Settings

Open Settings in the sidebar or from the tray. Use Search settings at the top to jump to any setting. Sections appear in this order.

Startup & window

• Launch on Windows startup: Start AdBolish at login, resuming in the tray or windowed as you left it. On by default. Filtering doesn't wait for it: the protection service starts with Windows; see System DNS.

Updates

• Update channel: Stable or Beta. Beta receives releases earlier, with more risk. AdBolish updates itself. It checks shortly after it starts and every 6 hours after that, downloads a new version in the background, then restarts into it on its own a moment later. You don't need to do anything. The protection service updates along with it and keeps filtering through the restart.

• Check for updates: Check now checks right away. If an update has downloaded but hasn't installed yet, the button reads Restart to update.

Privacy & diagnostics

Anonymous, opt-out telemetry. Never includes URLs, filenames, or content.

• Crash reports: Send anonymized crash diagnostics (Sentry).
• Usage analytics: Send anonymous feature-usage events (Aptabase).
• Reinstall / Uninstall analytics: On first launch, send a single anonymous id so we can measure installs and reinstalls and which sources lead to real usage. No URLs, filenames, or content.

See Privacy.

Bandwidth exchange

AdBolish is free because it shares a portion of your idle bandwidth through Massive. Sharing is what pays for the utilities, so they only run while it is on.

• Share idle bandwidth: turns sharing on or off. The hint says On. The utilities are available. or Off. The utilities are disabled until you turn sharing back on.
• Exchange status: the live state of the sharing engine.

See Bandwidth sharing for what turning it off does to blocking.

Protection

The AdBolish settings, top to bottom:

• Protection service: Running · v…, or Not set up with Set up. See System DNS and the protection service.
• Route this PC's DNS through AdBolish: filter every app. Needs the protection service. See System DNS.
• Encrypted DNS: where AdBolish sends the lookups it doesn't block. Off (your network's DNS) sends them in plain text to your network's DNS, the default. Quad9 or Cloudflare encrypt them (DNS over HTTPS) so your network and ISP can't read them. NextDNS takes your Profile ID; Custom DoH URL takes any https:// address. Click Use to apply those two. Names on your local network and VPN still use your network's DNS. If the provider stops answering, the hint turns amber and lookups fall back to your network's DNS until it does.
• Turn off secure DNS in Chrome and Edge: see Browsers and secure DNS.
• Encrypted DNS bypass: Other encrypted DNS services, so apps can't route around AdBolish. On by default. See Browsers and secure DNS.
• SafeSearch: Filters explicit results on Google, Bing and DuckDuckGo for every browser on this PC.
• YouTube Restricted Mode: Off, Moderate or Strict. Hides videos YouTube marks as mature, on every browser and the YouTube app. Strict hides more.
• Notify me when a dangerous site is blocked: on by default. See Threats.

The switches for what AdBolish blocks are on the page for each kind of blocking: Ad networks, Privacy, Threats and Content filters.

Loaded blocklists shows each list's file and domain count. AdBolish checks for list updates once a day and swaps them in without a restart; the line underneath says when the lists were last updated and checked. Check for updates checks now. Lists are by HaGeZi (GPL-3.0).

Resolver is a read-only summary: where AdBolish is Listening, the Upstream DNS it forwards to, any VPN: domains, your counts of Exclusions and Custom blocks, the Block reply (0.0.0.0 / ::), and the state of Firefox DoH and Chrome/Edge DoH.

• Data folder: where AdBolish keeps its settings, lists and statistics. Open folder opens it. With the protection service set up it reads Managed by the AdBolish Protection Service (administrators only) and Open folder is greyed out: the service keeps its data in a protected system folder.
• Reset statistics: Clears charts, counters and the block log. Allowed lookups are never recorded. Exclusions are kept. Click Reset.

About

Version, the License agreement you accepted, the Privacy policy, and Open-source licenses.

What usually goes wrong

• A list switch shows "Downloading…" for a long time. Newly registered domains (on the Threats page) isn't included in the installer; it downloads the first time you turn it on. Check your internet connection, then Check for updates.
• "Last update failed: …" under the blocklists. Your current lists keep working. AdBolish tries again the next day, or click Check for updates.
• "Encrypted DNS is off for now: …" The provider couldn't be reached at startup, so AdBolish is using your network's DNS. It tries again the next time it starts, or choose the provider again once you're online.