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(Working on Windows 7 64 bit)
Looking for a free alternative to Windows Firewall Control where I can block all outgoing connections AND the program alerts whenever there is an outgoing connection attempt. (Thus I can give permission on the go.)
EDIT
(Sort of answering my own question) Windows Firewall Control is now a free software. Thus there is no need for an alternative.
There is still an answer for your question if someone else needs a very slim alternative:
You can use the "Windows Firewall Notifier" (https://github.com/wokhansoft/WFN/releases or from several download portals).
Don't get distracted by the "Beta"-hint in its version or the fact that there was no new release for some time now. It is a very fine tool!
It does rely on the Windows Firewall which is indeed a complete firewall (at least in more current Windows versions) but is not preconfigured as one.
Besides that, only the Windows Task Scheduler is needed.
The notifier itself is portable and does not need frequent security updates like other tools which are "online" themselves - since the important parts will be maintained by Microsoft.
The WFN sets the outgoing connections to be blocked by default and schedules an event for every connection attempt which was blocked. This triggers a little tool to show the attempt to the user and ask for permission for later attempts. Per click you can add an allow- or block-rule (or a temporary exception).
You can disable the tool at every point in time (and even delete its directory) and still keep all created rules for your firewall configuration. In this case the overhead for your daily security is absolutely zero (assuming that your Windows Firewall will be running anyway).
Just two notes on my own configuration which I slightly adapted from the default one:
1. For the created "WindowsFirewallNotifierTask" at the Task Scheduler I change the rule for new instances (properties -> settings) from parallel execution to enqueuing them.
(A former version was having trouble with Microsoft’s phoning-home-functionality of Windows 8 whenever a known executable was started. The MS components tried to connect home with the highest possible frequency, starting thereby this tool thousands of times, in parallel! Not so good.)
2. The Task Scheduler only gives low priority to its spawned processes. That is fine for background activities but I want to see my firewall notifications instantly, no matter how utilized the CPU currently is. So I change this.
