Getting started

In a few minutes you'll have AdBolish installed, filtering every app on your PC, and know where everything is.

Installing

Run the AdBolish installer. It installs the app for your Windows account only. Before you use AdBolish you accept the license agreement, either in the installer or on the Welcome to AdBolish screen the first time the app opens. That screen explains Bandwidth sharing with Massive, with links to Massive's license, privacy policy and FAQ, and has two checkboxes, Send anonymous crash reports and Send anonymous usage analytics; untick either if you'd rather not send them (see Privacy). Click Accept and continue.

At the end of the install, Windows asks once for permission to set up the AdBolish Protection Service, a small service that points your PC's DNS at AdBolish. Click Yes: that's the only time AdBolish asks. From then on every app is filtered, from the moment Windows starts, for everyone who uses this PC.

AdBolish runs on Windows 10 and 11 (64-bit).

The first run

The first time AdBolish starts it compiles its blocklists, which takes a moment. The top of the window says Starting… and Loading blocklists (first run compiles them). When it's ready, the switch at the top turns on and reads Protection on.

Turn on filtering for every app

If you allowed the protection service during the install, there's nothing to do: the header shows System DNS: followed by your network adapters (for example System DNS: Wi-Fi) and says Filtering every app on this PC.

If you clicked No (or the install ran silently), AdBolish filters only lookups sent to 127.0.0.1, and shows a banner: System-wide filtering isn't set up. Click Set up and approve the Windows prompt; the banner goes away and every app is filtered. If you decline again it says Windows didn't give permission. You can try again. See System DNS and the protection service.

The main window

The sidebar's Protection section holds the six dashboard pages:

• Overview: today's numbers and charts. See Overview.
• Ad networks: the ad networks AdBolish stopped. See Ad networks.
• Privacy: analytics, telemetry and social trackers stopped. See Privacy (trackers).
• Threats: malware, phishing and other dangerous sites stopped. See Threats.
• Content filters: block adult, gambling or social media sites. See Content filters.
• Realtime: the live log of every blocked request. See Realtime.

A page whose blocking is all switched off shows Off next to its name in the sidebar. Content filters and Privacy show it until you turn one of their switches on. Overview shows Off while protection as a whole is off, and Paused while it's paused.

Under System are Exclusions (your allow and block lists; see Exclusions), Settings, Help (opens the online guide), Feedback (send a rating and a note to the team; First name and Email are optional) and More Apps. At the bottom of the sidebar, under the version number, a status pill shows whether bandwidth sharing is running (Sharing, Off, Paused, ...). See Bandwidth sharing.

Closing versus quitting

Closing the window doesn't stop AdBolish. It keeps filtering, and stays in the system tray next to the clock. Click the tray icon to bring the window back. Quit AdBolish (right-click the tray icon) closes the app; your PC's DNS keeps working through the protection service, but ad blocking pauses about two minutes later, because bandwidth sharing (which keeps AdBolish free) stops with the app. Start AdBolish again to resume. See The system tray.

Uninstalling

Open Windows Settings ▸ Apps ▸ Installed apps (or Add or remove programs on older Windows), search for AdBolish, and click Uninstall.

• Your DNS settings come back. The uninstaller asks once for permission to remove the protection service, which puts your original DNS settings back first. The same goes for the Chrome and Edge setting described in Browsers and secure DNS. If another Windows account on this PC still has AdBolish, the service stays for them.
• The Massive agent goes with it. Uninstalling stops the bandwidth-sharing agent and removes it from your PC, unless another Clearware app you still have installed uses it. An update doesn't remove it.
• Your protection data goes with the service. With the protection service set up, your exclusions, custom blocks, blocklist choices, statistics and downloaded blocklist updates are kept by the service in %ProgramData%\AdBolish, and removing the service deletes that folder. (If another Windows account still has AdBolish, nothing is removed.)
• Your app preferences stay unless you tick the box. The uninstaller offers a checkbox to delete the application data. Leave it unticked and the app's own settings (startup, updates, diagnostics) stay in %LOCALAPPDATA%\io.adbolish.app (and %APPDATA%\io.adbolish.app), ready for a reinstall. Tick it to remove them too. If you never set up the protection service, your exclusions, custom blocks and statistics live there as well.

What usually goes wrong

• "System-wide filtering isn't set up" won't go away. The Windows prompt was declined. Click Set up and choose Yes.
• A site stopped working. Click Site broken? at the top of Overview. See Fixing a broken site.
• One browser still shows ads. It is probably using its own secure DNS. A banner names it. See Browsers and secure DNS.