Zapret Frequently Asked Questions

Zapret is a tool for bypassing DPI (Deep Packet Inspection), the traffic-inspection technology providers use to block services. The zapret-discord-youtube bundle by Flowseal is a ready-made set of DPI bypass strategies for Windows that restores access to Discord, YouTube and other services without a VPN or proxy.

No. Zapret relies on WinDivert, a legitimate open-source Windows driver for intercepting network packets. Some antivirus products flag it as Not-a-virus:RiskTool.Multi.WinDivert — this is a false positive caused by what the driver can do, not by malicious behavior. Add the Zapret folder to your antivirus exclusions.

No. This site is an independent information resource and is not affiliated with the Zapret developers, GitHub or SourceForge. The official bundle repository is github.com/Flowseal/zapret-discord-youtube; the original zapret project lives at github.com/bol-van/zapret.

Only from the releases page of the official GitHub repository: github.com/Flowseal/zapret-discord-youtube/releases. Do not download repacked builds from third-party sites or file-sharing portals — malicious copies of the bundle are common.

Try a different archive format (zip, rar or tar.gz) — detection often depends on the packer. If that does not help, temporarily pause your antivirus, download and extract the archive, add the folder to the exclusions list, then re-enable protection.

The contents are identical — only the packaging differs. If you have no archiver installed, take the zip: Windows opens it natively. If your antivirus flags one format, simply try another.

Yes, zapret-discord-youtube supports both Windows 10 and Windows 11. On Windows 11 it is additionally recommended to enable Secure DNS (DNS over HTTPS) in the system network settings.

With caveats. On Windows 7 the WinDivert driver needs a compatible digital signature: replace WinDivert.dll and WinDivert64.sys in the bin folder with the files of the same name from zapret-win-bundle/win7 in the bol-van repository.

1) Make sure Secure DNS is enabled in your browser. 2) Run service.bat → Run Diagnostics and let it clear the Discord cache. 3) Check Discord in the browser (discord.com/app) to isolate the desktop app. 4) Try other strategies — it is common for YouTube to work on a strategy while Discord does not.

Discord voice uses UDP, which needs its own bypass. Check that your strategy includes Discord UDP (Voice) handling, then try service.bat → Replace active fakes to swap the fake packet used for voice. Updating the hosts file via service.bat → Update Hosts File also helps.

1) Enable Secure DNS (in Chrome: "Use secure DNS" with a non-default provider). 2) Disable your ad blocker — YouTube actively interferes with them. 3) Test every strategy via service.bat → Run Tests → Standard tests → All configs and switch to a working one.

The bundle does not show a version number in a window title — your version is the tag of the GitHub release you downloaded (for example 1.10.3). To compare it with the latest release, run service.bat → Check for Updates, or enable Auto-Update Check so the program notifies you when a new version is out.

Restart your PC, then run service.bat → Remove Services and delete the old folder. Download the latest release, unblock the archive (Properties → Unblock), extract it to a new folder with no non-Latin characters in the path, and test the strategies again — the one that worked before may not be the best one now.

The bypass engine source code is in the original zapret repository: github.com/bol-van/zapret. The Windows bundle at github.com/Flowseal/zapret-discord-youtube contains the ready-made strategies, service scripts and prebuilt binaries, plus an issue tracker for bug reports.

The bundle has no full graphical interface, but its service.bat menu covers the common tasks — installing and removing the service, running diagnostics, testing strategies and checking for updates — without editing any files. Community-made GUI wrappers also exist; see the GUI page for the projects we track.

Open a command prompt as administrator and run: netsh winsock reset, netsh int ip reset all, netsh winhttp reset proxy, ipconfig /flushdns. Restart the computer, then test all strategies again via service.bat → Run Tests.

Open service.bat and make sure Game Filter is disabled and IPSet Filter is set to none. Game Filter and the ipset any mode intercept traffic from other programs and are meant primarily for testing, not for everyday use.

Zapret is not a VPN: your traffic never goes through third-party servers. Instead, it intercepts outgoing packets with the WinDivert driver and modifies them — for example by sending fake packets or splitting the TLS ClientHello — so the provider's DPI system fails to recognize the connection, while the destination server still receives valid data.

winws.exe is the Windows build of the nfqws engine from the original zapret project — the process that actually applies the selected strategy. WinDivert is the open-source driver and library it uses to capture and modify packets in user mode. When you launch general.bat or install the service via service.bat, you are starting winws with that strategy's parameters on top of WinDivert.