Installing W 7 Firewall as a service that was never installed

videobruce · 04 Jul 2021

Windows Firewall was never installed (by design since I have NEVER used it in 20 or so years and had it disabled) and I need to install it w/o re-installing the O/S.
Everything I have read about re-installing doesn't work since I believe those procedures go under the assumption it was originally there in the 1st place;

The following didn't work;
Step 1: Recreate the service
Rundll32 setupapi,InstallHinfSection Ndi-Steelhead 132 %windir%\inf\netrass.inf
Step 2: Start the service
sc start mpssvc
Step 3: Reset the firewall configurations
netsh advfirewall reset netsh advfirewall set domainprofile state on netsh advfirewall set privateprofile state on
Step 4:
Reboot Windows.

How to reinstall windows firewall service - Microsoft Community
How to restore Windows Firewall after some malware deleted its service? - Super User

Is the "service' available as a download, or does someone have a working solution?

(Please no comments on removing the service in the 1st place. Had I known that prevents file/folder sharing I wouldn't of).

SIW2 · 04 Jul 2021

What method did you use to remove it?

videobruce · 04 Jul 2021

RT7 Lite
File sharing requires it. It can be disabled, but apparently it has to be there. Had I knew that, it wouldn't of been removed.

Alejandro85 · 05 Jul 2021

Windows Firewall is never uninstalled, you can disable it or leave it allowing everything but completely wipe it isn't an option in Windows. so any procedure you may find will always work under the assumption that you just need to enable it like in any sane Windows installation.

videobruce said:

RT7 Lite

Here is your problem. You've installed a tampered version of Windows, that undergone unknown modifications ahead of time, so we can't be sure what steps are necesary to return to a working condition.
At this instance I can only think of a few options:

By far the only reliable option would be to reinstall Windows from a known-good, original install media, so you get to a good state and then you can start using any feature you like.
You may try a sfc /scannow to attempt recover the damage to the system. Not entirely sure it'll succeed, since you're starting from a broken install to begin with, but worth a try.
Ask the people who made RT7 Lite what changes exactly they did to break Windows Firewall and try to undo from their instructions. This might be trivial or complicated depending on what they tamper with exactly, and you may even need an original install disk to recover potentially deleted files.
Drop the idea of Windows Firewall and use another, 3rd party one.

videobruce · 05 Jul 2021

1. It's a "modified" (just like PC manufactures are able to do) version of Windows to get rid of the bloat. NOT a uncommon thing to do since there are numerous programs that do the same!
2. The "known modification was Windows Firewall was never installed,'
3. I already ran SFC, no results,
4. AFA contacting the developers, it is a abandoned project for an abandoned (more or less) O/S,
5. As I stated in the 1st line of the OP, I don't use Firewall. It's the side effect that is the problem,
6. Yes, the last resort is a re-install which is just that, a very last resort.

torchwood · 05 Jul 2021

hi
what error message are you now getting

fyi the firewall has 2 dependentcies, if thier not present error will be cannot start
1) base filtering engine
2) firewall authentication driver - (show hidden>> non plug and play>> last item)

roy

videobruce · 06 Jul 2021

The BFE is there and has started. The driver which is MPSDRV comes up "invalid" from the command line; "net start mpsvc".
Two helper dll's; "fwcfg.dll" & "authfwcfg" report they "can't be loaded".
Running regsvr32 firewallapi.dll returns "command was not found".

a. Open a Command Prompt as Administrator. To do this, type CMD in Start Search from the Start Menu. Right click on the result and choose "Run as Administrator"
b. Run the following command lines:
1. netsh advfirewall reset
2. net start mpsdrv
3. net start bfe
4. net start mpssvc
5. regsvr32 firewallapi.dll

c. Confirm any boxes that comes up by clicking OK. The result on the last entry should say that it succeeded.
Note: If you receive any errors on any of the command lines, then there is definitely something wrong with any of the drivers and service. This may indicate a Registry error or a Corrupted file.

d. Reboot the system.
Now check if you’re able to turn on Windows firewall.
-------------------------------------------------
RESULT:

Microsoft Windows [Version 6.1.7601]
Copyright (c) 2009 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\Windows\System32>netsh advfirewall reset
The following helper DLL cannot be loaded: FWCFG.DLL.
The following helper DLL cannot be loaded: AUTHFWCFG.DLL.
The following command was not found: advfirewall reset.
C:\Windows\System32>net start mpsdrv
The service name is invalid.

C:\Windows\System32>net start bfe
The requested service has already been started. C:\Windows\System32>net start mpssvc
The service name is invalid. C:\Windows\System32>regsvr32 firewallapi.dll

After he last line a separate box did pop up with 'Successful" which didn't make sense given the other results.

The entries; mpssvc , FWCFG.DLL & AUTHFWCFG.DLL, were NOT is the system32 folder which I now added (all x64 after a search), but the command line results were unchanged.

How about a missing .exe?

torchwood · 06 Jul 2021

hi
not sure if the service dll's are CaSe specific, give it a try.

pretty sure its not a missing exe

Memory time now

You can still download RT7 from majorgeeks, from this i would make a repair Iso which ONLY includes the modules you originally had + firewall

videobruce · 06 Jul 2021

I have had the software for 6+ years when I switched to W7. Actually I found probably a dozen or so sites that have it. The 2 supposed versions are 1.7 & 2.6 beta which I yet to find a difference between the two. The size is the same also.

I'm rebuilding a new image now with a last session file including FW this time which should of been marked in red which it wasn't.

- - - Updated - - -

All the searches I did for this, I was surprised on how many hits I got, many stating reinstalling Firewall, but none were from scratch. Not my ideal of re-installing a program AFAIC.