Frequently Asked Questions

AdFender is advanced software that filters various types of content from web pages and prevents certain information from going out to web servers. Filtered content saves you valuable time and bandwidth and enhances your online privacy.

AdFender is a local content-filtering HTTP(S) proxy server. Typically, your web browser contacts web servers directly to retrieve specific web pages that you request. Sometimes, however, web browsers are configured to use an intermediary called a proxy server. A proxy server is a program that accepts requests from a web browser to retrieve a specific web page and then contacts the web server containing that web page. The proxy then passes all the data from the web server to the web browser. AdFender uses the name of the web page (URL) that a browser would request as the base of it's operational decisions. If AdFender determines that the request is for an advertisement, the request is blocked, otherwise it passes all data from the web server back to the web browser.

Yes. You can evaluate AdFender on a trial basis for the number of days specified in the license agreement. If you wish to continue using AdFender after the trial period, you must purchase an activation code.

Once the trial expires, AdFender will enter into an inactive state and will not block ads or trackers, until the license is activated.

Make sure you have an active Internet connection and follow the steps below to activate your license…

  • Right click the AdFender icon in the notification area and choose the option ‘Activate license’ or 'Renew license'
  • Enter the email address that you used to purchase the license and the activation code you received in the order confirmation email
  • Click the “Activate” button

If you haven't received your order confirmation email within few hours after purchase, it is likely that a spam filter has caught it. Check your Junk Email or Spam folder to see if your order confirmation email has been misclassified. Add a new rule to your email client to allow all emails from "adfender.com". If required, email support using the same email account that you used to purchase the license with, include an alternate email address (preferably web based email e.g. Yahoo, Gmail) and we will resend your activation code.

No we do not offer a FREE version. You can try AdFender during the trial period without purchasing an activation code.

AdFender runs on both 32 and 64 bit versions of...

  • Windows 11
  • Windows 10
  • Windows 8
  • Windows 7 (SP1)

AdFender works with all leading web browsers such as

  • Google Chrome
  • Firefox
  • Microsoft Edge
  • Internet Explorer
  • Opera Internet Browser
  • Chromium

AdFender also supports

  • Comodo Dragon
  • Cyberfox
  • Epic Privacy Browser
  • Firefox Developer Edition
  • FlashPeak SlimBrowser
  • Maxthon
  • Opera beta Internet Browser
  • Opera developer Internet Browser
  • Pale Moon
  • SeaMonkey
  • SRWare Iron
  • Vivaldi
  • Waterfox
  • Yandex

To filter secure HTTPS connections, AdFender uses the "man-in-the-middle" approach. Typically your web browser would verify the certificate used by a domain (e.g. https://youtube.com) before establishing a secure HTTPS connection with it. When HTTPS filtering is enabled, AdFender will install a unique root certificate on your system which would be used to dynamically generate HTTPS certificates. Your browser will get a dynamically generated certificate for the domain signed using the AdFender root certificate (AdFender Personal Root CA). Before generating a certificate this way, AdFender will validate the original certificate used by the domain and in most cases, will also mirror the ciphers used by the browser to establish the secure connection. By default, banking and financial sites using secure HTTPS connections are excluded from filtering based on the built-in exclusion list, which can also be modified by the user.

You can add a custom rule to exclude specific sites from filtering. Follow the steps below…

  • Open AdFender main console
  • Click “Filters” tab and click the radio button next to “My filter rules”
  • Click the “Add” button and enter the rule “@@||example.com^$document” without the quotes. Replace example.com with your site
  • Click the “Add” button on the dialog and click “OK” or “Apply” on the main console
  • Clear the browser cache and reload the page

There could be multiple reasons why AdFender was not able to block ads under certain situations. Please note some of the common reasons why this happens and follow the instructions below...


  • Make sure your browser is listed on the "Applications" tab and is checked for filtering
  • Make sure you have filter lists enabled on the the "Filters" tab
  • If the browser updated automatically (running with admin rights), restart the browser
  • You may have previously downloaded ads in your browser's cache. Clear the cache and reload the page
  • Verify your firewall settings to make sure AdFender is allowed to connect to the Internet

Once you have verified the above, close all browser instances and restart AdFender. Browse some sites and open the AdFender main console. If the counters under "Current Session" have non-zero values, then AdFender is working as intended. If not, enable the option "Configure AdFender as system proxy" in the "Settings" dialog. You can also manually configure your browser to use AdFender as the HTTP(S) proxy. The host name or proxy address should be set to "127.0.0.1" (your own computer) and the port should be set to 7070 (default). Please refer to your browser help manual on how to manually configure HTTP(S) proxy settings.

Yes you can. Please follow the instructions below...


  • Open AdFender main console
  • Click “Filters” tab and click the radio button next to “My filter rules”
  • Click the "View" button which will open the file "myrules.txt" in your text editor
  • Copy and paste the rules that you wish to import at the end of the file
  • Save the close the file

No. AdFender runs as a HTTP(S) proxy server on your local computer. It does not depend on our servers for browsing the Internet.

A personal firewall (e.g., Norton, McAfee, Trend Micro, AVG, Avast, Kaspersky) is a security program that controls access to the Internet. The firewall may be a free-standing program, or it may be part of an Internet security package. After AdFender is installed or updated, your security software must be configured to allow AdFender to connect to the Internet. When your browser tries to connect to a web server, it is instead connected to the local AdFender program and AdFender connects to the web server on behalf of the browser. When the firewall notifies you that AdFender is trying to connect to the Internet or act as a server, you MUST allow access, for AdFender to work properly. If you deny access, you must manually reconfigure the security software to allow Internet access for AdFender. Please refer to your security software manual on how to allow an application to connect to the Internet.

After generating the root certificate, AdFender will add it to the Windows Trusted Root Certificate Authorities store. If your browser uses it's own certificate store, then you must manually add the AdFender root certificate to the browser's certificate store. If you have manually configured a separate device to use AdFender as its HTTPS proxy, then you must download and install the AdFender root certificate on that device. Simply start the browser on that device and open the page 'http://local.adfender.com/adfender/root.cer' to download the root certificate.

This could also happen if your Internet security software scans encrypted connections and does not recognize the AdFender root certificate authority. In the latter case, you will have to disable the corresponding setting in your Internet security software configuration.

You can try the following...

  • Open AdFender main console
  • Click the "Settings" tab
  • Select the option to filter applications using Windows API hooking
  • Click the "OK" button

Windows apps are forbidden from sending network traffic to the local computer(loopback). This loopback protection is provided by the Windows firewall service. AdFender runs as a local HTTP(S) proxy and because of the restriction, Windows apps may not work as expected when AdFender is configured as the system proxy. To overcome this issue, either run AdFender using default settings or you could try and enable loopback access for the Windows app that you wish to filter.

To install, simply run the AdFender installation program, "Setup.exe". If you downloaded the "Setup.exe" program, find where it was saved to on your computer using Windows Explorer. Double click "Setup.exe" to start the installation.

To uninstall, go to the Windows Control Panel, then click "Uninstall a program" or click "Add/Remove Programs" Select "AdFender", then choose Add/Remove or Uninstall to run the uninstall. The uninstall process will delete AdFender from your computer. It is recommended that you close all your browsers, before uninstalling AdFender.

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