Stardock has released an updated beta of Connection Explorer, the Windows app it launched a couple of months ago that lets users can see and understand all of the network activity on their PCs. The new update offers increased focus on transparency and control, and gives users a better understanding of how applications connect to the internet, as well as additional tools to manage that behavior.
Connection Explorer is designed to show every active connection on a Windows system in real time. It breaks down which applications are communicating, where data is going, and how frequently those connections occur. It’s for anyone worried about privacy, performance, or unexpected background activity, and helps make it easier to understand exactly what a PC is getting up to behind the scenes.
Connection Explorer improvements
The latest beta focuses on the Firewall panel, which was previously called Blocked. This panel gains separate controls for blocking inbound and outbound connections on a per-application basis, allowing users to restrict how individual apps communicate without cutting them off entirely.
The Firewall panel also now includes sparklines that show connection activity over the past 24 hours, providing a quick snapshot of how active a specific app has been, helping users spot unusual behavior at a glance.
The main goal of this update is to improve per-app visibility and control. When used together with the Bandwidth panel, the Firewall panel can help users spot applications that generate unexpected traffic and take action.
The Bandwidth panel shows how much data each connection uses and where that data is goes, so users can understand data flow on a per-connection basis.
In addition to the new new features, the update includes performance improvements to caching and database lookups, making the app more responsive, especially when handling a large number of connections over time.
Connection tracking has also been improved for non-English Windows installations. In previous releases, connections sometimes reset or failed to persist between sessions. The latest beta, Connection Explorerr 0.90, addresses those problems and should result in more consistent tracking across restarts.
The new version also introduces new icons and placeholder graphics have been replaced with proper application-specific icons, which will make it easier to identify programs at a glance. There are new loading animations too.
The new beta fixes a number of issues, addressing problems reported by users, particularly around stability and reliability.
You can try Connection Explorer for free now, or as part of Object Desktop, which is available to buy for $50 a year.
What do you think about Connection Explorer and its approach to network visibility? Let us know in the comments.
