It looks Windows Firewall native behavior is to not notify when a program is trying to connect to internet and you have to search the logs to find this information which is not a good solution. It seems i need to install third party firewall if i want to get notifications which i don't want to do.
Those 3rd party programs ironically run on the native Windows Firewall itself.
If you were to disable the Windows Firewall service or any of it's dependencies: Those other programs (TinyWall, GlassWire, etc) would equally cease.
To force a
whitelist (block all connections unless listed) with the Windows Firewall:
Windows key -> Windows Firewall with Advanced Security
or
Windows key + R -> WF.msc
1. Click on "Windows Firewall properties"
For each tab (Domain/Private/Public) follow these instructions:
1. Set "INBOUND CONNECTIONS" to
BLOCK (default)
2. Set "OUTBOUND CONNECTIONS" to
BLOCK
3. Click on "Customize" -> "Display a notification" ->
Yes
Windows Firewall
will and
does notify you when a connection is blocked. It does not show a notification for every single instance of a blocked connection (inbound/outbound).
You
could write a simple script (AutoIt, AutoHotKey, VBS, JS, etc) to check the directory of where the logs are stored and if one is found: Parse it and display a message box ('pop up notification') with the related data.
This would be a much preferred approach as opposed to downloading some arbitrary program from an unknown source. It also prevents the potential of a 'virus' if you're worried about such things. No harm can come from a visual basic script reading a log file.
