Everything AdFender does

Where it works

AdFender filters from outside your browsers rather than from inside one, so a single install covers Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Opera and other supported browsers at once.

• The browsers you use. Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Opera and other supported browsers are recognized automatically and start being filtered as soon as AdFender is running, including a supported browser you install months from now.
• Other desktop programs you add. The Apps page lists every program AdFender is filtering, with a switch each, and Add an app puts another desktop program on it — a mail client, a chat app, a game launcher showing ads.
• No browser extension. There is nothing to install inside Chrome, Edge or Firefox, nothing to re-add when you switch browsers, and nothing that stops working when a browser changes its extension rules.

How this compares with a browser extension

A browser extension guards the one browser it lives in, under the rules that browser sets for extensions.

Filter lists

A filter list is what each request is checked against. Four are on from the start, setup adds one for your language when Windows is set to a language the catalog covers, and AdFender keeps every one of them up to date on its own.

• Ad blocking — the foundation, covering English-language sites.
• Anti-tracking — the trackers and beacons that follow you between sites.
• Anti-adblock — the scripts some sites use to detect a blocker and nag you.
• AdFender Supplemental — our own list. It carries the rules behind the Privacy page’s Strip tracking parameters from web addresses switch, so the list and that switch work as a pair: turn the switch on and the list comes on with it, turn the list off and the switch goes off too.

Beyond those, the catalog offers fifteen regional lists — German, French, Spanish, Italian, Dutch, Polish, Portuguese, Turkish, Arabic, Hebrew, Chinese, Japanese and Korean, plus one list covering Russian and Ukrainian sites and one covering Indian-language sites — and three annoyance lists for cookie-consent banners, “allow notifications” prompts, and social share widgets.

You can also subscribe to any EasyList-syntax list by its HTTPS address. AdFender fetches it from that server directly and follows the schedule the list publishes, and it does not report back which lists you have added.

And you can write your own rules. They live in myrules.txt, editable inside AdFender or in any text editor, to block or allow a domain or hide an element on a single site.

Choosing between them, adding one, and the rule syntax: choosing filter lists.

Filtering inside secure pages

Almost every ad arrives over HTTPS today, so blocking them means being able to look inside a secure connection. AdFender does that with a private root certificate, unique to your PC, which it installs when you turn HTTPS filtering on. Setup asks, and recommends it, and you can also turn it on later from the dashboard. The certificate is generated on your own computer and stays there, and turning HTTPS filtering off offers to take it back out of Windows again.

• An exclusion list AdFender steps aside for. Sites on it pass through untouched, and banking and other sensitive-transaction sites are on it by default. You can add your own by hostname or by wildcard, and put the shipped list back if you remove something by accident.
• Domain-name filtering as the fallback. With HTTPS filtering off AdFender keeps working, but catches much less: it can still refuse a connection to a known ad server by name, without decrypting anything.

What the certificate is and what to do about a warning: HTTPS filtering and the certificate.

Privacy controls

Blocking trackers cuts out much of the collection. The Privacy page goes further, limiting what your own browser volunteers about you on every request. Five switches, each independent:

• Send a “Do Not Sell or Share” signal. Attaches the recognized opt-out signal to your browsing traffic. Where privacy laws apply, businesses are required to honor it.
• Strip tracking parameters from web addresses. Removes the tracking codes sites add to the links you open.
• Trim cross-site referrers. Stops a site being told which page you were on when you followed a link to it.
• Minimize identifying request headers. Hides details your browser announces about your device — screen size, operating system, hardware — which are part of what a fingerprint is assembled from.
• Block WebRTC. Stops WebRTC revealing network addresses for your device beyond what an ordinary connection shows. It can affect video calls made in a browser, so it is yours to decide.

All of that matching happens on your PC: AdFender checks the sites you visit against your lists locally and never sends us your browsing. It does check in with our servers, for licensing and to tell you about updated lists or a new version, carrying limited information about the app and two running totals of ads and trackers blocked. Every field it carries is listed in the privacy policy.

The activity log

Turn logging on and AdFender shows you, live, what it is blocking and allowing on the sites you are visiting, naming the list and the rule behind each decision. Seeing a request you want through, you can turn that row straight into an exception.

It is off until you switch it on, it is held in memory only — nothing is written to your hard drive — and it stops when you close AdFender. If you want a copy of it, you have to export one deliberately.

Staying in control

• Pause filtering for one minute, five, fifteen, or until you resume — everything at once, or just the one app you are troubleshooting. The system tray icon offers a quick pause of everything too, for 30 seconds, one or five minutes, or until you resume, without opening the dashboard.
• Exempt a site permanently. Exempt website from filtering in the tray menu leaves that one site alone and keeps the rest of the web filtered.
• Turn any app off. A program on the Apps list can have its filtering switched off without affecting the others.
• Two ways to filter traffic. App-level is the default: AdFender attaches to the apps you have enabled and changes no Windows-wide network setting. Network-level sets AdFender as the Windows HTTP/HTTPS proxy instead, for the rare case where app-level filtering will not take on a browser. Either way, only the apps you enabled are filtered.

A site that stopped working, and how to tell whether we are the cause: fix a broken website.

The practical details

Windows

Windows 10 or Windows 11, 64-bit or 32-bit.

Languages

English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese and Japanese. AdFender follows your Windows display language unless you pick one.

Account

None. There is nothing to sign up for and nothing to sign in to.

Trial

14 days with every feature available, no card needed. Download AdFender 3.0.

License

Plans from $24.99/year for 3 PCs, plus tax; one code covers 3, 5 or 10 PCs at once, depending on the plan. Nothing renews on its own, and there is a 30-day money-back guarantee. If you replace a PC, you can move it to the new one.