Firewall policy import fail

[OldNick]

Hello all!


To avoid W10 privacy problems + getting updates when I want them, I set up my own Windows firewall rules.

Updating was easy:
– save my policy;
– switch the firewall to "recommended settings";
– update;
– import my policy
and worked nicely for ~ 1 year.

Today, after two small (successful) updates, the policy import failed with "invalid parameter / error 87".

As googling brought up no magic bullet, I tried the usual: reboot (:r1:), checking that the filter engine & firewall services were running, sfc /scannow, running the windows fixer, trying to import with admin command netsh &c. Nothing changed.

But exporting and then re-importing the "recommended settings" works.


Thanks for your help.



Subsidiary question: is there some tool to convert (both ways) a firewall policy file (*.wfw) to some more manageable/readable format (e. g. CSV)?

 

[xilolee]

Hi OldNick. :wave:

After updating... What?

 

[OldNick]

After updating... What?

Hi xilolee, and thanks for answering. :thumbsup2:

Not much:
– Adobe Flash player;
– the Windows nasties removal tool.

I'm astonished that this specific problem isn't (apparently) discussed somewhere on the Web. :noidea:

Now that I've been burned – presumably having to rebuild my settings from scratch – I'd very much like to store said settings in some other format, be it a CSV file, some script, &c.


Have a nice day!

 

[xilolee]

I'd very much like to store said settings in some other format, be it a CSV file, some script, &c.

I'm creating my own firewall rules too, but I never had a problem during importing/exporting my rules.
Another method I'm using to keep (backup/save) my firewall rules is to export everything under this registry path:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\SharedAccess\Parameters\FirewallPolicy\FirewallRules

Maybe I must consider to use this method more often than I'm doing...
Another annoying thing about windows 10 (and 8/8.1) firewall is some windows apps rules keep re-creating by themselves: did you notice this behaviour?

 

[OldNick]

Another method I'm using to keep (backup/save) my firewall rules is to export everything under this registry path:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\SharedAccess\Parameters\FirewallPolicy\FirewallRules

Maybe I must consider to use this method more often than I'm doing...

Thanks for the tip. I looked at that registry key, but saw no rules for installed software, or user-defined. Apparently stored elsewhere…

Another annoying thing about windows 10 (and 8/8.1) firewall is some windows apps rules keep re-creating by themselves: did you notice this behaviour?

Oh yes, Cortana especially wanted back online. But μ$oft seems to have calmed down lately (?), as well as for its crapola apps it kept reinstalling at each serious update.

To get back to the main subject: I just remembered (my, am I dumb sometimes ) that the rules can be exported (but not re-imported, thanks Bill!) in tab-separated format. (Right-click on the, e. g., Inbound Rules folder in the firewall API, you get an "Export list" option.)
I'll look at what exactly is exported and if it's enough to generate a re-importing script. But I'm not much of a programmer, and don't have too much time on my hands right now.:sad: