TinyWall

TinyWall is a free firewall for Microsoft Windows users, the source code is available as well. The developer of this software is Mr. Károly Pados, he started working on this project back in 2011. The name "TinyWall" describes what the program does, it is a small firewall application.

This tool was created to help users control network traffic on their computers. The program works on top of Windows built-in networking components, it doesn't touch file contents or install kernel drivers during operation.

Here is what this utility can do. No popup notifications, whitelist-based protection, hotkey support for quick actions, learning mode for automatic configuration, blocklists for domains and ports, password protection, temporary rules, boot-time filtering and many others.

The program supports 17 different languages. This is a free firewall for Windows and it works on recent versions of this operating system. For older systems like Windows 7 or Windows 8 - you need to download version 3.2.5 from the official website, newer versions (such as the latest one 3.4.1) won't run on these older Windows operating systems.

TinyWall Review

TinyWall comes in one version only. You download an installer file that puts the program on your computer. The setup file is small, around 1.5 MB. When I look at the size of this firewall, I can say only good things about this software.

This application was designed to control which programs can access the network on your computer. To put it simply: a bidirectional firewall.

The user interface is minimal (like most of the apps I reviewed so far on dAppCDN).

You add programs to the whitelist, then everything else gets blocked automatically. There are different ways to whitelist applications, I will not list all of them in this review.

What matters is that you can use simple methods or perform advanced configurations. An example would be, the ability to use hotkey combinations and just click on any window to allow that program network access. More useful: there is a learning mode that watches what you do and remembers which applications need network permissions.

I tested TinyWall on Windows 11 in my virtual machine, and it works great. It should work on Windows 10 as well. Microsoft no longer supports it, so it didn't make sense to test it.

What I liked is that TinyWall doesn't show pop-up windows like old firewalls used to do. This is different from how most firewalls worked in the past. When an application tries to connect and gets blocked, you won't see any notification.

Instead, you check the connections window and unblock what you need manually. This approach takes some time to get used to, you will need to remember to check which programs are blocked after installation. But once you configure everything, the firewall stays quiet and just works.

Plus, as the author already explained, there are a lot of apps trying to access the Internet and you will be overwhelmed with requests (like most firewalls do) until you start ignoring them. Something similar to the "Accept Cookies" banner - you just click accept but in this case it is dangerous as you could be tired or in a rush and authorize blindly any program that will ask you for permission.

What could go wrong? I mean, no program is perfect. For example, the only "complain" I found was related to Discord updates claiming that TinyWall cannot prevent Discord from updating itself. I see this as a non-problem to be honest. I also use Discord but I refuse to install the client. I simply use it in the web browser so the Discord updates simply don't exist. I am sure there is a good reason to use the installed client but at the same time - I can't understand why you want to prevent it from updating itself.

From my past experience with firewalls, the only problem was with blocking legit apps but that was acceptable and easy to fix.

One thing to remember: make a backup of your whitelist before you reinstall Windows or upgrade to a new version. TinyWall stores your configuration in files that you can export and import later. This way you don't need to whitelist everything again after a system change.

The program includes protection against tampering, other applications cannot modify your firewall rules without permission. You can also set a password so nobody else can change your settings. Boot-time filtering means your computer is protected even before TinyWall fully loads during startup.

TinyWall version 3.0 changed how the program works internally, it became a standalone firewall that talks directly to the Windows networking kernel. Before this version it just configured Windows Firewall rules. Now you can run TinyWall with or without Windows Firewall active, both configurations work fine.

When I consider the features, the size and the fact that it is free software, I would say TinyWall is one of the best firewalls you can get for Windows. Actually, I would dare to say it is the last free, open source firewall. Plus, there's no paywall behind it, no ads, no telemetry or any other data collection. If you appreciate this rare tool nowadays and you would like to encourage Mr. Károly Pados to keep it updated, you can support him by making a donation on Patreon if you find the program useful

3.4.1 - Maintenance release (06.04.2025.)

• Only enumerate UWP packages on system if actually needed
• Add Last Modified column to application exceptions list
• Performance enhancements for Connections, Processes and Settings windows
• Don't make unnecessary saves to config file
• Fix crash if AppX packages on host cannot be enumerated
• Fix Connections windows might occasionally show empty list of active/listener sockets
• Fix blocked IPv6 addresses shown backwards
• Fix for possible crash when extracting an application's icon
• Mitigation for tray icon not visible after boot
• Add ability to open connections view by middle-clicking on the tray icon
• Update System.Text.Json to close potential vulnerability
• Update application database
• Update Chinese and Polish localizations