Choosing filter lists

What comes switched on

Open the dashboard and go to Filters. Four curated lists are ready to use, under the names the page shows them by:

• EasyList — ad blocking, and the foundation the others build on. It covers English-language sites.
• EasyPrivacy — the trackers 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, so that switch and this list work as a pair.

If your Windows is set to a language one of the optional lists covers, setup suggests that list and ticks it for you, so a PC set to German or Japanese starts with the right one already on. On a PC set to English, the four lists above cover English-language sites; if you also read sites in another language, add its list as shown below. Either way you can change it later.

To switch one of your lists off or back on, use its toggle and then click Apply changes. Nothing takes effect until you do — AdFender counts your pending changes so you can switch several at once.

Adding a list for another language

Further down the Filters page is Optional lists: the list for your Windows language, if there is one, and the lists for cookie banners and other annoyances described below. Click + Add beside the one you want. It is added straight away — there is nothing to apply — and moves to Your subscriptions.

To see lists for other languages, click Browse all lists. AdFender’s catalog carries one for German, French, Spanish, Italian, Dutch, Polish, Portuguese, Turkish, Arabic, Hebrew, Chinese, Japanese and Korean. Two more cover a group of languages between them: one for Russian- and Ukrainian-language sites, and IndianList for Indian-language sites. Add as many as you read, but not more: every list costs a little speed, and AdFender warns you when you have many switched on.

These lists are written and kept up to date by the people who maintain them, not by us. AdFender fetches each one from its maintainer and checks for updates on the schedule that list publishes.

Cookie banners and notification prompts

These are separate lists rather than part of ad blocking, because not everyone wants them. You will find them under Optional lists, and add them the same way:

• hiding cookie-consent banners and “accept cookies” pop-ups;
• blocking “allow notifications” prompts and push-notification nags;
• removing social share buttons, like and follow widgets, and embedded comment trackers.

A cookie-banner list hides the banner. It does not answer it for you, so a site may still behave as though you have not chosen.

Subscribing to a list by its address

Any list published in EasyList syntax can be added by URL. On the Filters page use Add a list URL. AdFender fetches it, tells you how many rules it found and how often it updates, and asks you to confirm before subscribing. It then keeps it up to date on the list’s own schedule.

Two things worth knowing before you add one:

• It must be an https:// address. AdFender subscribes only to lists served over HTTPS.
• It is fetched from that publisher, not from us. AdFender says so on screen and names the host. That server is not under our control, and the quality of the list is the publisher’s. Your subscription is private — we do not log which lists you add.

Your own rules

Under My filter rules on the same page is a plain text file of your own, saved as myrules.txt. Anything you exempt goes here, and you can add rules by hand: ||example.com^ blocks a domain, @@||example.com^ allows it, example.com##.banner hides an element on that one site, and a line starting with ! is a comment. For more examples, open + Add a rule and expand Filter rule syntax cheat sheet. It shows the common patterns and checks your rule before adding it.

If you are here because a site stopped working, that is the other half of this: fix a broken website.