PacketHound brings Little Snitch-style outbound alerts to Windows
A Little Snitch for Windows
PacketHound is a free, open-source outbound firewall for Windows 10 and 11 that flips Windows Firewall's default to block and asks you to Allow or Block each app the first time it tries to connect. It auto-approves genuine Windows components, still prompts for risky tools like PowerShell and curl, and stores every decision as an ordinary firewall rule that survives the app closing. No kernel driver, no analytics.
A program only counts as Windows if it lives in a Windows folder, is owned by the system and carries a valid Microsoft Windows signature. Copying malware into System32 doesn't get it a free pass.
- Dwedit
Isn't this just ZoneAlarm?
- codernews123
Good, older alternative (seems to be not this user friendly) is Malwarebytes Window Firewall Control.
- s3p
Portmaster is my go-to
Edit: and glasswire although portmaster is my favorite
- shrx
Another alternative is Simplewall: https://github.com/henrypp/simplewall
- RecycledEle
Cool.
It would be better if it suggested the consequences of stopping programs from phoning home, like will this program say the license check failed after 2 weeks, or will it keep working.