Windows Firewall - Thinking Different

From what I hear, the firewall in Microsoft's new Vista operating system still lets applications open connections to the outside world. Which means viruses and spyware can send stuff out and even attack other systems. This article describes the problem.

Perhaps what Microsoft should do is create an architecture that allows anyone to create a database of approved applications/plugins/scripts, connections they are allowed to make and methods for validating that an executable is what it appears to be.

Since anyone create such a database and make it available to Windows usersm, each user can select the database they prefer to manage what applications can do on his or her system. With each enforcement action, the user could be notified (or not) and accept or change the rules for application.

This way users that just click through would get protected. The best and most up-to-date databases would evolve for specific kinds of users. And we can stop spending all this money on anti-virus, spyware protection, etc.