Ken's "GlassWire Firewall Not Working" Spinoff

GlassWire General
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Windows 10 Pro and Home on 3 systems, 1909, 20H1 & 20H2. Two Win7 Home systems.
Glasswire Elite 2.2.268
(I use the free, thank you, GW for Android on two devices.)

@ Ken_GlassWire

Regarding your post:
GlassWire Firewall Not Working (Android or Windows)
I didn’t want to clutter that topic, so I opened this one.

The second paragraph in there covers a lot of ground. Some of the questions I pose have what are obvious answers. But most of what I know about GW is based solely on my observations over the years of what goes on under its hood, so I ask anyway as I could be wrong or confused.

“The API we use to block works even if GlassWire is killed…” What do you mean by “killed”?

For “…blocks when your computer is booting up BEFORE GlassWire itself even starts,” how does unchecking “Run on startup” relate to that? Dissected as follows…

GW builds its rules in the Windows Defender Firewall (as it’s called now) in this format:
{Glasswire.app.in_111}
{Glasswire.app.out_111}
A different number for each app, of course, the app displayed by a rule right click and Properties > Programs and Services > Programs.

For example, I block Microsoft Store (winstore.app.exe) in GW (a Glasswire.app rule in WDF) which is precedent over WDF’s rule. When under the Firewall tab, the Firewall button is toggled to OFF, all those Glasswire.app rules are disabled, as in a “Disable Rule” toggle in WDF. Even after a restart. Correct?

If the the Firewall button is ON and one selects Exit from either the GW menu or tray icon menu, what is the status of the Glasswire Firewall? ON or OFF?

The concept of a “firewall” has changed so much over the past 20 years, it has to be in quotation marks. GW is loaded with the “new gen” features which can be, and are associated with “firewall.” Like all that good stuff under Security settings:
The Firewall ON or OFF status has no effect on those. Yes, no?
Exiting GW disables all those. Or?
Unchecking “Run on startup” does what to all those?

Finally, there’s the Glasswire Control Service (GWCTlSvc.exe). Stopping that does what exactly relative to the GW Firewall? And those Security features?

Thanks for your time!

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Thanks for this detailed post.

If you go to the Windows Task Manager and right click GlassWire and choose “end task”.

If you uncheck “run on startup” then you can’t easily control the firewall settings, so I would not recommend that. But if you blocked something with the firewall then unchecked that and your PC restarted your blocked apps should still be blocked.

If you turn off the GlassWire firewall then our firewall rules should stay off on reboot, or under any other circumstances.

If you exit GlassWire the rules should stay the same, and the firewall should remember if it was off or on.

The firewall has no control over our settings/security features.

If you stop the GlassWire Control Service the firewall rules should continue on as you left them immediately before the stop, but none of our monitoring/security features are monitoring anymore.

I hope this answers everything in detail. It’s a bit tricky and confusing.

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Thanks for the fast reply.

Regarding the kill, I don’t believe there is any difference between exiting GW from the GUI or tray icon menus and end task in Task Manager.

As an aside, though I understand the concepts, I confess that the difference between end task and end process tree has always eluded me. Most of the research I’ve attempted in the past made it evident it’s way above my pay grade. It does makes sense to select end process tree when troubleshooting an app.

I greatly appreciate your patience and the detail you provided to confirm my observations of how GW cooks.

It stands to reason if “run on startup” is unchecked, one can then start GlassWire.exe manually to regain all its control.

The purpose of the Control Service (GWCtlSvc.exe) is a revelation for me. Good to know.

Yeah, GW’s actions and results can be tricky and confusing but only as it does so much and because of Windows’ gears, pulleys and levers across its versions. As well, the near unlimited variety of hardware configurations it’s expected to work in with equal stability and efficacy.

But for all its complexity, the GW GUI is one of the most intuitive in the biz.

Best wishes to you and the GW team for the Holidays and a prosperous 2021.

Cheers.

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