I use ESET Smart Security 4 for antivirus (AV) and firewall on 3 computers. This was the 3rd AV / AntiSpam (AS) / Firewall program I tried in Windows 7 and didn’t see a need to try another. The NOD32 AV/AS seems to work well – no problems so far – but the firewall was what convinced me to flex the credit card. It is configured to let me decide internet access for each individual program.
It also alerts to changed programs.
I run in Advanced mode, as circled below.
Personal firewall is setup to use Interactive filtering.
“Configure rules and zones…” highlighted above brings up an editable list of programs and permissions.
There may be better programs out there but I doubt I’ll ever find out.