Windows installers to add firewall exceptions

Starting with XP SP1 or SP2, MS Windows comes with a very handy built-in firewall. Using the default settings, whenever a new executable (such as Tor.exe) tries to accept incoming TCP connections from the network, the firewall raises a scary security alert message. This was seen on XP SP3 on a fresh installation of Vidalia Relay Bundle.

Aside from the slight annoyance, this can be a little confusing for nontechnical users and it's bad to train users to click "Yes" to scary-sounding security warnings that they don't fully understand.

For these reasons, app installers under Windows often pre-create firewall exceptions for their executables.

Trac:
Username: marshray