Windows 7: How to show Win7 firewall icon in tray?

I've been using Comodo for years, all throughout my XP years until I switched to Windows 7 a couple months ago, but have been getting frustrated with its frequent 100% cpu usage with Windows 7. I'm now working on switching over to the built-in Windows 7 firewall instead since I think it'll meet my needs just fine with (hopefully) fewer issues.



I currently have the next-to-useless network icon in my tray at the moment, but is there some way to enable an icon for the firewall itself, and maybe shows up/down traffic (like Comodo would do)? I'm basically just looking to have some indicator that the firewall is running for peace of mind, maybe with a bit of functionality as well.

Thanks,
m19

There's really nothing I can think of, other than the Action Center which already monitors the status of your firewall (and would immediately alert you if the firewall were turned off for some reason).

I think you can rest assured that the Windows firewall is active and doing its job.

As for monitoring network traffic, there are various gadgets that do the job nicely. Here's a very nice one: http://addgadget.com/network_meter/

I've been using the [non-free] DUMeter for many years.

I have most of its functionality which is of no use or interest to me disabled (e.g. logging, alerts for volume usage, etc.) and use it strictly as my "window on the world" to show upload and download activity in a small desktop window.