Really easy and straightforward to use. I’ll keep using it. Thanks!
Gotta walk that back a bit. There were a few usability issues I just couldn’t get to work, so I have to go back to simplewall. I’m sure it’ll be a solid program in the future, but in my opinion, it’s still a bit of a work in progress.
Mind going over what the issues were?
I like the concept of this Windows based Firewall but am finding it difficult to work.
I use Mullvad Browser and Mullvad VPN on Windows 11 Pro.
This is obviously a training issue for myself but Mullvad VPN will not work no matter what “rules” I set to allow full “inbound/outbound” use by any Mullvad listing I find.
This is my first stumbling block and is preventing me from utilizing what I think may be a great firewall for Windows.
Well, first off, if you’re coming from simplewall, this is way too basic. Then, I don’t know what caused it, but it froze several times in lockdown mode, which was really annoying. You’ll probably be happy with it if you’re not switching from simplewall, but I decided to try it since they compare themselves to simplewall on their GitHub page.
I see, that makes sense.
I’m always interested in these types of applications even though every time I use one I end up causing myself more issues then solving 
Well, this shouldn’t be too hard to learn, so it might be a good fit for you if you’ve got a bit of patience.
Yes, there are still issues to be worked out. About a day after you posted this I fixed some issues with the wildcard rules, which might fix those problems with Mullvad. You can try creating a wildcard rule with the entire Mullvad folder, and the Mullvad daemon.
But perhaps not. I’ve only tested with Wireguard and OpenVPN. Mullvad documentation says it creates its own firewall rules, and if it’s creating them deeper on the WFP, there is no telling which rule will supersede another. Or a more likely issue is that Minimal Firewall sets the Windows Firewall so that every app/service is blocked unless it has a rule. So if Mullvad is creating filters rather than rules in Windows Firewall, it might block them, in which case Mullvad will never work.
Someone else can probably shine more light on how and why Mullvad does this.
Did you mean to reply to someone else? I use ProtonVPN myself.
Oh yes, my fault. I meant @anon1234
I’ll definitely be looking into this!
Thanks Jerm! 
Jerm, are you still using this? Which firewall have you found to be the best for Windows?
No, I no longer care about Windows.
Anyone here switched from Portmaster? I’ve found portmaster to be wonderful for my day-to-day use on a desktop, but there are bugs with dns that are pestering me.
I have to share my opinion. It doesn’t keep the rules you set. All the settings were turned off. I reset all the Windows Firewall settings to default several times, cleaned the group policies, and even checked the registry. Many times.
Despite this, the blocks set specifically for Microsoft always changed back to allowed on their own. I uninstalled the entire program and deleted the files at least three times.
The result is that it’s dangerous and unreliable. And I certainly tried everything before saying this publicly.
Back to Simplewall again.
Did this happen to you for all Windows apps, without the auto-trust Windows setting on, or just services running under svchost? I do not block the internet of core services so I will test this further, but Windows likely self-heals itself.
It may be possible to set up a watcher and revert if so (there is a beta function in the audit tab being worked on that does this to quarantine new rules). But Simplewall uses WFP which injects rules apart from the Windows Defender Firewall, so should do what you want perfectly with Windows Firewall turned off.
For privacy over security Linux is better. I don’t believe you can get real privacy from Windows without breakage. And you can still get good security from Linux (like Kinoite/Secureblue, alpine, qubes, or hardened void (listed the most user-friendly first)).
It didn’t happen with the programs. The Windows-related issues somehow just “fixed” themselves.
A new Portmaster was just released, and it solved all the problems.
Sorry, were you talking about Minimal Firewall (MFW) or Portmaster just above? I was testing further, and I couldn’t reproduce your problem with MFW with apps that already had block rules, but realize system rules are created on their own (but if there is a separate block rule, that should take precedence).
So that is basically what I meant. Once blocked, they always got permission again. And I meant that a new Portmaster was released and it works with IVPN, so there is no reason to look for an alternative.