TinyWall is described as a free, lightweight and non-intrusive firewall. TinyWall is entirely free and its main ability is to allow better control and hardening of the firewall that is built into windows.

TinyWall has no annoying popups at all but it is still very easy to add exceptions rules making it a good choice for novices. When its running siliently in the background it has a tray bar icon to show that it is active.

Now as of April 2014, TinyWall is at version 2.1 (download here) and is available for Windows 8, 7 and Vista users in 32 and 64 bit versions. The application also contains translated interfaces for 9 languages including Dutch, German, Japanese and Russian. Rocking in a only 1Mbyte download its small and lightweight.

tinywall traycicon menu

TinyWall has all the expected configuration options for an application of this type, including a traybar monitoring icon that you can use as a quick access point to modify the firewalls configurations.

You can use this quick access menu to adjust things like whitelists of applications, see the traffic through this interface and enable blocklists.

tinywall add new exception If you need to modify exceptions, you can use the special exceptions tab which allows you to specify more advanced settings over which services and applications to allow or to block. Normally you wouldn't need to modify the advanced settings, but it nice to know that you can.

TinyWall 2.1 Summary

If you are looking for a lightweight, easy to use firewall then TinyWall is a first class choice. With low resource usuage and no annoying popups it work silently in the background keeping your system safe without using vast amounts of your computers power. TinyWall does not install drivers or other kernel components, is free and lightweight and does not require you to know about ports, protocols and application details to get the most from it.

Whats new in the latest version TinyWall 2.1;

  • Enhanced support for Windows 8 and Metro Applications.
  • Removed automatic network zone switching
  • Multi-user/multi-session support.
  • New Dutch, German, Hungarian, Spanish and Russian translations.
  • Better authenticode verification support.
  • Improved startup performance.
  • Ability to disable global shortcuts, as well as numerous other usability enhancements.