Requirements
- Windows 10 or Windows 11 (64-bit)
- Administrator rights
- An archiver: the one built into Windows (zip), 7-Zip or WinRAR
Step 1 — Download
Open the releases page of the official GitHub repository and download the zapret-discord-youtube archive. Zip, rar and tar.gz contain identical files, so the choice only matters for your archiver — or for your antivirus: if one format gets flagged, downloading another often helps without disabling protection at all.
Step 2 — Extract
Windows marks files downloaded from the internet as blocked, and a blocked driver will not load. Before extracting, remove that mark:
- Right-click the downloaded archive → Properties
- If there is an "Unblock" checkbox at the bottom — tick it and click Apply
- Extract the archive to a folder at the drive root with no non-Latin characters or spaces in the path: C:\zapret
Step 3 — Configure
Before the first launch, enable Secure DNS in your browser (in Chrome: "Use secure DNS" with a non-default provider) or at the Windows 11 system level. Without this step the provider can forge DNS responses, and the bypass will most likely not work.
Step 4 — Start
You do not need to guess which strategy fits your provider — service.bat tests them all and reports the working ones:
- Run service.bat → Run Tests → Standard tests → All configs
- Pick one of the working strategies and run the corresponding general*.bat file
- Make sure a winws.exe window with a padlock icon opened on the taskbar
- Check that YouTube and Discord are reachable
Step 5 — Verify
A manually started strategy stops when you close its window or reboot. To make the bypass permanent, install it as an autostart service and verify it survives a restart:
- Run service.bat as administrator
- Install Service → choose the working strategy
- Check Status → make sure the service and the WinDivert driver are active
- Restart the PC and confirm the bypass works without any manual launch
Step 6 — Troubleshoot
- Service fails to install → check administrator rights and that the path contains no non-Latin characters
- Antivirus deleted files → add the folder to exclusions and restore the files from quarantine
- No strategies work → reset the network stack (netsh winsock reset and the other commands from the troubleshooting section) and restart
FAQ
- Where should I extract Zapret? Any permanent folder whose path has no non-Latin characters, spaces or special symbols — C:\zapret is the safe default.
- Do I need administrator rights? Only for installing or removing the autostart service; running a strategy manually works without them.
- How do I uninstall? Run service.bat → Remove Services, then simply delete the folder.