ADN Posted August 3, 2018 Share Posted August 3, 2018 Good news for existing users of the firewall enhancing software Windows Firewall Control; the most recent update of the application released today unlocked the donation-only functionality for all users of the application. Windows Firewall Control is a security software for Windows that gives users more control over the built-in firewall of the operating system. We reviewed Windows Firewall Control 5.0 and Windows Firewall Control 5.1 recently. Among the many features that the program supports are better options to manage firewall rules, better protection against rule tampering, or a learning mode that keeps user interaction to a minimum. Windows Firewall Control was available as a free version that was feature limited. The core functionality that was missing from the free version was notifications support. Notifications are an essential feature of the application for many users. The application displays a prompt each time a software program or process attempts to make an outbound connection. It is up to the user to allow or block the connection temporarily or permanently, or use built-in options to find out more about the process, port and other information before making a decision. Malwarebytes, makers of the popular anti-malware software of the same name, acquired Windows Firewall Control in June of 2018. It was not the first acquisition of the company in the past three years; it acquired the popular adware remover AdwCleaner in 2016 and Junkware Removal Tool, another program to clean up potentially unwanted applications in 2015. Malwarebytes revealed in the official press release back in June that it had plans to integrate the solution in its core products. The company reassured users of the product that the program would be kept as a standalone program but that it would fly under the Malwarebytes branding in the future. It appears that one outcome of the acquisition is that Malwarebytes dropped the donation-only requirement to use Windows Firewall Control to the fullest. The official release notes of version 5.4.0.0 confirm that: Quote New: The notifications system is now available for free and the program does not require activation anymore. Nothing will change for users who donated in the past. Users who did not donate get access to the same functionality as supporters, however. You may need to select Notifications > Display notifications to enable the feature. It should not be locked anymore so that the functionality can be enabled right after installation of the new version. Windows Firewall Control comes with signed installer and files in the new release, another welcome change that should improve the program's standing with other security tools and Windows' own anti-malware protections. Ghacks.net Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Togijak Posted August 3, 2018 Share Posted August 3, 2018 be aware that you can not update from 5.3.1.0 to 5.4. You have to uninstall the 5.3.1.0 before you are able to install 5.4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sonar Posted August 3, 2018 Share Posted August 3, 2018 Can we import rules from another program? Import from eset EIS. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
debebee Posted August 3, 2018 Share Posted August 3, 2018 It only imports from export savefiles of current and old versions of WFC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
debebee Posted August 3, 2018 Share Posted August 3, 2018 The name of the game now is VERSION REGRESSION.. Lots of newer versions are going nowhere... Shouldn't we be just endorsing the BEST VERSIONS on this FORUM, not the latest and greatest Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spudboy Posted August 3, 2018 Share Posted August 3, 2018 3 hours ago, teodz1984 said: The name of the game now is VERSION REGRESSION.. Lots of newer versions are going nowhere... Shouldn't we be just endorsing the BEST VERSIONS on this FORUM, not the latest and greatest Which imo is what this version is. The best version. It just also happens to be the latest. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Knightmare Posted August 3, 2018 Share Posted August 3, 2018 5 hours ago, Sonar said: Can we import rules from another program? Import from eset EIS. There should be an option when uninstalling the program to keep current settings. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dcs18 Posted August 3, 2018 Share Posted August 3, 2018 7 hours ago, Sonar said: Can we import rules from another program? Import from eset EIS. You can export your rules from the older version of Windows Firewall Control (WFC) and then import those rules after installing the latest version — have not tested this . . . . . since I have no intention of installing this version (it sucks, for me.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spudboy Posted August 3, 2018 Share Posted August 3, 2018 10 minutes ago, dcs18 said: You can export your rules from the older version of Windows Firewall Control (WFC) and then import those rules after installing the latest version — have not tested this . . . . . since I have no intention of installing this version (it sucks, for me.) The importing worked flawlessly for me. As far as the version goes, it's a to each their own kinda thing I guess. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fishbone Posted August 3, 2018 Share Posted August 3, 2018 Why don't Microsoft do this little favor to all of its users? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gone Posted August 4, 2018 Share Posted August 4, 2018 Upgraded and it seems to send telemetry data to malwarebytes , already noises have been going on wilders page. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spudboy Posted August 5, 2018 Share Posted August 5, 2018 On 8/4/2018 at 10:53 AM, gone said: Upgraded and it seems to send telemetry data to malwarebytes , already noises have been going on wilders page. And it's already been said what data is sent, why is it sent, and how to prevent it from being sent if you wish. Non issue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BimBamSmash Posted August 7, 2018 Share Posted August 7, 2018 Free is good... and concerning. Nothing good can be free with no strings attached. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nIGHT Posted August 7, 2018 Share Posted August 7, 2018 On 8/6/2018 at 6:11 AM, spudboy said: And it's already been said what data is sent, why is it sent, and how to prevent it from being sent if you wish. Non issue. Good then. I think this is the current trend. Company release new version with telemetry. Angers users. Users revert to last known version without telemetry. Company reverts to last known version without telemetry and will tell its users they will fix this error. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spudboy Posted August 8, 2018 Share Posted August 8, 2018 11 hours ago, nIGHT said: Good then. I think this is the current trend. Company release new version with telemetry. Angers users. Users revert to last known version without telemetry. Company reverts to last known version without telemetry and will tell its users they will fix this error. Not a chance Malwarebytes will be reverting to a non telemetry version. And if enough users block the telemetry, there will be no further updates to WFC. From the original dev: "The following data is sent once a day to Malwarebytes: program version, os version, os architecture (x64, x86), os language (english, german, etc), filesystem (ntfs, fat32), process run as administrator or not, computer is joined into a domain or not, machine id. No personal data is collected. These are used for statistics data to see how many users of WFC exist. Depending on the number of existing users, WFC will continue to receive new features or not. A reduced number of installations will probably stop the development of WFC, a large number will probably continue the development." There is also this post from a user on the Wilderssecurity forum, which I 100% agree with:"I don't understand why some users are so upset with this new version. I mean, when you visit a website, the website knows your IP address. When you login into your Facebook or Google account they know your habits, your searches, what you like, from where you log in, they even have your pictures, etc. Now, if WFC sends statistics data to see if WFC is installed on Windows 7 or Windows 10, some people freak out. This is unacceptable. Evil. I'm gonna uninstall it. But you still use Windows. How do you think Microsoft knows the market share of Windows 7, Windows 10, etc ? Exactly, the same way." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dcs18 Posted August 9, 2018 Share Posted August 9, 2018 For those who might be interested in using domain-blocking against the Windows Firewall Control (WFC) telemetry:— Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spudboy Posted August 9, 2018 Share Posted August 9, 2018 @Jime234 Can you please elaborate on why my post is confusing to you? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jime234 Posted August 10, 2018 Share Posted August 10, 2018 5 hours ago, spudboy said: @Jime234 Can you please elaborate on why my post is confusing to you? Sir, I was not able to understand whatever you wrote in that post when I read it and I got confused.. I believe my English is not good after all. Thanks. 5 hours ago, spudboy said: @Jime234 Can you please elaborate on why my post is confusing to you? Sir, I was not able to understand whatever you wrote in that post when I read it and I got confused.. I believe my English is not good after all. Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spudboy Posted August 10, 2018 Share Posted August 10, 2018 16 minutes ago, Jime234 said: Sir, I was not able to understand whatever you wrote in that post when I read it and I got confused.. I believe my English is not good after all. Thanks. I was stating that the telemetry is not an issue because it can be blocked if a user chooses to do so. Outside of that, they claim that blocking it will have an impact on wheter or not the program will receive future development. My question to that is, can't they get statistics on the number of users from the amount of downloads it receives, rather than using the telemetry? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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