Firewall Control: Incoming and Outgoing

One of my pet peeves with regards to Windows Vista was the inability to control when my programs access the internet (or if I ever wanted them to). One of the first things I do in a new install is to add a freeware “Vista Firewall Control” application (Edit: Now called “Windows 7 Firewall Control”, Windows 7, Vista, Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1) and Vista Service Pack 2 (SP2) compatible). That Sphinx Software has both a 32-bit and 64-bit version (dowload link), coupled with keeping up with Windows 7 is just a fabulous offering from this company (it’s always nice when the free version has the functionality that one needs IMO — mind you I can’t be alone is this desired capability, too bad M$ hasn’t implemented it).