Vista Firewall Opportunity!

I am having great difficulty in getting the Microsoft Management Console (MMC) to load the Firewall and Security snap-in to configure group policies for the firewall on Vista Business 32 bit.

The firewall is working, but it cannot be re-configured, For some reason, the group policies that were set are not loading in the MMC.

I have researched this on Microsoft's website and Google, but I cannot find anything that will fix it.

The answer is not "use another firewall". This is not an option, I want this thing to work like it did previously where I can tweak the firewall according to my own specs.

 

I don't know if this is the problem, but...
Right-click (on whatever link you're using to run MMC) and do "Run as administrator".

 

I did run it as administrator. I also tried going into mmc.exe using the command prompt as an administrator to add the snap-in for Firewall with Advanced Security, but the snap-in is missing or not available in the drop down menu.

 

Try running from this link:

Control Panel > Sys & Maint > Administrative Tools > Windows Firewall with Advanced Security.

Or from the command prompt, run "wf.msc".

 

That is where I always do to set the parameters of the firewall, but I am getting the following message:



I am trying to get the snap-in to load in the console, but it is not even showing up as available to check the box.

 

Fix/workaround:

http://www.technipages.com/error-mmc-could-not-create-the-snap-in.html

 

Thanks, but I found that and followed the directions, but it still is not creating the snap-in.

Still not able to change group policy parameters on the firewall.

 

Nobody knows the trouble I've seen, nobody knows the sorrow.

Anyone with any brilliant solution to this issue?

I sent an email to Mikey Soft tech support, but so far no response. Surprise?

 

Surely Microsoft has an export of the base ruleset somewhere on their website that you could re-import?

 

One would think so, but after 6 hours of negotiating Microsoft technical websites, I have been unable to locate it.

My initial reaction is that there is a lack of documentation regarding this newer area of the Firewall with Advanced Security and they have not thoroughly documented it or provided any additional assistance.

 

I found someone else having the same problem, and someone suggested this:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/943996/en-us

 

I really appreciate your effort.

However, I had read that article earlier and checked the resolutions and all of my settings were according to those specifications.

The issue here is not that the firewall is not functioning correctly, but rather, that I cannot specify the rule setting for each group. The snap-in is not available. I even downloaded the RSAT tools to see if it would load the needed snap-in, but it did not work.

Currently, I have still had no response from Microsoft Tech Support.

I did locate the command line execution to set the firewall to default settings.

 

No problem, I tried, but I'm running out of ideas though.

By the way, have you tried logging in with another admin account and see if it has the same result?

The M$ Tech Support should get back to you in 24-48 hours, they always do when I needed support. But not all the time they can provide a solution, couple of times I found the solution myself since the person I was dealing with didn't fully understand my problem and most likely never encountered the same problem as I did.

 

I do really appreciate your time and effort on this issue!!

I hope that they do get back to me on this problem. The only solution at this point would be a reformat and full install of Vista and SP1 which I really do not want to do and I don;t even know if that will fix it. It could be an SP1 problem.

I did try another admin account and it does the same thing. I have added permissions and tried about everything that I can think of to resolve this issue, but I am about out of ideas.

At least, the firewall is working at this point. It just does not do everything that I want it to do. It is blocking everything and allows exceptions, but I cannot tweak it.

I was frustrating to today to see my post on Google when I was searching for clues!

 

It seems like many people are getting this "MMC could not create the snap-in." error not only with the Firewall, but also with the Event Viewer and some other admin tools, however none of them seems to have a firm solution. :/ I'll keep my eyes open and if I see a good solution, I will let you know.

 

Thanks. It does seem to be a "known software problem"?

If it is a "known" problem, then why don't they fix it?

 

ZoneAlarm AntiVirus has a firewall that is easily configurable and can be told to disable the Windows firewall. This is what I use on Vista.

 

Thanks. I was using Comodo, but I did not like it and it was very difficult to remove entirely. The new Vista firewall is effective once you set up the parameters correctly and it is less innocuous than other ones.

The Vista firewall is working now, but I cannot configure it the way that I would like to. That is the problem. It could be done easily before SP1, but the options have disappeared entirely.

I have thoroughly researched through the registry, but I don't know the correct binary setup for each key to get the snap-in loaded.

I want this firewall to work rather than replace it with another one. I am funny that way!

 

This is the nearest I can find to anything documenting the Windows Firewall rules as implemented by Group Policy settings. There is a link in there to Vista-specific settings.

 

Thanks for your assistance!

I went through the spreadsheet, but did not find the answer. I did, however, find a link on the same page that I am experimenting with that contains the registry entries to configure the firewall. The only thing is that it will take a lot longer to do that rather than being able to do it through the MMC with the snap-in.

I would still like to find my missing firewall snap-in. I did finally hear from a Microsoft tech today asking for more info. I replied to his email and it was returned as undeliverable! I forwarded it to is supervisor. Maybe, he will get the answer?