vistafirewallcontrol.freeforums.org

[RangerXus]

Greetings:

I have written a previous post and followed other posts regarding Windows 7 Firewall Control Free automatically setting programs in \windows\* folders to enableall. Like others, I am concerned about the security vulnerability this creates for users of the free version if a virus or malware installs itself in the \windows\* folder structure. I feel the biggest concern with your approach is that there is no notification to the user that W7FC Free enabled a program to communicate in and our of the computer. Though I realize that you do display a message in the bubble message area that a rule was enabled when this happens, the bubble messages appear and disappear very quickly and are easily missed.

I also understand your wanting to differentiate the free product from the plus product by supporting full firewall control of programs in the \windows\* folders only in the plus version.

As a compromise to meet both your needs and the needs of your users of the free version would the following be a possible solution:

When the free version automatically creates an enableall rule for \windows\* programs, a pop up message window is displayed informing the user that Windows 7 Firewall Control Free has automatically created an enableall rule for the system program xyz.exe in folder c:\windows\... The pop up window would remain until the user clicks OK. Also, the Application Detection Sound would be activated unless the user turned off that option. It would also be great if the Application's Details was included in the message box. This method would at least alert the user that a change has occurred and if the change was unexpected then the necessary information is displayed to research if the computer has been infected with malware.

Additionally you could create a new option in the settings panel called "Display Popup on automatically enabled system programs". If the user checks the box then the above message/sound is displayed and if not checked then the message/sound is not displayed and the program acts like it always has prior to this change.

Thanks for considering my suggestion.

Ranger

[VistaFirewallControl]

Very reasonable. Thank you!

[RangerXus]

Greetings:

I have installed the new 5.0.0.1 W7FC and see that you now display the block window on all "system" programs as a notification that a program in the windows folder structure is accessing the network. Even though the program cannot be disabled (enableall readonly still defaults) I think this is a great change in your product.

Thanks for implementing my suggestion.