I’m having to manually clear pop-up warnings after updating Win10 tonight. They used to fade out after a few seconds and go away. Having to click the actual “X” now to clear them.
Any ideas?
Is it an “Ask to connect” window?
I have never heard of our temporary alerts not disappearing after a few minutes.
Do you use any unusual accessibility software?
Apparently Skype, MS Edge and a few other programs got updated during the latest Windows Update. I had previously set permissions to allow those programs. So apparently when a program is updated, it requires a change in the firewall rules?
Correct. Otherwise any app could just call itself Chrome.exe and connect and do whatever it wanted. If the app has a different hash it will get a new “ask” request.
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disable pop-ups when you dont need. Or install o&o shutup10 here you find hidden settings that you cant find in windows or go to settings - ease of access - other options here you can set up time how long pop-up stay
Something seems amiss then. This morning I received an alert that said that MS Edge was updated and the application version number incremented from 81.0.416.88 to 84.0.522.44, and I did not receive a new “ask to connect” prompt from GlassWire after the update.
I also received prompts from GlassWire that notified me that:
1). A “first network connection” of a Windows feature(that I have never seen before) called “USO Core Worker Process” had been made.
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A “first network connection” of a program(that I have also never seen before) called “Device Census” had been made.
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A “first network connection” of a program(windows feature?) called “Speech Runtime Executable” had been made.
Why am I not receiving the “ask” requests(that you indicate in your above reply) prior to these programs/apps being able to connect outbound? Especially in the case of MS Edge, where the program updated for a second time since my original post?
Are you able to get any “ask to connect” prompts anymore at all lately? We recently had a bug where if the user moved their database to another PC, or drive that “ask to connect” stopped working. It’s kind of a rare scenario but perhaps this applies to you?
Are you using any other secondary firewall software that could be interfering with ours?
No, GlassWire is the only “firewall” software that I use, and I have not moved or touched any GlassWire files. I only started experiencing this behavior since the Windows update I spoke about in my OP. And based on your explanation about new programs and hashes, I thought the prompts issue was solved until I saw where MS Edge had updated a second time as of this morning, but yet I received no “ask” prompt. GlassWire just simply told me that the program had connected…along with the other “new” programs I listed above.
Using GlassWire, I spent some time checking the IP’s that these programs connected to, and they were all legit Microsoft IP’s.
Going back in my logs, I also notice where GlassWire generated an alert that my .Hosts file had been changed a few days ago. Upon opening the Hosts file, it says in the verbiage at the top that Windows Defender was responsible for the change. I could have sworn that Administrator rights were needed to change the Hosts file, and why would a Windows component even change it to begin with?
:Edited for spelling.
I will discuss this “ask to connect” issue with our team and see if they have some ideas. We will have an update of GlassWire out in a week or so.
For the host files… that is very bizarre. I have never heard of or seen anything like that where a Microsoft software changed the host file. Maybe someone else in the forum has?
If you go to our top left menu and choose “About” what version of GlassWire do you have?
I am using 2.1.167, which is the version I installed when I decided to purchase the program. I have not updated because GW has been working great up until this latest behavior.
ETA:
The date of my host file change was 7/24/2020. This is the verbiage located in the first two lines:
-# AutoGenerated by Microsoft ® Malware Protection Engine.
-# Copyright © 1993-2009 Microsoft Corp.
That’s very weird because it shows 2009 as the copyright. Obviously over 10 years ago! I did find this other forum post about that though so maybe it’s OK.
Our latest software is 2.2.210, but if you feel everything is OK there is no reason to upgrade.
Well, I’m still left wondering about the “ask” prompts that I seem to not be getting for the listed, and other potential programs that are being allowed to connect. Maybe updating to 2.2.10 would fix this?
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Don’t do this. This kind of software can cause some problems with your windows install for the sake of “privacy”. Preventing the OS from doing what it’s supposed to do can be harmful, causing more problems than it’s worth.
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