Emsisoft has announced the availability of Emsisoft Online Armor 7.0, the latest edition of its versatile firewall. The update doesn’t bring any new features, and instead optimises the program’s existing features for enhanced usability, protection and performance.

New support for asynchronous connection handling means existing connections will no longer be blocked if you have a pending firewall alert, for example.

Optimised rule processing should now deliver notably better performance.

It looks much the same, but Online Armor 7.0 is faster, smarter and more compatible than previous editions

You’ll get improved compatibility with Chrome-based browsers, Sandboxie, VoodooShield and other security tools (plus of course there’s full support for Windows 8.1).

Online Armor’s updates now use the same delivery system as Emsisoft Anti-Malware for improved speeds.

Elsewhere, an enhanced banking mode now clearly displays all trusted domains; removing obsolete components has reduced the installer size by around 60%, and more than 300 bug fixes – including some possible blue-screen crashes for Windows 7 and 8 – should greatly improve reliability.

Existing users should receive the new version automatically via its online update system. But if you’re new to the program, a 30-day trial version of Emsisoft Online Armor 7.0 is available, and you can still run the program beyond that as a more limited free edition.