Applied several optimizations for a smoother workflow.
Fixed a bug in reading old Excel files (pre-2007 xls).
Dropped export of data in some legacy (pre-historic) file formats (wk1, dif, sylk). Import of such files remains supported.

* Yet more enhancements in the AI Tool - Chat Conversation. We continue enhancing this AI tool, this time particularly decorating some HTML elements in the AI responses. For example, we are adding rounded borders to some HTML elements, and in particular, we decorated the possible HTML tables with some useful CSS classes and made them responsive tables.

* Enhancements in the AI Tool - Code generation. We try to improve this AI tool in various ways. We don't append any more the responses, keeping the response editor with just the latest asked piece of code. We also enhanced the "final" prompt, making it more simple. Additionally, we are trying now to find the right syntax highlighter for the editor based on the user prompt and also the AI response, supporting syntax highlighters for javascript, PHP, CSS, HTML, XML and JSON.

* Yet more enhancements in the AI Tool - Chat Conversation. We continue enhancing this AI tool, this time particularly decorating some HTML elements in the AI responses. For example, we are adding rounded borders to some HTML elements, and in particular, we decorated the possible HTML tables with some useful CSS classes and made them responsive tables.

* Enhancements in the AI Tool - Code generation. We try to improve this AI tool in various ways. We don't append any more the responses, keeping the response editor with just the latest asked piece of code. We also enhanced the "final" prompt, making it more simple. Additionally, we are trying now to find the right syntax highlighter for the editor based on the user prompt and also the AI response, supporting syntax highlighters for javascript, PHP, CSS, HTML, XML and JSON.

[2025-07-31] CHG: removed limit to stop after exporting covers with 100 identical names via action
Export Cover to File. (#69294)
[2025-07-22] FIX: file paths were not updated in File List after moving folder and shell returned
drive name with lowercase drive letter.
[2025-07-22] CHG: preserve selected item when sorting Tag Sources results.
[2025-07-18] NEW: added function 'Manage covers...' to cover menu, which allows for adding,
removing, replacing, adjusting, and reordering of embedded cover art in one or
multiple files.
[2025-07-18] FIX: text in the edit control was not visible when editing directly in the file list
and the column width exceeded the visible area. (#69100)
[2025-07-18] FIX: runtime error that occurred when attempting to delete a custom list value without
a selection.
[2025-06-26] CHG: modernized communication between worker threads and UI.
[2025-06-26] CHG: symbolic links to folders are not dereferenced in open and save dialogs to more
likely preserve user intent and follow platform conventions.
[2025-06-21] CHG: ensure that files are not read-only before starting the writing process.
[2025-06-19] CHG: preserve Tag Panel input and File List selection on errors when writing tags.
(#68883)
[2025-06-18] NEW: added advanced tagging option to use single MP4 atom for multiple values.
(#68857)
[2025-06-14] CHG: use copy during drag and drop if that is the only drop method supported by the
drag source. (#68806)
[2025-06-13] NEW: added support for removing MP3 tag types ID3v1, ID3v2, and APEv2 individually via
File List context menu Utils.
[2025-06-13] NEW: added support for removing unsupported fields from MP3 files via File List
context menu Utils.
[2025-06-13] CHG: allow app window to be set as foreground window when launched via context menu
from third-party file managers like Total Commander. (#68839)
[2025-06-12] NEW: added reset to defaults button to notification configuration options.
[2025-06-12] CHG: help buttons for option dialogs all open the matching documentation topic.
[2025-06-11] FIX: dragging and dropping covers from cover window onto themselves either removed or,
when Ctrl was pressed, duplicated the cover. (#68809)
[2025-06-10] CHG: use `_TAG` as default field name to match all fields for actions Merge duplicate
fields and Split field by separator. (#68782)
[2025-06-09] FIX: using `_ALL` as field name in action Split field by separator did not apply the
action to all tag fields. (#68782)
[2025-06-09] FIX: undefined state in extended tags if next or previous button was clicked while
file was being saved.
[2025-06-06] CHG: use favorite directory (and Music folder as fallback) as initial directory when
changing directory from app temp folder. (#68665)
[2025-06-06] CHG: use app temp folder instead of app folder on initial start and if startup
directory cannot be accessed. (#68665)
LNG: updated Brazilian Portuguese, Catalan, Corsican, Danish, Hungarian, Polish,
Russian, Simplified Chinese, Slovak, and Spanish translation.

This is a complete, ground-up rewrite of Minimal Firewall! The application has been migrated from .NET Framework 4.8 and WPF to the more modern .NET 8 and Windows Forms. This transition brings significant performance enhancements, a revamped user interface, and powerful new features.

Features
Live Traffic Monitoring: A new "Live Connections" tab has been added to monitor active TCP connections and their associated processes in real-time, similar to tools like TCPView. More updates to come in this tab.

Firewall Rule Groups: You can now manage firewall rule groups directly from a dedicated "Groups" tab, allowing you to enable or disable entire sets of rules at once.

Enhanced Foreign Rule Detection: The previous manual scan for external rule changes has been replaced by a real-time Sentry Service. It uses WMI to watch for modifications the moment they happen and presents them in the "Audit" tab.

Performance Caching: A new RuleCacheService has been implemented to significantly speed up application startup and data refreshes. It caches firewall rules both in-memory and to a local disk file to reduce reliance on slow API calls. When you close it to tray, it further reduces memory consumption.

Note: Temporarily Allow will be re-added in v2.1

? UI
Complete UI Rewrite: The user interface has been completely rebuilt using Windows Forms, replacing the previous WPF front-end.

Custom Dark Mode Engine: A comprehensive dark mode system (DarkModeCS.cs) was modified from DarkModeForms to provide a consistent and modern look and feel in Windows Forms.

Adaptive Advanced Rule Creator: The "Create Advanced Rule" form is now smarter. It adaptively shows or hides UI sections based on the selected network protocol (e.g., showing Port fields only for TCP/UDP).

Code & Backend Refactoring
Framework Modernization: The entire project has been upgraded from the legacy .NET Framework 4.8 to .NET 8.

Direct API Interaction: Advanced rules are now created by interacting directly with the NetFwTypeLib COM API, replacing the previous method of generating and executing PowerShell commands. This provides more robust and reliable rule creation.

More Robust Services:

The

AdminTaskService for running privileged operations like auditpol.exe now has improved error handling and output redirection .

The

SystemDiscoveryService features an improved parser for extracting executable paths from Win32_Service WMI queries .

Typed Data Models: New strongly-typed classes for PortRange and IPAddressRange have been introduced for more reliable parsing and handling of complex rule parameters.