Windows 10: My Windows 10 Firewall is drilled like Swiss cheese

Hi,


since I upgraded to Windows 10 a year ago I admit I've never looked at my firewall rules. But today I did and I was shocked - What on CPU is happening there? Gozillion of rules, a lot of them auto-generated and for most of them I have no idea what they do.

A lot of them open ALL TCP in ANY direction for ALL netoworks!!!


I've opted-OUT and disabled and if possible UNINSTALLED Xbox, Cortana, Bonjour, OneNote and other forced Microsoft bloatware, which came included in Windows install. But still a number of ports are opened INBOUND.

What's totaly not clear to me, why do some services need INBOUND line being open? Don't they update from INSIDE OUT, asking for updates and receiving the answer on opened channel? That way apps do not need inbound ports opened, just outbound, which are opened by default.


Am I behind, or is MS insane?



See examples:


AllJoyn router

App Installer

Cast To Device (qWave)

CheckPoint VPN

Connect

Connected Devices Platform (TCP-In)
DIAL protocol server (HTTP-In)
f5.vpn.client

Feedback Hub

Groove Music

JuniperNetworks.JunosPulseVpn
Mail and Calendar

SonicWALL.MobileConnect

One NOte, Print 3D, Sticky notes, Mail and Calendar, X-fakin-Box, Cortana, Bonjour...

:)

 

Best free AV and firewall

Can Windows Firewall block outgoing connections yet? If not, it's one step above useless.

Look into Online Armor for a free firewall.

 

Windows 10 Tweaks

Pressing “Windows+Pause Break” (it’s up there next to scroll lock) opens the “System” Window.

Windows 10: In the new version of Windows, Explorer has a section called Quick Access. This includes your frequent folders and recent files. Explorer defaults to opening this page when you open a new window. If you’d rather open the usual This PC, with links to your drives and library folders, follow these steps:

• Open a new Explorer window.
• Click View in the ribbon.
• Click Options.
• Under General, next to “Open File Explorer to:” choose “This PC.”
• Click OK

credit to Lifehacker.

 

Good Antivirus + Firewall

I would never put anything Norton on my computer.

Nod32 is arguably the best antivirus. AVG is likely not as good, but it's free and at least pretty good.

Firewalls, I'd put Comodo and whatever "Tiny Personal Firewall" is named nowadays on your short list. I think Kerio might have sold it now and it's named something else. Otherwise, just put Comodo on your short list. I think the current version's ease of use has taken a step backwards, seems a bit counter-intuitive when trying to do certain things with it, but overall it does a good job and the price is right.