.
  • Updated: The user manual topics were extended.

New in Windows Firewall Control 4.8.8.0 (Oct 24, 2016)

  • Improved: "Add to group" from Rules Panel contains now, besides the group names of the existing firewall rules, also the authorized group names.
  • Improved: The dialog that confirms if a new rule was created from Shell Integration was restored and will be displayed again.
  • Improved: The logging was extended for better debugging.
  • Fixed: "Click to allow/block" dialog can be resized even if it shouldn't.
  • Fixed: In some circumstances, the installer may give an InvalidDataException during the installation on Windows 10.
  • Updated: The user manual was updated to reflect the new changes.

New in Windows Firewall Control 4.8.7.0 (Sep 28, 2016)

  • Improved: The Notification dialog is now resizable
  • Fixed: Fixed unquoted service path which can be exploited at WFC service start-up for privilege escalation

New in Windows Firewall Control 4.8.6.0 (Sep 14, 2016)

  • Fixed: The check of files on VirusTotal doesn't work anymore because the online provider accepts now only lowercase SHA256 hashes instead of uppercase.
  • Updated: Added context sensitive help based on the selected tab in Main Panel and based on the focused window or dialog. Just use the F1 key almost anywhere to find useful information.
  • Updated: The user manual topics were extended with new topics.

New in Windows Firewall Control 4.8.5.0 (Aug 22, 2016)

  • Updated: Added support for grouping the duplicate rules in Rules Panel
  • Updated: Replaced all PNG icons with vector images which are correctly displayed on all DPI settings and all high contrast themes
  • Updated: The user manual topics were extended

New in Windows Firewall Control 4.8.4.0 (Aug 10, 2016)

  • New: Added support to find duplicate rules in Rules Panel.
  • Fixed: The application always uses the Calibri font family which for some users may not be the best font. If the user changes the default font from the Advanced Appearance Settings... dialog, WFC is still displayed with Calibri font. Now the WFC user interface reflects the system font.
  • Fixed: Pressing multiple times on F1 key will open multiple times the user manual.
  • Updated: Pressing the F1 key in the focused window will open the user manual to the corresponding topic instead of the main page.
  • Updated: The user manual topics were extended.

New in Windows Firewall Control 4.8.3.0 (Jul 19, 2016)

  • New: Finally, a user manual was added to the program. It can be launched by pressing the F1 key or from the new button available in the Main Panel
  • New: The desktop the Start menu shortcuts which are created at program installation contain now the -mp parameter which will launch the Main Panel when they are executed

New in Windows Firewall Control 4.8.2.0 (Jul 6, 2016)

  • Updated: The recommended WFC rule "WFC - Windows Update" rule is now by default enabled and the rule "WFC - Windows Store (svchost.exe)" was removed.
  • Fixed: Revert profile does not set the desired profile after the time elapses if it is activated and the profile is not changed. If Low Filtering profile is already in use and the revert profile is activated, then nothing happens.
  • Fixed: With the latest improvements, the launch of wfc.exe with parameters does work only on the first run. This affects also the uninstaller which on the first run attempt does not display the uninstall dialog.

New in Windows Firewall Control 4.8.1.0 (Jun 30, 2016)

  • Improved: The start-up mechanism of wfc.exe was updated for faster launch.
  • New: Added a confirmation dialog before restoring WFC recommended rules.
  • Updated: The WFC recommended allow rules were updated based on the feedback received in the past months.
  • Removed: The WFC recommended block rules were all removed since they are useless when Medium Filtering is applied. In some cases they also created connectivity issues with Windows Update.
  • Removed: Shell Integration does not allow creating multiple rules for the same file.
  • Fixed: Shell Integration does not work properly. If multiple files are selected in Windows Explorer, new rules are created only for some of them.
  • Fixed: The Exit menu item of the tray application does not work anymore if the service is stopped.

New in Windows Firewall Control 4.8.0.0 (Jun 22, 2016)

  • Updated: If the Rules Panel is open and a new rule is created as a result of using
  • the Low notification level, then the data grid is automatically refreshed to see the
  • newly created rule.
  • Updated: The automatic refresh in Connections Log which is done when a combo box
  • value is changed was removed. From now on, the refresh must be triggered manually.
  • Fixed: If Connections Log window is closed while performing a long running task,
  • the service does not abort the loading. This requires additional resources while
  • the window was already closed and there is no need for further processing.
  • Fixed: Connections Log window remains open if the service is stopped and the
  • window was open.
  • Fixed: Notification dialog freezes in some scenarios if a program that is being
  • blocked tries to reconnect hundreds of times per second but on different ports.
  • Fixed: After switching to editing mode in notification dialog, the ports and
  • remote IP are updated automatically if the program retries to reconnect.
  • Fixed: Importing a full policy that was exported while High Filtering was enabled
  • blocks WFC in High Filtering profile. Changing the profile does not help as the
  • High Filtering profile is automatically switched back in a few seconds.
  • Fixed: Importing a full policy always switches the WFC profile to Low Filtering.
  • The profile is now unchanged after importing a full policy file.
  • Fixed: The rule name can contain leading or trailing white spaces when created
  • from WFC, while from WFwAS this is not allowed.

New in Windows Firewall Control 4.7.5.0 (Jun 5, 2016)

  • New: Added a new provider for the SHA256 check. It is configurable from the Tools tab.
  • New: Added "Check file" functionality from Connections Log also in the Rules Panel toolbox and right click context menu.
  • Fixed: The last window position and size are not restored on reopen when a different DPI setting than the default value is used.
  • Fixed: Connections Log crashes if the Security log size is increased by the user and the processing data takes longer than 1 minute. Observed for a 200MB log size.
  • Fixed: While refreshing the Connections Log, the old entries are displayed instead of a loading status.

New in Windows Firewall Control 4.7.4.0 (Jun 5, 2016)

  • Improved: The system tray application (wfc.exe) is now able to force the service wfcs.exe) to reinitialize itself if the service encountered a problem during the start-up and was not initialized correctly. This will reduce the cases when the WFC tray icon displays the black icon stating that it cannot connect to the service
  • Improved: Added smooth transition of the progress bar in the installation dialog
  • Fixed: The status of the system tray icon is not updated if the service is manually stopped or restarted
  • Fixed: Opened Connections Log is not automatically closed when the program is locked with a password
  • Fixed: Invalid coordinates saved in Windows Registry can lead to inability to reopen some dialogs. Observed for the "Customize and create" dialog from Connections Log

New in Windows Firewall Control 4.7.3.0 (May 19, 2016)

  • New: Added a new button in the View section to launch Connections Log from Rules Panel and vice versa. The keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Tab can be used to switch between these two windows too. If one is closed, Ctrl+Tab will launch the other one.
  • Improved: The list of custom authorized groups from the Security tab is now sorted alphabetically on saving. Unsorted inserted entries will be sorted on the next reopening of the Main Panel.
  • Fixed: Connections Log can be launched from the defined hotkey even if the program is locked with a password.
  • Fixed: Clear Log confirmation dialog appears in the center of the Rules Panel window instead of the Connections Log window.

New in Windows Firewall Control 4.7.2.0 (Apr 25, 2016)

  • New: If the profile isset to No Filtering and the user inserts a new removable drive, the profile is automatically reverted to the previous profile to avoid unwanted programs to automatically connect to the network/Internet. This is a new implementation based on the code from USBC which does not generate errors in Windows Reliability Monitor.
  • Fixed: The rules created for executable files which are located on removable drives don't work anymore if the drive is removed and reinserted, even if the same drive letter is assigned.
  • Fixed: The vertical scrollbar from Security tab appears always even if the content is maximized.
  • Removed: The grayed out effect for the predefined group names was removed.
  • Removed: The installer can't updatethe existing installation if the same version is already installed. This limitation was removed and the updater can update the same version by overwriting the existing installation. The updater still does not allow to install an older version over a newer version.

New in Windows Firewall Control 4.7.1.0 (Apr 11, 2016)

  • New: Secure Rules was extended to allow two possible actions when handling unauthorized rules: delete or disable. All the rules that will be automatically disabled will be moved in a new predefined group named 'Unauthorized Rules'. The user can now review these rules in Rules Panel.
  • Fixed: Customize and allow does not work in Connections Log from the toolbox button or from the context menu. It works only on double click.
  • Fixed: Connections Log menu item is enabled in the system tray context menu if the service is not started.
  • Fixed: The IP set in the rule named "WFC - Windows Firewall Control Updater" needs to be updated to the new website IP which is now 66.198.240.5.
  • Improved: The timeout for checking for new updates was increased from 3 seconds to 10 to in order avoid connection timeout result.
  • Improved: The predefined group names which can't be removed are now grayed out in the Authorized groups list. Added tooltip for the new authorized group text box to inform the user about the @ wildcard that can be used for Windows 10 apps rules.

New in Windows Firewall Control 4.7.0.0 (Mar 29, 2016)

  • New: Connections Log and Rules Panel are now displayed as two different windows. Now the user can see both of them in the same time
  • New: Added new icon shortcuts for Rules Panel and Connections Log in Main Panel
  • New: Added global hot key support for Connections Log window. It can be also
  • launched with "wfc -cp" from the Run dialog
  • Removed: New Rules Wizard was removed due to the new refactoring
  • Updated: "Jump to rules" functionality from Connections Log was updated and renamed to "Search rules"
  • Improved: The loading time and memory usage in Rules Panel was improved due to code refactoring
  • Fixed: The Log Connections check boxes from Connections Log appear as checked when reopening Connections Log window, even if they were previously both unchecked
  • Fixed: Columns sizes from Connections Log data grid are restored to default values if the saved values are not integer values
  • Fixed: Blocked and allowed connections are displayed with green color in
  • Connections Log. The default neutral color was restored for Connections Log

New in Windows Firewall Control 4.6.2.4 (Mar 7, 2016)

  • Improved: There are updaters which use a .tmp file to update their installations. From WFC is now possible to create firewall rules for *.tmp files.
  • Improved: The update dialog which is displayed when a new version of WFC is available can't be moved and if the taskbar is set to auto hidde, the dialog is displayed out of the screen. The update dialog can be moved now by the user.
  • Improved: The authorized groups list height is not fixed anymore and will expand with the window size so that the user can see more entries in the list.
  • Improved: Added support for "@" keyword in the authorized groups. If this keyword is added as an authorized group name, Windows 10 rules with @{} names will not be deleted anymore by the Secure Rules feature.
  • Fixed: Setting the direction to "Outbound and inbound" when editing a the details of a new rule in the notification dialog does not create the inbound rule.

New in Windows Firewall Control 4.6.2.2 (Feb 19, 2016)

  • Fixed: If all advanced notifications settings are unchecked the notifications are not displayed anymore.
  • Fixed: Context menu from Manage Rules window is missing if no rule is selected.
  • Fixed: The content of the uninstall dialog is showing outside of the displaying
  • area if the content contains more lines than the default expected size.
  • New: Added a new button in the Security tab which allows the user to add all groups from the existing rules. This will not add Windows 10 specific groups that start with "@{".
  • Improved: When deleting an authorized group from the Security tab, the selection remains empty. Pressing the delete key does not work until the user manually selects a new item from the list. The next item is now automatically selected.
  • Reverted: The protocol used for a new rule created from the notification dialog will be ANY if the user does not customize the rule.

New in Windows Firewall Control 4.6.2.0 (Feb 14, 2016)

  • Fixed: In some circumstances Secure Rules gets enabled even if it disabled in the Security tab. If authorized groups are not already defined, this would delete all the rules which are not in the default groups "Windows Firewall Control" and "Temporary Rules".

New in Windows Firewall Control 4.6.1.0 (Feb 13, 2016)

  • New: New Security tab was added in the Main Panel which contains the Secure Boot and the new improved Secure Rules feature which automatically removes the rules that are added to a different Group than the defined list of authorized group names. This adds the possibility to the operating system to add required rules without being deleted anymore by WFC because Secure Rules was enabled. Also, unwanted firewall rules that may have been added before the start of WFC service can be detected this way
  • Updated: The internal logging mechanism was simplified and updated to offer more information about the events that are logged
  • Updated: A new rule created from the notification dialog without customizing it is created for Any protocol. From now on it will be created for the protocol that appears in the notification. This change applies also for the rules created automatically for digitally signed programs when Low notification level is used
  • Fixed: The search from Connections Log works very slow compared to the search from Manage Rules

New in Windows Firewall Control 4.6.0.0 (Jan 5, 2016)

  • Improved: Many PNG images from the user interface have been replaced with scalable vector images in order to improve the scalling and the effects. The readability of the user interface was increased for the cases when bright colors are used or high contrast Windows themes
  • Improved: The logic behind the Display combo box from Connections Log was updated to improve the speed when loading the most recent entries
  • Fixed: In Windows 10, if the network is not initialized when the service is starting the service may appear to be started normally even if it is in faulted state. Now the service closes properly if it fails on startup and will be automatically restarted correctly
  • Fixed: The parser for Security log entries reads and displays wrong remote addresses in Connections Log for some operating systems which are not in English language

New in Windows Firewall Control 4.5.5.0 (Nov 12, 2015)

  • Improved: The visual theme of the program was updated to use system themes colors
  • With the previous versions, the program was unusable when high contrast themes were used because of the custom styles
  • Bug: Notifications are not displayed even if the advanced notification setting "Use allow rules when searching for matching rules" is disabled. The checkbox does not trigger the corresponding setting in the service

New in Windows Firewall Control 4.5.4.5 (Oct 28, 2015)

  • Added: A confirmation dialog was added in Manage Rules when deleting a rule to
  • avoid accidental deletion of the rules.
  • Removed: The detection of insertion of USB drives was removed due to the errors
  • that may appear on some systems in Windows Reliability Monitor related to wfcs.exe.
  • Improved: The Delete button was moved at the end of the list in Manage Rules to
  • avoid pressing it instead of the Disable button.
  • Fixed: Notifications for Windows Update are not displayed in Windows 10. The
  • notifications system was updated to not match anymore the rules defined for a
  • specific Windows service.
  • Fixed: The validations for the Program from Properties dialog were updated to
  • handle extra empty spaces that may be inserted in the path of a file.
  • Fixed: The application fails to start if the system tray icon has a tooltip larger
  • than 64 characters. This may happen if the translation file contains large strings
  • which may be used for the system tray icon tooltip.

New in Windows Firewall Control 4.5.4.4 (Oct 28, 2015)

  • Added: A confirmation dialog was added in Manage Rules when deleting a rule to avoid accidental deletion of the rules
  • Removed: The detection of insertion of USB drives was removed due to the errors that may appear on some systems in Windows Reliability Monitor related to wfcs.exe
  • Improved: The Delete button was moved at the end of the list in Manage Rules to avoid pressing it instead of the Disable button
  • Fixed: Notifications for Windows Update are not displayed in Windows 10. The notifications system was updated to not match anymore the rules defined for a specific Windows service
  • Fixed: The validations for the Program from Properties dialog were updated to handle extra empty spaces that may be inserted in the path of a file
  • Fixed: The application fails to start if the system tray icon has a tooltip larger than 64 characters. This may happen if the translation file contains large strings which may be used for the system tray icon tooltip

New in Windows Firewall Control 4.5.4.2 (Sep 11, 2015)

  • Fixed: Duplicate notifications appear for rules defined for custom locations due to incorrect detection of the current location in WFC service.
  • Fixed: ManagementEventWatcher used in WFC service can't be properly disposed and can lead to a memory leak if the WFC service is started/stopped multiple times during the same Windows session.
  • Fixed: The system tray icon does not resize correctly when 125% or 150% dpi scaling is used.
  • Fixed: 'Reset sorting' for columns which use value converters does not work in Manage Rules.

New in Windows Firewall Control 4.5.4.0 (Sep 6, 2015)

  • New: A new read only check box column named "Extended properties" was added in Manage Rules window. It indicates if a rule contains extra properties which are not displayed in WFC.
  • Improved: The search functionality from Manage Rules was improved by adding a 0.5 seconds delay between the text update event and the actual start of the search. This removes the intermediate results which were triggered between characters typing. The search is now more smooth.
  • Fixed: WFC service fails to start on computers where WMI is not available. The code was updated and a warning is logged instead of crashing the service.
  • Fixed: The loading of the firewall rules in Manage Rules is executed twice on the opening of the window. The duplicate call was removed and the rules should load faster.
  • Fixed: When launching "wfc -rp", there is no active view and the rules are missing.
  • Fixed: ICMP Types are not displayed correctly for rules defined for protocol ICMPv4.
  • Fixed: ICMP Types are not correctly set when switching the protocol from ICMPv4 to ICMPv6 or vice versa.
  • Fixed: All locations check boxes are unchecked when opening in Properties dialog a rule defined for an application package in Windows 10.
  • Fixed: The WFC service (4.5.3.0) can't be stopped from services.msc. The service must be killed from Task Manager.

New in Windows Firewall Control 4.5.3.0 (Aug 23, 2015)

  • New: If the profile is set to No Filtering and the user inserts a new USB drive the profile is automatically reverted to the previous profile to avoid unwanted programs to automatically connect to the network/Internet
  • Improved: Added Windows Firewall service into the dependencies list of Windows Firewall Control service to ensure that the services are started in the correct order. This requires a clean install
  • Improved: The minimum width for the columns from Manage Rules and Connections Log was reduced so that more columns can fit in one screen
  • Fixed: Rules defined for programs located on removable drives don't work after removing and reconnecting the drive because the assigned id for the drive changes even if the drive letter remains the same. Now, the firewall state is refreshed automatically by WFC so that the rules will work automatically
  • Fixed: Merging rules with port ranges fails to open the merge rule dialog. Nothing happens and the user does not know what the problem is
  • Fixed: The updater hangs if the Windows Firewall Control service is stopped while initiating the update procedure

New in Windows Firewall Control 4.5.2.0 (Aug 5, 2015)

  • 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.

New in Windows Firewall Control 4.5.1.0 (Jul 29, 2015)

  • 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 in Windows Firewall Control 4.5.0.6 (Jul 27, 2015)

  • Improved: The profile icons were updated to identify more easily the active profile.
  • Improved: The expiration time can be set for temporary rules from the Notifications tab. The user can set the expiration time between 1 and 60 minutes. The context menu of the temporary allow button was removed and two new options are available instead.
  • Fixed: Duplicate notifications are displayed for programs that are detected by Windows Firewall with the old 8.3 DOS paths.
  • Fixed: ICMPv6 rules are not duplicated correctly. The ICMP type of the duplicated rule is different than the original rule.
  • Fixed: Reimporting a partial policy file which contains rules for ICMP protocol
  • fails.
  • Fixed: The sorting of some columns is made for the underlying data, not for the displayed data, making the sort more like a grouping instead of a sorting.

New in Windows Firewall Control 4.5.0.5 (Jun 27, 2015)

  • New: The remote IP addresses of the two block rules that are created when High Filtering profile is enabled ("High Filtering profile - ...") are now customizable.
  • These rules can be modified to block custom user defined connections instead of all connections. The values entered are reused until they are modified again.
  • Fixed: The update button is missing from the installer if the user wants to update a version older than 4.4.0.0.
  • Fixed: Open file location for rules defined for All programs does nothing.
  • Fixed: Exporting and importing the user settings do not work on mapped network drives.
  • Improved: Code refactoring to improve the speed and stability. Removed references to some 3rd party assemblies which are not required anymore after the refactoring.

New in Windows Firewall Control 4.5.0.4 (Jun 19, 2015)

  • Fixed: The rules are not loaded in Manage Rules if a rule is defined for a file
  • located on a network location. The view remains empty.
  • Fixed: Importing and exporting of rules is not working when the user selects a
  • policy file which is located on a mapped network drive.
  • Fixed: The setup fails to install on Windows Server when it checks for installed
  • 3rd party firewall products.
  • Improved: The unlocking procedure in case the user forgets the password that he used to lock the program and Windows Firewall was simplified.

New in Windows Firewall Control 4.5.0.2 (Jun 17, 2015)

  • Fixed: The notification dialog does not update the Signed status if the parent process is not running anymore.
  • Fixed: The position of the notification dialog is reset to the default value after updating to a new version by using the integrated updater.

New in Windows Firewall Control 4.5.0.1 (Jun 10, 2015)

  • New: The notification dialog will display also the parent process to see which
  • process launched the program that was blocked.
  • Improved: The behavior for pressing in the notification dialog on the Source was
  • updated to allow reading more info also for the remote port.
  • Fixed: The program fails to start if the translation file has an invalid format.

New in Windows Firewall Control 4.5.0.0 (May 29, 2015)

  • New: Added a new button in the Rules Panel for columns configuration. When this button is clicked, it opens the same context menu as the right menu click from the data grid header
  • New: Added alternative ways to specify the color of the user interface in the Options tab, by using RGB values or by specifying the hex color
  • New: Invalid rules are automatically detected When opening the Rules Panel. They are displayed with red color and have a specific tooltip. Also, the color for temporary rules was changed to blue
  • New: Added a new warning message before opening for editing an inbound rule with EdgeTraversal set to 'Defer to user'. Editing of this kind of rule is not fully supported
  • New: Added the possibility to import, export or reset user settings. The new options were added under the Options tab in Main Panel
  • Improved: The text from several text boxes from Main Panel will be automatically selected when the controls will be focused to make it easier to quick update them
  • Improved: The URL services were moved from the Options tab to the Tools tab
  • Fixed: The default advanced notification settings are not the same when you make a clean installation and when you reset them to the default values

New in Windows Firewall Control 4.4.4.0 (Apr 30, 2015)

  • New: A new section for configuring the advanced notifications settings was added in the Notifications tab. The new settings can be used to tweak the notifications system regarding the notifications that should be displayed or not.
  • Updated: The notifications levels were changed back. In Medium notification level the notifications will be displayed no matter of the folder, and the notifications for System and svchost.exe will be skipped. The notifications for System and svchost.exe are displayed only on High notification level.
  • Updated: The inbound rules with edge traversal set to 'Defer to user' are not set as read only anymore in WFC. Even if the update on them may not work in all cases, the user has at least the ability to change the Group of the rule so that the rule becomes editable in WFwAS.
  • Fixed: Duplicating a rule with the port set to keywords as IPHTTPS or Ply2Disc does not have the Duplicate word in the rule name. Also, these kind of rules can't be edited because IPHTTPS or Ply2Disc keywords are not recognized by WFC.
  • Fixed: In Windows 10, rules with local ports that use keywords are retrieved with an extra ',' making the rules invalid when trying to edit them.

New in Windows Firewall Control 4.4.3.0 (Apr 6, 2015)

  • New: Enhanced Mode for notification system, which was introduced in the previous version, is now integrated in the existing old modes.
  • New: Medium notification mode was updated to display notifications but without the connections attempts of programs located in C:\Windows and its subfolders.
  • New: High notification mode was updated to display notifications for all programs, including system ones located in Windows folder and its subfolders.
  • Update: The light gray color of read only rules was changed to dark grey to improve the readability.

New in Windows Firewall Control 4.4.2.4 (Apr 1, 2015)

  • New: Added the possibility to choose between the normal mode and the new enhanced mode of the notification system. The new enhanced mode will take into consideration also the generic rules which apply to all programs. The new setting is available in the Notifications tab from the Main Panel window.
  • New: The notification system takes into consideration also the Location. The notification system checks for matching rules based on the following properties: local port, remote port, remote address, protocol and location.
  • New: Added a new link button named "View change log" in the update dialog so that the user can open quickly and check what's new before updating to the new version.

New in Windows Firewall Control 4.4.2.1 (Mar 30, 2015)

  • Fixed: Notifications for System and svchost.exe are not displayed anymore when High notification level is enabled.

New in Windows Firewall Control 4.4.2.0 (Mar 28, 2015)

  • New: Search function was added to Connections Log similar to the one from Manage Rules.
  • New: Introduced the concept of read only rules. They are displayed with grey text and cannot be modified or deleted from WFC.
  • Fixed: Modifying inbound rules with edge traversal set to 'Defer to user' generates exceptions in Windows Firewall API. These kind of rules are read only and can't be modified from WFC.
  • Fixed: Unwanted notifications may appear when defining generic rules that should apply to all programs.
  • Fixed: Opening the Properties dialog of a rule fails with an exception for rules defined with a custom protocol which does not appear in WFC.
  • Fixed: Notifications are displayed for svchost.exe when Medium notification is used if a rule for svchost.exe and remote port IPHTTPS is enabled.
  • Fixed: When creating a new rule from the shell integration the direction and the enabled properties of the existing rules are not taken into consideration.
  • Updated: The list of recognized Group names was updated to include new groups from Windows 10.

New in Windows Firewall Control 4.4.1.1 (Mar 6, 2015)

  • Fixed: Local source and remote IP address is the same in the notification dialog.

New in Windows Firewall Control 4.4.1.0 (Mar 6, 2015)

  • Improved: The notification dialog was modified to accept larger language strings. A line splitter was added which can be used to modify the width of the content.
  • Fixed: A new notification is not displayed for a blocked connection if an existing rule have set the remote ports and the remote IP addresses.
  • Fixed: Local ports are not taken into consideration when the Notifications system decides if a new notification should be displayed or not.
  • Fixed: The path displayed in the notification dialog for the files executed from a RAM disk is not resolved. Added support for resolving paths from RAM drives.
  • Fixed: Sometimes, Windows Firewall determines the path for some programs with the old 8.3 filename style. It is impossible to create a new rule from the Notification dialog nor from the Connections Log when such paths are received. Added support for short names used in paths.
  • Fixed: Double click on the data grid scroll bar in Connections Log and New Rules Wizard views, opens the Properties dialog when an entry is selected.
  • Fixed: When an entry is selected in New Rules Wizard, Enter key moves the selection on the next row instead of opening the Properties dialog.
  • Fixed: Toolbox buttons from Rules Panel have truncated labels even if the toolbox area is enlarged.
  • Fixed: The installer/updater gives an unhandled exception if .NET Framework 4.5 is not installed on the machine.
  • Fixed: The unlock button from the Notification dialog is disabled when the program is locked and a new notification is displayed. The user must open Main Panel to unlock the program.
  • Fixed: Old self signed certificates used until WFC 4.0.2.2 are not removed from the computer even if they are not used anymore. Please answer YES if at the end of the installation/update you are asked: "Do you want to DELETE the following certificate from the Root Store?" with the subject "BiniSoft.org".

New in Windows Firewall Control 4.4.0.1 (Feb 27, 2015)

  • Fixed: When using Low notification level, the rules are not automatically created for digitally signed programs.
  • Fixed: When modifying the Properties of a rule, if the input parameters are not accepted by Windows Firewall, then it should not appear as modified in Manage Rules window after closing the Properties dialog. The rule should appear with the original values.
  • Fixed: The recommended rule for Windows Update uses UDP protocol instead of TCP.

New in Windows Firewall Control 4.4.0.0 (Feb 5, 2015)

  • Important: Starting with this version, WFC is targeted to use .NET Framework 4.5. It improves memory management and works faster with the newest .NET Framework 4.5.2 release. The previous WFC releases were compiled to use .NET 4.0 which is outdated.
  • Fixed: Duplicate notifications are displayed for the same program if there are defined custom rules and PeerBlock or MBAM are used to block certain IP addresses.
  • Fixed: Sometimes, the Activate button remains disabled when the user paste the activation code from clipboard. This usually happens when the activation code contains an extra empty space at the end, added when it is copied from the web browser.
  • Fixed: Service combo box selection is not correctly set in Properties dialog for some services.
  • Updated: Added watermark text in textboxes from the notification dialog that may be empty when customizing a rule.
  • Updated: Added 'Open file location' in Manage Rules toolbox and context menu.
  • Updated: Added support for language localization for the following columns in Rules Panel: Location, Active, Action, Direction, Protocol, Interface types.
  • Updated: Code refactoring.

New in Windows Firewall Control 4.3.0.1 (Jan 16, 2015)

  • Fixed: Duplicate context menu items when Shell Integration is enabled when no translation file is used and then a translation file is installed.
  • Fixed: Auto check for updates checkbox does not remember the last value when reopening Main Panel window.
  • Fixed: Proxy configuration dialog can't be closed if only the address is completed but no username and password.
  • Updated: Added a textbox hint for address in proxy configuration dialog.

New in Windows Firewall Control 4.3.0.0 (Jan 16, 2015)

  • New: Auto-update feature was added. If it is enabled, it will check only once, after 20 seconds from the program startup.
  • New: Added proxy configuration support when checking for updates.
  • Updated: The Shell Integration text displayed in the right context menu of executable files is now localized based on the corresponding strings from the translation file.
  • Fixed: Merge Rules feature doesn't work correctly when duplicate entries are part
  • of the input arguments.
  • Fixed: The profile is not updated in Profiles tab if the user changes the profile from WFwAS while a different tab is active in WFC.
  • Fixed: NullReferenceException appears if the user opens the Properties dialog, confirms the changes and then he tries to merge some rules.
  • Fixed: "The root Visual of a VisualTarget cannot have a parent" exception appears when .NET Framework 4.5.2 is installed and the user wants to open the Main Panel.

New in Windows Firewall Control 4.2.1.0 (Dec 19, 2014)

  • New: Added a shortcut to Windows Firewall Control Panel applet in the Tools tab.
  • Improved: The notification dialog was updated to contain more useful data. The Protocol selection is now a combo box which contains all supported protocols. The same applies for Direction selection.
  • Improved: The notification dialog will display an (x86) indicator at the end of the file name for executable files executed from Program Files (x86) folder.
  • Improved: Radio buttons for Direction and Action in Properties dialog were replaced with combo boxes.
  • Fixed: Changing the action between Block/Allow in Properties dialog of a rule does not update the rule. After a refresh of the rules, the Action is the same.
  • Fixed: MainPanel window does not stay on top of other windows when the activation dialog is displayed.
  • Fixed: Program exits if the user starts Manage Rules, stops Windows Firewall service and then presses on the refresh button to query Windows Firewall rules.
  • Update: The Main Panel was rewritten to load the tab items on demand, not all at once. Code refactoring.

New in Windows Firewall Control 4.2.0.2 (Dec 1, 2014)

  • New: Added support for all protocols available in WFwAS in Properties dialog.
  • Fixed: The hidden notification area from system tray remains open if the user
  • opens the right click context menu on WFC tray icon while the icon is hidden.
  • Update: Code refactoring and code cleanup.

New in Windows Firewall Control 4.2.0.1 (Nov 21, 2014)

  • New: In Connections Log a new filter is available in the toolbox. It is now possible
  • to display only the last entry for an application instead of all consecutive entries.
  • Fixed: Rules created from the notification dialog don't have the Group name set.
  • Fixed: Time generated column from Connections Log doesn't display the date and time
  • in the format defined on the local machine.
  • Fixed: High Filtering profile is not set on system restart event when Secure Boot
  • is enabled. It works only on system shutdown event.

New in Windows Firewall Control 4.2.0.0 (Nov 15, 2014)

  • New: The profile displayed in WFC is updated now even if the user changes the settings from outside of WFC (e.g.: Control Panel applet, netsh or WFwAS mmc).
  • New: The restore profile set in the Profiles tab is reverted now even if the state of Windows Firewall is modified from outside of WFC.
  • New: Added a new confirmation dialog when the user switches from Main Panel to No Filtering profile.
  • New: The tray icon will display a balloon tip if the profile is High Filtering at program start-up to inform the user that the network connections are disabled until profile is manually switched.
  • Updated: Secure Boot was changed to only set High Filtering on system shutdown when it is enabled. From now on, the user has to switch manually the profile at system start-up if this option is enabled in order to enable network connections. The old implementation had very unpredictable results and did not work always correctly.
  • Updated: The logging was updated to provide more detailed messages.
  • Updated: Event Viewer launched from the Tools tab will open by default the WFC subcategory.
  • Removed: The confirmation dialog that is displayed when a new rule is created was removed. From this version, the confirmation dialog is displayed only when a new rule is created from shell context menu.
  • Fixed: High Filtering profile can not be switched off in certain circumstances and "Core Networking - Block all inbound/outbound connections" rules can not be removed.
  • Fixed: Temporary Rules are not deleted at WFC restart if Secure Boot is enabled and the computer is restarted.
  • Fixed: Last used path is not remembered when exporting a partial policy file.
  • Fixed: The toolbox horizontal size is not saved when Rules Panel window is closed.
  • Fixed: Multiple rules can be merged even if the selected rules are defined for different protocols. This is not allowed anymore.
  • Fixed: Properties dialog of a rule does not appear in the taskbar and if the dialog is minimized, the user can't close Rules Manager from taskbar context menu.
  • Fixed: When viewing inbound connections in Connections Log, if the user wants to quickly create a new rule without customizing it, the rule is created for outbound direction instead of inbound.
  • Fixed: Uninstall dialog appears in taskbar but the dialog is not focused and the user has to activate the window manually in order to see it.

New in Windows Firewall Control 4.1.6.0 (Oct 22, 2014)

  • New: Added support for defining paths of the rules with system variables. However, the path of the rule will contain the full path which is converted by Windows Firewall API. Is this now possible to define a rule like this: "%windir%\notepad.exe" or "%ProgramFiles(x86)\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe"
  • Updated: If the wfcs.exe service is not available at startup of wfc.exe, it takes 20 seconds to show the tray icon. Now it displays the error icon and retries to reconnect. If the reconnect is successfully, then the status is updated.
  • Updated: The user interface can now detect if the service is stopped by pooling the service every few seconds.
  • Updated: Logging was updated to offer more precise info when a problem is encountered. Possible solutions are also provided in the log when an error is logged.
  • Updated: Some parts of the code were simplified to improve the responsiveness.
  • Updated: Some misspelled words were updated.

New in Windows Firewall Control 4.1.5.0 (Sep 22, 2014)

  • Fixed: The new installer does not work on x86 operating systems.

New in Windows Firewall Control 4.1.4.0 (Sep 22, 2014)

  • New: The installer requires elevated privileges only when the installation is actually done. It can be executed with normal user account privileges.
  • New: "Secure boot" was added in the Options tab. It saves the current firewall rules at system shut down, sets High Filtering profile and restores the firewall rules at WFC start-up. When this feature is enabled, at system start-up the network connections are blocked until WFC starts too.
  • New: Added a new Copy... submenu in the context menu of the Connections Log window.
  • Updated: Added new URL providers: ip-adress.com and tcpiputils.com
  • Updated: "Disable the ability of other programs to add firewall rules" was renamed to "Secure rules".
  • Updated: Recommended block rules are available again. If they are not needed they can be easily deleted.
  • Fixed: The color sliders don't not reflect the current color after reopening the Main Panel window. They show always black color in the Options tab even if the color is different.

New in Windows Firewall Control 4.1.3.0 (Sep 19, 2014)

  • New: The installer requires elevated privileges only when the installation is actually done. It can be executed with normal user account privileges.
  • New: "Secure boot" was added in the Options tab. It saves the current firewall rules at system shut down, sets High Filtering profile and restores the firewall rules at WFC start-up. When this feature is enable, on system start-up the network connections are blocked until WFC starts too.
  • New: Added a new Copy... submenu in the context menu of the Connections Log window.
  • Updated: Added a new URL providers: ip-adress.com and tcpiputils.com
  • Updated: "Disable the ability of other programs to add firewall rules" was renamed to "Secure rules".
  • Updated: Recommended block rules are available again. If they are not needed they can be easily deleted.
  • Fixed: The color sliders don't not reflect the current color after reopening the Main Panel window. They show always black color in the Options tab even if the color is different.

New in Windows Firewall Control 4.1.2.0 (Sep 1, 2014)

  • New: Added a new button for creating a blank new rule in Manage Rules window.
  • New: The URL text boxes from Options tab in Main Panel were changed with combo boxes. Where available, multiple providers were included.
  • New: Action category with radio buttons was added to the Properties dialog of a rule.
  • New: "Customize and allow..." and "Customize and block..." from Connections Log and New Rules Wizard were merged to a new "Customize and create" function.
  • New: Added a new check box in Options tab to automatically set High Filtering
  • profile on system shut down.
  • Fixed: When coming from sleep mode, duplicate notifications are displayed for
  • System and svchost.exe, even if there are allow rules that allow all connections
  • for these two programs.
  • Fixed: Result dialog after creating a rule from Connections Log is missing if the Connections Log is launched directly from the system tray context menu.
  • Fixed: "Jump to rules" does not work from the toolbox button.

New in Windows Firewall Control 4.1.1.0 (Aug 26, 2014)

  • Fixed: Rules created for digitally signed programs when using Low notification level are created as block rules instead of allow rules.
  • Fixed: Due to the fix for Edge Traversal included in the previous version, the program does not work anymore on Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008.
  • Fixed: Connections Log does not display any allowed or blocked connections in Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008.
  • Fixed: Ctrl + Alt + 3 does the same as Ctrl + 3, preventing users with different keyboard layout to insert special characters in the search field in Manage Rules.
  • Updated: The recommended block rules were removed. Too many questions regarding them.
  • Updated: The recommended rule for explorer.exe was modified to allow all connections on remote ports 80 and 443.

New in Windows Firewall Control 4.1.0.2 (Jul 19, 2014)

  • New: Added new columns in Manage Rules for Edge Traversal and ICMP settings. These columns are hidden by default. They can be displayed in the data grid but they can not be modified from the Properties dialog.
  • Fixed: Edge Traversal and ICMP setting are not preserved when duplicating a rule from Manage Rules data grid. The same applies to the scenario when a partial policy is imported from a file which contains such firewall rules.
  • Fixed: Rules with no Group defined or with a custom Group are deleted when a rule is duplicated and the "Disable the ability of other programs to add firewall rules" is enabled.
  • Fixed: The group name is saved with the English name if the user modifies a rule which is located in a default Windows Firewall group.
  • Fixed: IP ranges without CIDR notation are not recognized as valid when modifying a rule. For example this was considered invalid: 224.0.0.0/255.255.255.0
  • Fixed: The icons for context menu items in Connections Log and New Rules Wizard are highlighted even if the menu items are disabled.
  • Fixed: A new notification for svchost.exe is not displayed if a block rule for svchost.exe for 'Any' protocol does exist. This prevents the notification for Windows Update if the recommended rule for Windows Update does not exist.
  • Fixed: Search does not return valid results if the Program is set to All programs.
  • Improved: The searh function was extended to find results in the following columns: Name, Program, Group, Local Ports, Local Addresses, Remote Ports, Remote Addresses. Example: The user can search for '80' to see the rules defined for this port.
  • Improved: Added "Jump to rules" shortcut in the Connections Log toolbox and the other entries were added in the context menu.
  • Improved: Moved 'User created rules' from Display combo box to Filter combo box. This allows filtering by inbound/outbound for user created rules. User created rules are considered the rules with the group name 'Windows Firewall Control' or Temporary Rules'.

New in Windows Firewall Control 4.1.0.1 (Jul 1, 2014)

  • New: Added support to define custom URLs for checking purposes. Check the Options tab from Main Panel for the new options.
  • Fixed: Pressing the Enter key in Rules Manager changes the selection to the next row and opens for editing the next rule instead of the current selected one.
  • Fixed: The validations for local ports and remote ports that contain IPHTTPS, Teredo, RPC and RPC-EPMap don't work properly in Properties dialog of a rule. This allows invalid input and no change occurs when the Apply button is used.
  • Fixed: Can not duplicate or modify an existing rule if the local port or the remote port is set to IPHTTPS.
  • Fixed: The status of toggle buttons (Allow, Block, Enable, Disable) is not updated until the user changes the selection in the Manage Rules data grid.
  • Fixed: The Properties dialog opens if the user wants to export a full or a partial policy and then he confirms the action with the Enter key.
  • Fixed: IPv4 ranges are not properly recognized in Properties dialog. The override validation checkboxes were removed as the new validation rules should cover all scenarios.

New in Windows Firewall Control 4.1.0.0 (Jun 24, 2014)

  • New: "Merge rules" option was added in the context menu of Manage Rules window.
  • This option is enabled if multiple rules for the same program, direction and action are selected.
  • New: Multiple selection was added in Connections Log. If multiple connections for the same program are selected the user can customize a merged rule before creating a new rule.
  • Fixed: Temporary rules created throught the notification dialog are deleted if "Disable the ability of other programs to add firewall rules" is enabled.
  • Fixed: The Main Panel window freezes while checking for a new version is in progress.
  • Fixed: The scrollbar position doesn't go to top in Manage Rules when the Display or Filter combo boxes are used to filter the rules and a column is sorted.
  • Fixed: Temporary rules are not deleted on WFC restart.
  • Improved: Ctrl+F will set focus to the Search box in Manage Rules window.
  • Improved: The search function from Manage Rules works now also for Group name.
  • Improved: The Rules Panel was redesigned from scratch to improve memory usage and allow further extensions. Obsolete code was removed and a lot of code was improved.

New in Windows Firewall Control 4.0.9.7 (Jun 3, 2014)

  • Fixed: Multiple rules are created for digitally signed programs when Low notification level is used.
  • Fixed: Rules with no Group defined or with a custom Group defined are deleted when importing a policy if the "Disable the ability of other programs to add firewall rules" is enabled.
  • Fixed: Properties of a rule opens if the user exports a single rule and the Enter key is used to confirm the save.
  • New: Added new keyboard shortcuts in Rules Panel. Use Ctrl+R to refresh the active data grid and Ctrl+Tab to switch between tabs. Also using Ctrl+{1,2,3} will switch between the tabs.

New in Windows Firewall Control 4.0.9.6 (May 30, 2014)

  • Fixed: A new approach is used to determine if an unauthorized rule is added in order to fix the problem with AppGuard and Steam.
  • Fixed: IPv6 addresses and ranges are not handled correctly in the service, making them to appear as invalid in Properties view of a rule. It is also impossible to export these kind of rules.
  • Fixed: The scroll position does not scroll to top when the user filters the rules displayed in Manage Rules data grid from the Display and Filter combo boxes or when the Connections Log is updated to a different search.
  • Fixed: The active state of the notification sound is not preserved in case of an update to a newer version.
  • Fixed: After creating a new rule from 'Connections Log' or 'New Rules Wizard' the view is automatically switched to Manage Rules.

New in Windows Firewall Control 4.0.9.4 (May 26, 2014)

  • Fixed: The notification dialog hangs when multiple connection attempts are received for a specific program in a short period of time and the user chooses to create a new rule from the notification dialog
  • Fixed: The validation for Program field in Properties dialog of a rule does not work
  • Fixed: If the Rules Panel is open and the user uses the system tray context menu to open a different view, the window is focused but the view is not changed
  • Fixed: In Windows 8, some group names are not recognized properly in Manage Rules data grid
  • Fixed: The Properties dialog is opened if the user presses on the Cancel button with Enter key when the dialog to export the selected rules is canceled
  • Improved: The text boxes available in Properties dialog of a rule support now maximum 4096 characters

New in Windows Firewall Control 4.0.9.2 (May 16, 2014)

  • Fixed: AppGuard and Steam can still create firewall rules at boot time when their services start before WFC. Now, the WFC service initializes first and intercepts properly these attempts.
  • Fixed: The profile is not reverted by the Install Mode if the system is restarted.
  • Fixed: Install Mode can change a higher profile to a lower profile which should not be possible. The description of Install Mode was renamed and the profiles available were reduced only to High Filtering and Medium Filtering profiles.
  • Fixed: When switching between multiple connections in notification dialog, the Protocol and Direction become unchecked.
  • Improved: When opening a file location from WFC, the file is now selected. In the previous versions the folder was opened but the user had to select the file manually.
  • Improved: Consecutive notifications are allowed for the same program only after a period of 30 seconds between two blocked connection attempts for the same program. Consecutive notifications are now allowed. Multiple notifications for the same program will not be displayed because many notifications can be generated, but the info for an already displayed notification for the same program will be updated.

New in Windows Firewall Control 4.0.9.0 (May 4, 2014)

  • New: Install Mode. This new mode available in the Profiles tab will automatically revert a chosen profile after a given period of time if the user changes the profile and forgets about this.
  • - Fixed: When using "Disable the ability of other programs to add firewall rules" some programs that use Windows services can still create firewall rules through these services before the start-up of WFC.
  • - Fixed: The scroll position in Main Panel does not automatically scroll to top when changing between the tabs.
  • - Fixed: The automatic rules creation for digitally signed programs does not work with Low notification level if the file description is an empty string. If the file description is missing the file name will be used instead

New in Windows Firewall Control 4.0.8.6 (Mar 21, 2014)

  • Fixed: The updater hangs if the user executes it from a standard user account and the program is running in system tray. The workaround was to manually close it first from the system tray icon and then execute the updater. Now, the update will complete even if the user does not close first the existing running instance.
  • Fixed: The protocol is always set to TCP if the user modifies a rule from the notification dialog and the protocol is set to ANY.
  • Fixed: The Manage Rules window remains always on top after creating a new rule from the options available on the right panel named "Create new rule". The same behavior was also identified and fixed for the Main Panel window.
  • Fixed: After a clean installation the default notification level is set to Low
  • level instead of Disabled level.
  • New: The log of the installation/update can be now viewed if the user presses
  • the F12 key when the installation/update is complete (the EXIT button appears).

New in Windows Firewall Control 4.0.8.4 (Mar 15, 2014)

  • Fixed: Disabling the logging from the uninstall dialog applies only for the blocked connections. The allowed connections are still logged after WFC uninstallation.
  • Fixed: The icon does not appear in the system tray area if the connection to the
  • service can not be established.
  • Fixed: When creating a rule without customizing it from "Connections Log" or "New Rules Wizard" the direction of a rule that is set in the Main Panel is not applied correctly. Only outbound rules are created.
  • Fixed: The icon does not appear in the system tray area at program startup if the user has defined a custom notification sound.
  • Improved: The logging was updated to identify more easily the problems that may appear during the program execution.

New in Windows Firewall Control 4.0.8.2 (Mar 11, 2014)

  • New: From the Connections Log window, the user can now change which connections should be logged by Windows Firewall: all, allowed, blocked, none.
  • Fixed: The path of programs are not correct recognized in the notification dialog
  • for files located on drives A:\ and B:\.
  • Fixed: Modifying a rule from TCP or UDP protocols to another protocol fails if the
  • original rule has local ports or remote ports defined.
  • Fixed: The Rules Panel windows is closed when the Lock dialog is closed. This
  • should happen only if the user locks the program. If the user clicks on the Cancel button then the Rules Panel should stay open.
  • Improved: Removed the topmost flag for the Main Panel window. Now it will not be displayed anymore on top of other windows and will have the normal behavior.
  • Improved: Starting the program at end of the installation/update is now optional.
  • Improved: The user can now choose if the notification dialog should be displayed on top of other windows or to behave normally. There is a new checkbox in the Notifications tab for this purpose.

New in Windows Firewall Control 4.0.8.0 (Feb 21, 2014)

  • New: The program icons were changed with more appropriate new icons.
  • New: When the program is in locked state, a different icon will be displayed in the system tray to inform the user about the active locked state.
  • New: The installer can detect if a 3rd party firewall is installed and will inform the user about this at installation time.
  • New: A new submenu was added in the context menu of Manage Rules window which can be used to import/export/restore firewall rules. These are the same actions possible from the Rules tab in Main Panel.
  • New: From the notification dialog, the user can now click on the Source address to display additional info about the local port that is used. The default browser will open and will display the corresponding page from the Port Authority Database from grc.com.
  • Improved: The text with "Customize this rule..." from the notification dialog will change now when the rule is in editing mode.
  • Fixed: Rules Panel context menu item from the system tray icon remains disabled after the user unlocks the program.

New in Windows Firewall Control 4.0.7.2 (Feb 15, 2014)

  • Fixed: The Location check boxes and Direction radio buttons are set only for the first notification from the notification dialog. Any other notifications from the queue don't have these properties set.
  • Improved: When exporting a full or a partial policy, the default path is always the root folder. Now, the last path used is saved and reused on opening the file browser dialog.
  • Improved: Added better exception handling.

New in Windows Firewall Control 4.0.7.0 (Feb 6, 2014)

  • New: From the notification dialog the user can now set the Location and the
  • Direction of the new rule that will be created.
  • New: "Customize and allow..." and "Customize and block..." operations are now
  • available also in the New Rules Wizard view.
  • Fixed: When the Low notification level is used, the rules that are automatically
  • created for digitally signed programs have by default set the Local Addresses property. This property should be empty.
  • Fixed: The dialog for "Customize and allow..." and "Customize and block..." does not open in the Connections Log view.
  • Fixed: The InterfaceTypes property of a rule is not saved in the partial policy
  • files and this info is missing after an import of a partial policy file.

New in Windows Firewall Control 4.0.6.2 (Jan 20, 2014)

  • New: Added the possibility to set the "Interface types" for a rule, which specifies for which network interfaces the rule applies. The new field is available in the Manage Rules columns. If the column does not appear, it is probably hidden. Just set the visibility for it from the header context menu
  • Fixed: Loopback notifications for svchost.exe and System are displayed when High notification level is used but there is no network connection
  • Fixed: When all Columns are displayed in the Manage Rules window, the order and size for the last column is not restored when the user opens again this view
  • Improved: The Manage Rules window is launched also when the user clicks on the Rules Panel menu item instead of only from the Manage Rules menu item

New in Windows Firewall Control 4.0.6.0 (Dec 21, 2013)

  • New: Added the possibility to view "Recently Allowed Connections". The old
  • "Recently Blocked" was changed to include the new view and a new ComboBox was added
  • to select what to display.
  • New: The "Manage Rules" menu item from the system tray context menu was renamed to
  • "Rules Panel" which has now 3 submenus: Manage Rules, Connections Log, New Rules Wizard.
  • New: Added support to "Customize and block..." in Connections Log.

New in Windows Firewall Control 4.0.4.6 (Dec 16, 2013)

  • Fixed: The full program path is not displayed in the notification dialog when the
  • user hovers the moue over the icon of the program that was blocked.
  • Fixed: When creating a new rule from Shell Integration the result dialog indicates that a rule can't be created even if it is created.
  • Fixed: When creating a rule From Shell Extension, if the Manage Rules window is
  • open, the rules list does not refresh automatically.

New in Windows Firewall Control 4.0.4.4 (Dec 13, 2013)

  • Fixed: Duplicate notifications are displayed even if there is a a block rule set
  • to a specific protocol but custom remote ports or remote addresses are not defined.
  • Fixed: The option regarding the incoming connections, named "Block all connections including apps on the list of allowed apps", which is accessible only from WFwAS, resets to "Block all connections to apps that are not on the list of allowed apps" when the user changes the Profiles in Windows Firewall Control.
  • Fixed: When creating a rule through Shell Integration, the result dialog is not
  • displayed in the bottom right corner of the screen.
  • Fixed: When creating a rule through Shell Integration, the validation does not work and if the user chooses the same file multiple times, multiple rules are created. Now, if a rule was created through Shell Integration, the user can not create duplicates through this mechanism.
  • Improved: New logging points were added in the software for debugging purposes.
  • Improved: Code cleanup. Some parts of the code were simplified to improve the
  • performance.

New in Windows Firewall Control 4.0.4.2 (Nov 29, 2013)

  • Improved: It is now possible to do multiple tasks at once in Manage Rules window.
  • While the data is loading in Recently Blocked view, the user can also search for executable files in New Rules Wizard and he can also create new rules in Manage Rules view. In the previous versions, while a long task was running the other actions were disabled. Now, multiple long running tasks can be executed in the same time.
  • Improved: The partial policy files have now the extension *.wpw. This will help the user to identify more easily what kind of file he will import.
  • Fixed: When creating a new rule from the Notification dialog, the newly created rule is created for "All" location even if in Control Panel the user defines something else, for example only Domain.
  • Fixed: When using Recently Blocked window, after you create a new rule it is not possible to create a second rule until you don't refresh again the list.
  • Fixed: When using "New Rules Wizard", after the user browses for the folder where to search for executable files, the search does not start automatically.
  • Fixed: The result dialog indicates a successful action after the user chooses to import a policy file, even if the file was not valid and nothing changed.

New in Windows Firewall Control 4.0.4.0 (Nov 28, 2013)

  • New: It is now posible to export only partial policy files that include only the rules selected by the user. Select some rules in Manage Rules window and use the context menu on the selection. You will see a new entry named "Export selected rules"
  • When you will import this file, as usual, only the exported rules will be imported while the existing rules will remain unchanged
  • Fixed: The new user settings are not saved until program restart if the user uses the "-reset" parameter to clean any stored user settings
  • Fixed: When the user checks if a new update is available, the GUI is becomes unresponsive. A new busy indicator was added to show that something is going on
  • Fixed: When restoring the default set of rules or importing the rules from a file the profile is not updated correctly in the Profiles tab
  • Fixed: The rules list does not refresh correctly if Manage Rules window is opened
  • and the user: restores the recommended rules, duplicates multiple rules at a time creates new rules for multiple files at a time by browsing them
  • Fixed: When loading the rules, sometimes, the reloading of the rules fails because multiple rules have the same internal hash. Switched to Guid instead of Hash

New in Windows Firewall Control 4.0.3.0 (Nov 7, 2013)

  • New: Show Password checkbox has been added to the lock dialog.
  • New: The notifications are now disabled even if the program is locked. The
  • notification dialog will be disabled but a large lock icon will be visible to the
  • user to unlock the program. While locked, any other actions on the notification
  • dialog are disabled.
  • Updated: The WhoIs server was changed to who.is because it has better results for IPv6 addresses. With the old networktools.nl server, only the IPv4 were resolved correctly.

New in Windows Firewall Control 4.0.2.8 (Oct 19, 2013)

  • New: Added a new "Reset sorting" menu item in the data grid header context menu for Manage Rules window. This will reset aany sorting on any column and will restore the default state without any sorting active.
  • Updated: The command parameters have been updated. Supported parameters are:
  • "-r" or "-reset" - Clears the user settings (window size, location, state, columns
  • order and visibility, filters applied in Manage Rules and the color of the GUI)
  • "-cp" - Launches the Control Panel window.
  • "-mr" - Launches the Manage Rules window.
  • For a quick operation you can call the Run dialog and simply execute: wfc -mr
  • Fixed: Manage Rules window sometimes does not restore properly to the last state if the the window was closed in Maximized state.
  • Fixed: The validation rules for IPv6 addresses were updated and the rules that contain IPv6 addresses as remote addresses or local addresses will be valid when a rule is modified and contains IPv6 parameters.

New in Windows Firewall Control 4.0.2.4 (Oct 11, 2013)

  • Fixed: Control Panel window crashes on open if the DPI is different than the
  • default value.
  • Updated: Properties dialog from where a user can modify a rule is now resizable.
  • Also, the position and state is saved on closing.

New in Windows Firewall Control 4.0.2.2 (Oct 10, 2013)

  • New: Added Local Addresses field in Manage Rules window. Useful for scenarios in which exist multiple network adapters on the same machine.
  • Updated: The Properties dialog from where a rule can be modified was changed and rearranged into only one tab to see all properties in the same place.
  • Updated: The recommended rule for Windows Update does work anymore because Windows Update uses a different service for checking for updates. It was updated with a generic rule for svchost.exe that will allow Windows Update.
  • Fixed: Notification dialog is displayed out of screen if it is closed in a secondary screen and the screen is not connected anymore. Now, if a window or dialog from WFC contains at least one pixel out of the active screens, the default location will be restored. This applies to all WFC windows and dialogs.
  • Removed: The self signed certificate was removed. Because of this certificate, a lot of connections were generated by the operating system to VeriSign and Microsoft servers in the name of wfc.exe and wfcs.exe. The connections were made to check the validity of the certificate by the operating system not by WFC, but a lot of users were concerned about WFC connection attempts which was not the real case.

New in Windows Firewall Control 4.0.2.0 (Sep 18, 2013)

  • New: Description column was added in the Manage Rules data grid and Local Addresses
  • column into the Recently Blocked data grid. These two are initially hidden and must
  • be enabled from the data grid header context menu.
  • New: A new checkbox was added in the Uninstall dialog to let the user choose if he
  • wants to disable Windows Firewall logging at uninstallation.
  • New: A new confirmation dialog was added when the user presses on the Clear log
  • button in Recently Blocked window.
  • New: Columns size is now saved when the user closes Manage Rules window and then
  • reloaded at reopening of the view. This applies to Manage Rules and Recently Blocked.
  • Fixed: Temporary Rules that have an expiry time are deleted imediatelly after they
  • are created on non en-US versions of Windows.
  • Fixed: "WFC - Windows Store (svchost.exe)" rule does not work as expected when the
  • service is set to WSService. The rule was updated to properly allow the connections to
  • Windows Store on Windows 8 machines.
  • Fixed: Notifications for "System" are displayed even if there is a block rule that
  • denies this. "System" is not included in the rules defined for All programs.
  • Removed: Registry Editor and Command Prompt were removed from the Tools tab. The CMD
  • window that was started from that shortcut had no scrolling bar so if the user executed
  • a command with a large output, the window can't be scrolled up to see the results.

New in Windows Firewall Control 4.0.1.2 (Jul 30, 2013)

  • Fixed: Even if there is no problem, System.IO.FileNotFoundException appears in WFC log at program startup when no temporary rules are found.
  • Fixed: The Installation ID is empty on machines where the first partition is hidden, making impossible to activate the program.
  • Updated: New logging entries were added in the program for debugging purposes.

New in Windows Firewall Control 4.0.1.1 (Jul 24, 2013)

  • Fixed: The Installation ID can't be read if C:\ partition is not a fixed drive. This happens for example when the user has an SD card inserted during the Windows installation and the Windows partition is then D:\ drive.
  • Fixed: The program crashes if the user creates a rule for a program launched from a network location and the icon of the application can't be read remotely.
  • Updated: Windows Firewall logging remains enabled even if when the user uninstalls Windows Firewall Control.
  • Updated: Added new logging points in the program, useful for debugging purposes.

New in Windows Firewall Control 4.0.1.0 (Jul 12, 2013)

  • New: A new context menu was added to the "T" allow button in the Notification dialog which allows the rule temporarily. Temporary rules support now auto deletion in 1 hour, 5 minutes or 1 minute.
  • New: The notification sound will play when the user presses on the corresponding radio button. This is a preview of the sound. If you don't hear any sound when setting a custom notification wav file, it may be possible that the file to be incompatible or too short.
  • Updated: In the notification dialog left click on the program icon copies the full path to the clipboard, right click copies the filename only, and the Open file location was moved back on the program name mouse click.
  • Fixed: Create new automatic rule from "Recently Blocked" window does not work when the user chooses to create a rule from an inbound connection from the list.

New in Windows Firewall Control 4.0.0.8 (Jul 10, 2013)

  • New: Updated the filters in Recently Blocked window to be able to display also
  • recently blocked inbound connections.
  • New: Added a new override checkbox in the Properties dialog of a rule which can disable temporarily the validation for the remote IP addresses field. This is useful when the validation for IPv6 can't be validated by the WFC internal rules but the input is correct.
  • Updated: The CheckBox template was changed to RadiButton template for the "Play default sound" and "Play custom sound" options in the Notifications tab.
  • Updated: Reduced the size of the installer by 20%

New in Windows Firewall Control 4.0.0.6 (Jun 25, 2013)

  • New: When creating a new rule from the Recently Blocked connections datagrid, the user can customize the rule before creating it. Just use double click on a row or the context menu.
  • Updated: The search box text box from Manage Rules has now a clear button in it.
  • Updated: Manage Rules datagrid supports now Ctrl+Home and Ctrl+End key combinations to quick scroll to top or bottom.
  • Updated: The text boxes length was increased from 254 to 2048 characters.
  • Updated: The radio buttons template was reverted from the checkbox template.
  • Fixed: The Location is not set correctly on the duplicated rule when the user creates a duplicate rule from the context menu in Manage Rules datagrid.
  • Removed: Due to the duplicate notifications that have been reported, the validation for the Locations was removed.

New in Windows Firewall Control 4.0.0.4 (Jun 12, 2013)

  • New: Added the possibility to copy the filename in the clipboard when the user clicks on the filename in a notification. Open file location was moved to the program icon, so pressing on the program icon will open the file location folder.
  • New: When the user recreates the recommended rules there is no result dialog to inform the user if the action was completed or not. Now, a new confirmation is displayed.
  • Updated: WFC recommended rules for Windows Store in Windows 8 was updated.
  • Fixed: A new notification is not displayed if the Location is changed and there is a rule which blocks other Locations. For example, if a browser is allowed for Domain location only and the user switches to Public location, then the browser is blocked without displaying a new notification.
  • Fixed: The default rule for the WFC updater is not the correct one on a clean install, only when the user chooses to recreate WFC recommended rules from the Rules tab.
  • Fixed: When exporting a policy file it does not overwrite a file with the same name even if the confirmation dialog says that the new file was successfully saved.
  • Fixed: When importing a policy file the profile is switched to Low Filtering and the notifications are set to disabled. These two settings are left now like they were before the import.
  • Fixed: Update dialog result does not show in the center of the Control Panel
  • window if Manage Rules window is opened.

New in Windows Firewall Control 4.0.0.3 (May 25, 2013)

  • Fixed: Removed the lag that appears when setting a new profile from Control Panel
  • window. However, the profile is fully changed when the icon is updated.
  • Fixed: The service fails to start if another WCF service uses localhost as endpoint
  • making the service impossible to start.
  • Fixed: The GUI (wfc.exe) crashes if the service is not available and it can't
  • connect in the default 30 seconds timeout.
  • Fixed: "Click here to activate" button remains active in Notifications tab even if
  • the program is in locked state.
  • Fixed: "Windows Firewall Control 4" button gets disabled when the program is in
  • locked state even if it does not affect any setting of the program.
  • Fixed: The default rule for the WFC updater was changed to the new hosting server.

New in Windows Firewall Control 4.0.0.2 (May 23, 2013)

  • New: Added the possibility to change the default black theme to any color. Just go to the Options tab and choose your preferred color.
  • New: Added a new column for Process ID in Recently Blocked window.
  • Fixed: The notification sound does not play on the first show of a notification dialog.
  • Fixed: The unlock does not work as it should.

New in Windows Firewall Control 4.0.0.1 (May 23, 2013)

  • New: Added the possibility to change the default black theme to any color. Just
  • go to the Options tab and and choose your preffered color.
  • New: Added a new column for Process ID in Recently Blocked window.
  • Fixed: The notification sound does not play on the first show of a notification
  • dialog.

New in Windows Firewall Control 4.0.0.0 (May 20, 2013)

  • 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 syncronized 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.

New in Windows Firewall Control 3.9.1.8 (Apr 8, 2013)

  • Fixed: RPC-EPMap predefined port value is not recognized when editing a rule,
  • making the rule unavailable for editing.
  • Fixed: Various logic improvements for faster loading of the program.

New in Windows Firewall Control 3.9.1.6 (Apr 3, 2013)

  • Fixed: Profiles and Manage Rules context menu items are enabled in the tray icon after restart of the program, even if the program is locked with a password. This happens if the user uses first the right click on the tray icon.
  • Fixed: The program crashes if the user presses on the "Check this file" button in Recently Blocked view on a connection generated by "System".
  • Fixed: "Please use the refresh button" message appears in Manage Rules if the user switches from a data grid without items to a datagrid with items.
  • Fixed: "Create new rule" tab buttons remain disabled until the user changes the selection again in Recently Blocked window, after the user creates a new rule.

New in Windows Firewall Control 3.9.1.4 (Mar 26, 2013)

  • New: Added support for selecting IGMP, IPv6 and GRE protocols in Properties dialog when a rule is configured.
  • Improved: Added the possibility to recreate the system recommended rules without reinstalling the program. On the Policy tab, press on the Restore Default text.
  • Fixed: If the user unchecks "Disable the ability of other..." checkbox, creates a rule from WFwAS, and then enables back this feature, the rule from WFwAS is deleted, even if it was created while this feature was disabled.
  • Fixed: The layout of Location items was changed in Properties dialog of a rule to fit long translation strings for some languages.

New in Windows Firewall Control 3.9.1.2 (Mar 21, 2013)

  • Fixed: Duplicate notifications are displayed if the user creates a block rule which contains one or more remote IPv4 ranges.
  • Fixed: Duplicate notifications are displayed if the user defines a remote port range for a block rule.
  • Fixed: Some remote IPv6 variations are not properly validated in editing rule window.
  • Now it is possible to set something like: fe80::/64, 2001::/128, etc.
  • Improved: Various logic improvements.

New in Windows Firewall Control 3.9.1.0 (Mar 13, 2013)

  • New: An Advanced options tab for the Rules tab was added. The user can now choose to which location applies a newly created rule: Domain, Private, Public or any combination of these three.
  • Improved: Reduced the assembly size with 10% by removing obsolete resources.
  • Improved: Various small code optimizations were made to increase the speed.
  • Improved: The Profiles column from Manage Rules window was renamed to Location to avoid confusions with the profiles used in the Profiles tab of the program.
  • Improved: New logging items were added in order to find problems that may appear on some computers.
  • Fixed: Manage Rules window crashes the program on loading if the operating
  • system is not installed on the C:\ drive.
  • Fixed: The program can't Exit if the service is not found and can't be started.
  • Fixed: The activation system was changed. The updater can't update the activation status anymore due to incompatibility between the activation systems. If you use the updater, the program must be activated again with a new activation code based on the new activation scheme. Please log in into your registered user account to get a new activation code based on the new activation scheme.

New in Windows Firewall Control 3.9.0.6 (Mar 10, 2013)

  • Fixed: Program crashes when the user browses for a file to create a new rule.
  • Fixed: Notifications system gets disabled when the user uninstalls the program
  • and chooses to keep current settings.

New in Windows Firewall Control 3.9.0.5 (Mar 8, 2013)

  • New: The notification window position is now saved on window closing and restored on the next reopening.
  • Fixed: Program crashes if the user chooses to "Open file location" in Manage Rules window for a connection generated by System.
  • Fixed: When the Rules tab is set to create "Outbound and inbound rules", the
  • description of the inbound rule contains "Outbound" instead of "Inbound".
  • Improved: The service loading time was reduced with 90% by using a different mechanism of reading of the initial set of data.
  • Improved: The program can now reconnect to the service in case the communication channel gets in faulted state, without needing to restart the program.
  • Improved: Various parts of the code were improved to increase the execution speed of the program.

New in Windows Firewall Control 3.9.0.3 (Feb 19, 2013)

  • Fixed: Columns visibility in Manage Rules is not restored properly. If the user hides some columns, on reopening they appear all, including the hidden ones
  • Improved: When searching for invalid rules or for specific rules in Manage Rules window, only the results will be displayed instead of highlighting them
  • Improved: The startup time of the application was reduced due to refactoring of the code and alternative way that initializes the program
  • Improved: Some unused functionality which is not needed anymore was removed and the code was improved in several parts by including more speedful code

New in Windows Firewall Control 3.9.0.2 (Feb 15, 2013)

  • Fixed: User settings are not persisted if the user uses the updater to update to a new version: Manage Rules position, columns order and visibility, etc.
  • Fixed: The recommended rules from the previous version prevented Windows Update to check for new updates.
  • Fixed: When the user checks for updates, the download complete message appears before finishing the download and if the user tries to execute the file, it is still incomplete.
  • Fixed: The result dialog after creating a new rule from the Control Panel is
  • displayed randomly on the screen instead of the Control Panel window.
  • Improved: When creating a new rule, the file name is displayed in front of the name from the assembly. They were switched for a better readability.

New in Windows Firewall Control 3.9.0.1 (Feb 10, 2013)

  • Fixed: The F5 message doesn't display/hide like it should in Manage Rules window.
  • Fixed: The program crashes on exit if the user has not set any global hokey.
  • Fixed: Removed some unneeded dependencies.
  • Updated: By default, at installation the global hotkeys are not set anymore. The
  • user has to set them manually.

New in Windows Firewall Control 3.8.2.2 (Jan 27, 2013)

  • Updated: The notification dialog was updated to not steal the focus. It will be
  • still displayed on top of other windows, but if you use a text editor or other
  • program you will not be interrupted anymore.
  • New: The columns visibility in Manage Rules can now be set from the a context menu
  • placed on the columns header.
  • New: The order and the visibility of the columns in Manage Rules window will be
  • saved on window closing and automatically restored on window loading.
  • Improved: Removed some obsolete checks from the notifications system to improve the
  • speed of the notifications.
  • Fixed: The Akamai rule was updated to avoid conflicts with Windows Update.
  • Removed: The full access for all users in the installation folder was removed.

New in Windows Firewall Control 3.8.2.1 (Jan 21, 2013)

  • Fixed: When pressing on the search button in the "Search for executable files..." the application crashes.
  • Updated: Small layout fixes to improve the readability of the translated strings from the language files.

New in Windows Firewall Control 3.8.2.0 (Jan 19, 2013)

  • Fixed: Up to 20 seconds delay can occur when showing notifications, because of the checking of the digital signature. This function was removed from the service and it will be done in a different thread directly in the notification dialog after displaying it. Finally, notifications without major delays.
  • Fixed: Switching a rule from Inbound to Outbound from the rule properties window doesn't work.
  • Fixed: Notifications for svchost.exe and System appear after returning from sleep state even if there are rules that block all connections for them.
  • New: Added new translated strings in the program. The new language files are
  • available for download on the website.

New in Windows Firewall Control 3.8.1.1 (Jan 14, 2013)

  • New: Added support to new strings to be translated, especially for the Activation
  • process.
  • Fixed: The language file is not loaded if the program is started from the shortcut because the startup folder is not the same as the program folder. This was fixed.
  • Fixed: On uninstallation, after the user presses on the Uninstall button, the
  • checkboxes remain enabled and the user can change the options and can break the uninstall process.

New in Windows Firewall Control 3.8.1.0 (Jan 13, 2013)

  • New: Added multiple languages support. Visit the following page to find more
  • about the new feature: http://binisoft.org/wfc.php
  • Fixed: "Disable the ability of other programs to add firewall rules" doesn't
  • work until the user opens the first time the main window of the program.
  • Fixed: Locking feature didn't work in the previous version.

New in Windows Firewall Control 3.8.0.4 (Dec 24, 2012)

  • Improved: The singleton pattern was changed and the program can be now executed in multiple instances on different user accounts. This resolves the problem with the Fast User Switching and Remote Desktop Connection.
  • Improved: The size of the program was reduced (20%) and the internal encryption algorithm was also changed to improve the execution speed of the program.
  • Improved: The search algorithm of executable files was improved to increase the searching speed of executable files in a folder.
  • Fixed: A notification dialog will close automatically if it is displayed under
  • another notification dialog and the timer goes to 0. From now on, if the user hovers the mouse on a notification dialog, the time out will be removed for all the active notifications.
  • Fixed: Some binding problems and a few possible NullReferenceException were fixed to increase the execution speed of the program.

New in Windows Firewall Control 3.8.0.2 (Dec 19, 2012)

  • New: High Filtering profile was updated to cut off all the inbound connections too. Now, when switching to High Filtering profile, all inbound and outbound connections will be blocked, no matter what rules are defined. All connections are blocked.
  • Fixed: The rules created automatically by High Filtering profile can be duplicated or modified if the user uses the Enter key.
  • Fixed: Cleaned up some obsolete code.

New in Windows Firewall Control 3.8.0.1 (Dec 18, 2012)

  • New: Added support to check the program file on VirusTotal from the notification dialog. This will not upload the file. It will check the results for the same file based on the SHA256 hash of the file.
  • Fixed: The current selection will moves on the next row in Manage Rules if the user presses on the Enter key.
  • Fixed: PageUp and PageDown don't work in Manage Rules on some scenarios.
  • Fixed: Validation fails and the save of a rule doesn't work when a rule is edited and the user has empty spaces in the input text boxes.

New in Windows Firewall Control 3.8.0.0 (Dec 13, 2012)

  • New: Added support to display icons in the Manage Rules datagrid. This option can be toggled by using the new checkbox from the column name.
  • New: Added support to display icons in "Create new rules from..." window, to improve the readability.
  • New: Added new action on the tooltip for the remote IP address in the notification window. Now, the user can check the IP through ipvoid.com with one click.
  • New: The tooltips have a mouse image with the possible mouse gestures available.
  • Fixed: The user can change the profile from the notify icon context menu even if the program is locked with a password.
  • Improved: The responsiveness of the notifications was improved by refactoring the code.
  • Improved: A lot of code was changed to improve the speed of the program, so this is a major update regarding the logic of the program.

New in Windows Firewall Control 3.7.4.0 (Nov 24, 2012)

  • New: Added new menu item in the context menu of a rule to allow rule duplication.
  • Multiple rules duplication is supported.
  • New: Added support for creating a temporary block rule from the notification dialog. In this way, a new notification will not be displayed for the same program until the user will restart WFC and the list with temporary rules will be cleared again.
  • New: Added support for the following keywords when the user modifies the remote address of a rule in Manage Rules: "LocalSubnet", "DefaultGateway", "DNS", "DHCP", "WINS".
  • Updated: When the user filters the rules in Manage Rules, the rules that are in the Temporary Rules group are considered from this version user created rules.

New in Windows Firewall Control 3.7.3.0 (Nov 17, 2012)

  • New: Added support for creating a temporary rule from the notification dialog with one single mouse click.
  • New: Profiles menu in the context menu of the system tray icon.
  • New: Added support for creating and modyfing rules for *.scr file extension. Some screen savers connect to the Internet and display various info.
  • Fixed: The profile syncronization is lost if the user modifies the profile from Windows Firewall or from other source. The syncronization is done from this version on every mouse click on the notify icon.
  • Fixed: The installer crashes if it is executed with limited rights on a computer where WFC was not previous installed.

New in Windows Firewall Control 3.7.2.0 (Nov 13, 2012)

  • New: The installer and the updater were rewritten to include a logging feature to
  • track down the possible errors that may occur during the installation or the update.
  • Fixed: The installer can't continue if it can't save the backup policy file restore.dat. This file is used at uninstallation to restore the previous set of rules if the user chooses to revert to the state beforehand installing the program.
  • Fixed: The uninstaller of the program does not work if the Windows Firewall
  • Control Service is not available or if the uninstall key from Windows Registry was deleted accidentally.
  • Fixed: Shell Integration state is recognized properly.
  • Fixed: Tray icon is not properly set after importing a policy if the previous
  • profile was not Low Filtering.
  • Fixed: Some default inbound rules from can't be modified because they use special keywords instead of port numbers as local ports. Example: RPC, Teredo, etc.
  • Fixed: The program crashes on Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2012 if the user clicks on the Export Policy button because the GUI is not available. This happens if the program has the option "Disable visual themes" checked in the Compatibility tab.

New in Windows Firewall Control 3.7.1.0 (Nov 6, 2012)

  • New: Added support for Fast User Switching. This applies to the first login of a user. If the users switches back to another logged user, the program must be started manually. Use the desktop shortcut or use Ctrl+R, type "wfc" and press Enter key.
  • New: Added support for creating and editing rules for *.dll files.
  • New: Added support for launching the GUI with command line parameters. Useful for systems where the taskbar and system tray are not available. Use "wfc.exe -cp" to start the Control Panel or "wfc.exe -mr" to launch the Manage Rules window.
  • New: Added support to modify the timeout of a notification or even to disable the timeout.
  • New: Added support to play a custom sound when a new notification is generated. Only PCM wav files are supported.
  • New: The Display and Filter combo boxes from Manage Rules don't save the values when the window is closed.
  • Fixed: When modifying a rule the service name is not recognized in the Services combo box.
  • Fixed: Various GUI fixes and few improvements in the Windows service component.

New in Windows Firewall Control 3.7.0.4 (Oct 16, 2012)

  • New: Shortcut in the application paths. You can call Run and simply execute "wfc".
  • Fixed: When setting the profile to High Filtering and reopening the main WFC window, the profile slider does not recognize the new profile.
  • Fixed: The uninstaller can't delete wfc.exe from the installation folder. If the program is installed in the default suggested folder, the entire folder will be deleted, otherwise only the executable file will be deleted at uninstallation.
  • Fixed: "Check if a new version is available" does not work for unregistered users.
  • Updated: From this version, the installer will copy the file wfc.exe in the installation folder instead of moving it. In this way the original file is kept also in the source folder. Also, the file can be freely renamed from this version. The file that will be installed it will still be wfc.exe but the user can have a copy renamed, for example wfc3.7.0.4.exe, in another folder.

New in Windows Firewall Control 3.7.0.3 (Oct 3, 2012)

  • Fixed: A second notification can not be displayed for the a program for the same
  • port if a rule that allow this port already exists.
  • Fixed: Context menu can be opened in Manage Rules window even if a rule is not
  • selected.
  • Fixed: The height of the description text box for a rule in the Rule Properties
  • window, does not occupy all the available space.
  • Updated: The error validation template has been changed for the text boxes.

New in Windows Firewall Control 3.7.0.2 (Sep 29, 2012)

  • Fixed: Start with Windows does not work because of the wrong path in the shortcut.
  • Fixed: Main Window fails to display properly if the DPI is changed. This happens because the window saves the size. When reloading on a different DPI setting this size setting is obsolete and should be reset.
  • Improved: The CPU usage on the Windows service was reduced by disabling the read of system events when profile is not set to Medium Filtering.

New in Windows Firewall Control 3.7.0.1 (Sep 29, 2012)

  • Fixed: Profile slider is set to "No Filtering" on some situations even if the profile is set properly. This occurs on the reopen of the Main Window.
  • Fixed: In some situations the same notification may be displayed for multiple times for the same blocked connection.
  • Fixed: User can right click on the columns headers in Manage Rules and the rule context menu appears. The context menu should not be displayed for the columm header.
  • Fixed: Manage Rules does not close on middle mouse button click like other windows do. Now every window can be closed by pressing on the scroll wheel.
  • Fixed: Notifications not showing in some scenarios on Windows Vista.
  • New: Added support to create new rules for *.bin and *.setup files. In the past the only accepted extension was *.exe. Some programs use *.bin file or *.setup file extensions for their updaters.
  • New: Main Window can save and restore the placement on the desktop.
  • New: Removed dependency to "TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper" service for the notification system.
  • From this version, Learning Mode will work properly even if this service is disabled.

New in Windows Firewall Control 3.7.0.0 (Sep 24, 2012)

  • New: Notification sound option in the Options tab. This will generate a sound when a new notification is generated and this option is enabled. Useful for Metro applications because notifications are displayed on the desktop.
  • New: The GUI was redesigned to use standard window chrome instead of the skinned one.
  • It seems that the fading effects, the custom windows that use transparency effects, the custom title bars, all the graphical enhancements, consume a lot of CPU and memory and make the program unresponsive on older systems.
  • New: Importing and exporting the policy will use *.wfw files, like the Windows Firewall uses, instead of compressed *.wfc files.
  • Improved: The scrolling in Manage Rules is now smoother by using proper virtualizing options.
  • Improved: Memory usage was improved by 30%. All windows are recycled and the memory usage drops after GC.
  • Improved: Various visual enhancements that offers a better view of the current state of the program.

New in Windows Firewall Control 3.6.0.1 (Sep 24, 2012)

  • Improved: Memory consumption was reduced by removing singleton pattern from "Manage Rules" window. In this way the resources that are used by this view are released on window close.
  • This view is recreated every time but it is also disposed every time.
  • Improved: Memory consumption was reduced due to programatically calls to Garbage Collector in some critical points of the program's logic. This allows a better memory management.
  • New: The windows that support resizing can now be resized from the right and bottom borders. In the previous versions the only way to resize these windows was the bottom-right corner.
  • New: Minimize buttons were added to "Manage Rules" and "Create new rules mfrom..." windows.
  • Fixed: "Manage Rules" does not close and does not disappear from taskbar if it is maximized.
  • Fixed: The position and size of "Manage Rules" window are not saved properly on some systems.
  • Fixed: Windows of WFC appear without names in Task Manager.
  • Removed: The dependency to Workstation service was removed. The notifications system works from now on without needing of this service to be enabled. "DNS Client" and "TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper" are still required to resolve the IP and ports.
  • Removed: The fade in and fade out effects were removed from "Manage Rules" to improve the loading time.

New in Windows Firewall Control 3.6.0.0 (Sep 24, 2012)

  • New: The default font used in the application was changed from Segoe to MS Sans Serif. The Segoe font was causing display errors on Windows versions that use asian fonts.
  • Updated: "Create new rules from..." where the user can search in a specific folder for executable files is now available for all users.
  • Updated: The user interface was reworked to display properly with the new font on all DPI settings.

New in Windows Firewall Control 3.5.0.6 (Sep 24, 2012)

  • New: Learning Mode has now 4 modes.
  • High - Corresponds to the old Learning Mode enabled + notifications for System and Svchost.exe.
  • Medium - Corresponds to the old Learning Mode enabled
  • Low - This is a new one. Digitally signed applications are allowed silently and
  • notifications are displayed only for unsigned applications.
  • Disabled - all notifications are disabled
  • New: Main window can be closed with ESC key.
  • Fixed: Duplicate notifications can appear when Learning Mode is enabled and PeerBlock or Malwarebytes Anti-Malware are used.
  • Updated: On application exit, the the window position and state is saved for Manage Rules window and restored at restart.
  • Updated: Default size of Manage Rules window was reduced to display properly on lower resolutions. Now, the default size is 600x600. After resizing, the new size will be remembered.
  • Updated: Manage Rules window is displayed again in the taskbar when it is opened.

New in Windows Firewall Control 3.5.0.4 (Sep 24, 2012)

  • New: All windows of the progrm can be closed by pressing the middle mouse button, anywhere, on any window. This can be also achieved with Esc key.
  • New: All textboxes where the user can input data has now a clear field button.
  • Fixed: Notifications are displayed if Learning Mode is enabled and the program is is in locked state. When the program is in locked state, the notifications should not be displayed.
  • Fixed: "Click to allow" and "Click to block" don't work when they are launched from Manage Rules window.
  • Fixed: "Delete" key does not work to remove selected rules from Manage Rules window.
  • Fixed: The program crashes when a different user from another user account tries to start the program while it is already running on another user account. This happens when multiple users are logged in at the same time, when fast user switching feature is used. Instead of crashing, the second instance will display a message to the user.
  • Fixed: Standard user accounts which don't have access permissions to the folder where the program is installed can't start the program until they manually set their rights. This is done now automatically by the installer.
  • Fixed: Manage Rules window can't be opened on a second retry if it was closed with ALT+F4 first time. The same applies to the main window interface.
  • Fixed: Editing Rule window does not close on some systems after Apply button is pressed, even if the changes are saved.
  • Fixed: Starting the uninstall while the program is in locked state shows the
  • uninstaller window. If the program is in locked state, this call should be ignored.

New in Windows Firewall Control 3.5.0.2 (Sep 24, 2012)

  • New: "Create new rules from..." where the user can search in a specific folder
  • for executable files. From the list of executable files that were found, the user can select one or multiple items and then he can create new rules for the selected executable files. The searching is made through all subfolders of the root folder that is specified by the user. This feature is available only for registered users.
  • New: Left click on the program's icon in the system tray will show the main interface like until now. Right click will show "Manage Rules".
  • Updated: The installer was updated to log all possible errors that may occur at installation, leaving the program in an undeterminate state.
  • Improved: Memory consumption was improved by reutilizing of the same window for "Manage Rules" instead of creating a new one everytime when it is displayed.
  • Updated: "Manage Rules" window has now the same look and feel like the other windows of the program.

New in Windows Firewall Control 3.5.0.0 (Sep 24, 2012)

  • New: Lock feature is now available for all users.
  • Fixed: Random errors in wfc.exe at system reboot appeared in the last version because of calls to user32.dll. The usage of user32.dll to handle windows appearance was removed. The base windows of the program were recreated by using pure WPF controls and were rewritten from scratch.
  • Removed: Sticky windows feature introduced in the last version was removed due to generation of crashes on some computers.
  • New: FadeIn and FadeOut effects on the windows are now possible and are active.
  • Updated: The control box of the main window (lock, minimize, close) was rewritten.

New in Windows Firewall Control 3.4.0.0 (Jul 22, 2012)

  • New: Context menu was added in Manage Rules window. It contains items from the right panel. (focus)
  • New: Main window of the program can be moved across the screen. It sticks to the desktop edges and the taskbar, like Winamp does. Also, it won't close itself anymore when the user clicks outside of it.
  • New: Main window contains a new button which minimizes the program to system tray. The same result can be achieved if the user double clicks on the main window.
  • Updated: The notification window was reworked. (see the screenshot).
  • Fixed: Shortcut to Resource Monitor does not work in Windows Vista. (puff-m-d)
  • Fixed: Notifications sometimes appear even if the profile is set to High Filtering, where all notifications should be disabled.
  • Fixed: Some windows can be maximized, when they shouldn't.

New in Windows Firewall Control 3.3.0.0 (May 8, 2012)

  • New: The program has now two components: wfc.exe (GUI) and wfcs.exe (Windows Service)
  • New: Administrative privileges are no more required to run the program because all the tasks are done by the WFCS service under LocalSystem account. Elevated privileges are still required at installation or update
  • New: Multiple rules can have the same name
  • New: Multiple selection in Manage Rules is supported
  • New: Multiple deletion in Manage Rules is supported
  • New: The state of Manage Rules is saved on close and restored on reopen
  • New: Editing of a rule in Manage Rules supports the adding of a description
  • New: A notification alert allows the user to choose a rule name before create the new rule
  • New: Validations of the parameters of a new rule are made before it's creation
  • New: Selection of multiple executable files from the same folder is now allowed. In this way a user can create multiple firewall rules, all together, for programs which require to allow/block multiple executable files
  • New: Learning Mode has a new item: "Enable notifications for system applications". If this one is checked you will receive notifications including for "System" and "svchost.exe". If this remains unchecked you will receive notifications only for other programs
  • Improved: Learning Mode can remember the blocking rules previously created. If a user creates a rule to block something, he won't be notified again for the same connection
  • Improved: Start with Windows does not use Task Scheduler anymore
  • Improved: Lock feature does not rely on GroupPolicy anymore or Windows Registry entries
  • Improved: When searching for invalid rules, if they are found, they are automatically selected
  • Improved: Due to the use of Windows Presentation Foundation, the program has no more problems with the scaling on high DPI settings

New in Windows Firewall Control 3.2.0.2 (May 8, 2012)

  • New: Selection of multiple executable files from the same folder is now permitted. In this way a user can create multiple firewall rules, all together, for programs which require to allow/block multiple executable files.
  • Update: Last browsed folder is now remembered.
  • Fixed: The new executable file runs in 64bit mode on 64bit operating systems. The Task Manager from 64bit operating systems will display correctly "wfc.exe" instead of "wfc.exe *32".
  • Fixed: Lock feature works now on 64bit operating systems.

New in Windows Firewall Control 3.0.0.8 (Oct 21, 2011)

  • New: Notifications of "Learning Mode" display if a file is digitally signed or not, or if the certificate is not valid.
  • šNew: Notifications of "Learning Mode" show the icon of the program notified.
  • New: Notifications of "Learning Mode" alert the user if a program contains recommendations (currently only for the most used internet browsers).
  • New: Added support for "Learning Mode" for Windows installations that are in greek language (el-GR).
  • New: "Allow Program" and "Block Program" options from the program menu, will create a new rule on mouse click on the program window or the shortcut of the desired program. No more browsing for a executable program on your harddisk.
  • New: The setup program include a new check box, "Create rules for system items (recommended)" which will create rules to allow: wfc.exe (Check for Updates feature), svchost.exe (Windows Update, MSE Antivirus, etc) and System (ping.exe, tracert.exe, etc).
  • Improved: The program is executed again in real x64 mode, resolving the problems of the previous version on 64bit systems.
  • Improved: Added a new button on About window, which generates a debug log file on the user desktop and is used to trace the program problems. This replaces the "-debug" parameter.
  • Improved: The loading time at runtime was decreased, also the file size.

New in Windows Firewall Control 2.2 (Mar 1, 2011)

  • Improved memory usage.
  • Reduced the size of the application executable by 50%.
  • Fixed some unhandled exceptions, that were occurring in some usage scenarios.
  • Start with Windows, will run the program with administrative privileges, for all administrator accounts

New in Windows Firewall Control 1.6 (Jun 3, 2010)

  • Added new menu which allows the user to import/export/restore firewall policies.