Windows 7 ships like previous Windows operating systems with a firewall. The firewall was introduced back then in Windows XP and has since then been constantly improved. The firewall in Windows 7 is a solid software firewall that does a good job of protecting the computer system from attacks. A comparison with commercial software firewalls reveals however that it is still not on pair with those programs especially where usability is concerned. One example would be the configuration of allowed applications in the private and public network space. Most third party firewalls will display a prompt whenever a new application tries to establish a connection. The Firewall in Windows 7 will block that attempt and the user has to configure the firewall rules in the control panel.

The Windows 7 Firewall Control program tries to change that. The software is available as a free version with limited functionality and a pro version that offers all the functionality but comes at a price. The free version is compatibly with 32-bit and 64-bit editions of Windows 7 and Windows Vista.

The main feature of the free version is the application prompt which is shown whenever a program tries to create a connection, be it to a private network or public network.

The user can then decide to disable or enable all traffic or set the application to only allow incoming or outgoing traffic. That’s a more comfortable way of managing new applications in the Windows 7 Firewall. According to the developers the firewall control works independently from the default Windows 7 Firewall.

Windows7FirewallControl is completely based on Windows Filtering Platform (WFP), the security core introduced in Windows Vista and does not install any third party kernel drivers. The Built-in Firewall is based on the same WFP as well. The both products work entirely independently. Windows7FirewallControl uses the Built-in Firewall only once, at the first start to grab the initial settings. Due to complete product independence you can switch the Built-in Firewall ON or OFF at your option.

What this does mean is that the applications that are configured in the Windows 7 Firewall Control are not synced with the Windows 7 Firewall configuration. This could be a problem if the user decides to uninstall the Firewall Control software at a later time.

Windows 7 Firewall Control is available at the developer’s website. The Pro version enables additional features like port forwarding management, group security zone configurations, a security zone editor, desktop integration or additional options.

Windows 7 Firewall Control was posted on Everything Microsoft - Latest Microsoft News, Guides, Reviews & Themes. If you are not reading this content in an email newsletter, it is being used without permission.

Recently there has been quite a bit of turmoil about project “Morro,” as Microsoft announced last November that they would halt development of Live OneCare and replace it with Morro, a new security solution. And now, right before the retirement date of OneCare, Microsoft has announced that it will release a public beta of Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE) on June 23rd (the beta will be updated over the summer), OneCare’s replacement. According to Microsoft, MSE will be a basic, light-weight security solution that has no performance impact on Windows, and to top it off, free. According to a Microsoft representative, MSE will be what we have all waited for:

To address consumer demand for quality anti-malware protection that’s easy to get and doesn’t slow down system performance, Microsoft Security Essentials has been designed as a no-cost anti-malware solution that provides consumers with quality protection from threats including viruses, spyware, rootkits and trojans. It will be offered directly from Microsoft and has been designed to be hassle-free and is focused on delivering quality protection that’s easy to use.

MSE also has very low system requirements:

• For Windows XP, a PC with a CPU with clock speed of at least 500MHz and at least 256MB of RAM
• For Windows Vista and Windows 7, a PC with a CPU with clock speed of at least 1.0GHz and at least 1GB of RAM
• VGA (display): 800×600 or higher
• Storage: 140MB of available hard-disk space
• An Internet connection is required for installation and to download the latest virus and spyware definitions.
• Internet Explorer 6.0 or higher, or Mozilla Firefox 2.0 or higher.

MSE will coincide with the release of Windows 7 later this year (final release date could be as early as September), and will be completely free and available to all users (regardless of architecture) of Windows XP (XP only gets an x86 version), Vista, and Windows 7, assuming that the user passes a Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) check. Unfortunately, MSE will not have a managed firewall, no photo backup capability, and cannot manage a home network; however, it is built on the same trusted framework of other Microsoft products such as OneCare (of course) and Windows Defender, so it appears to be quite promising.

Microsoft decided to create MSE because too many PCs are unprotected. Most OEM PCs only come with a trial version of a protection suite, and the rare full versions usually expire within a year or two. Even worse, most users disable the free solutions provided with Windows, such as Windows Defender and Windows Firewall. MSE has emerged to protect those who are vulnerable, by integrating itself with the other free solutions by Microsoft while adding a degree of real-time protection due to its new feature called Dynamic Signature Service (DSS), which submits unknown viruses to Microsoft’s servers and checks to see if a solution has been provided. Best of all, MSE is quite silent, running entirely in the background, almost never annoying the user with pop-ups, and only scanning during idle times. The only catch is persuading the OEMs to include MSE instead of a third party suite. Considering that these PC manufacturers make money by preloading paid security solutions, it will be interesting to see how Microsoft tries to entice the larger makers to include MSE in their line-ups, or whether Microsoft succeeds whatsoever.

Nonetheless, MSE could prove to be one of the best solutions on the market considering that over 450 million users regularly use Windows Update. Add to that figure the amount of users on the SpyNet service, the new DSS, Windows Defender, and the doomed OneCare, Microsoft has a tremendous amount of telemetry to use in protecting its userbase. In fact, Microsoft plans to publish new signature updates three times a day, along with the core engine every month.

Of course, the real test will be whether or not these massive amounts of virus signatures will provide a highly effective degree of detection; although, so far, MSE looks as though it may take over the security market.

About the Microsoft Security Essentials Public Beta was posted on Everything Microsoft - Latest Microsoft News, Guides, Reviews & Themes. If you are not reading this content in an email newsletter, it is being used without permission.