Windows Firewall Shows New Maturity in Vista

A personal firewall is a critical first line of defense against many types of malware. Like the personal firewall that's bundled with Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2), Vista's personal firewall is turned on by default to protect your computer as soon as the OS is operational. For an overview of the new features in Vista's Windows Firewall, see the Windows IT Pro article "Vista's Firewall," August 2006, InstantDoc ID 50377.

I want to take a more targeted look at the Vista Firewall's new configuration interface, which integrates firewall and IPsec settings; the firewall's more finely grained rules architecture; and its extended support for network profiles. Let's start by comparing the key differences between Vista's and XP SP2's Windows Firewall.

Comparing Vista's Windows Firewall with XP SP2's
Vista's Windows Firewall and its XP SP2 predecessor have three key differences. . . .