How to set up Privoxy as a service on Windows 

Why would I want to do this?

Privoxy is very good at detecting ads and all you have to do is change the proxy settings of your browser, this is very useful if you use multiple browsers.

I use this because I find it better than most AdBlock plugins and I use multiple web browsers and don’t like having to install a separate plugin for each browser.

What do I need to do this?

Privoxy

Let’s Get Started!

First, download and run the installer.

Uncheck all options and install Privoxy.

Once Privoxy is installed you will need to install Privoxy as a service, to do this, open Explorer and navigate to the directory Privoxy is installed in.

Right-click on privoxy.exe and create a shortcut to it.

Right-click on the shortcut and open the Properties, under the “Target field” add –install[:Privoxy] Like so:

Apply the settings and then right-click the shortcut and run as Administrator.

A Privoxy window should appear saying that the service was successfully installed, if not, review the steps and make sure you set up the shortcut correctly.

Once the service is installed run services.msc by pressing Ctrl+R and typing “services.msc” and pressing  Ok.

This will run the Services configuration which will have a list of all windows services, look for an entry called “Privoxy([:Privoxy])” right-click on the entry and click Properties.

Change Startup type from “Manual” to “Automatic”, next press the Start button and press OK.

Now that the service is running, open up your Web Browser(s) and change the proxy settings to:

IP:127.0.0.1

Port: 8118

You can set this in Internet Explorer like so:

Tools>Internet Options>Connections>LAN Settings>Use A Proxy Server for your LAN>Advanced:

This will also change the proxy settings for Google Chrome

To change the settings for Firefox do:

Tools>Options>Advanced>Network>Settings>Manual Proxy Configuration:

And it is basically the same in most other Web Browsers too.

The proxy server can also be used as an internet gateway for computers without an Intenet connection that are on your LAN, just change the proxy settings on the computer without the direct Internet Connection to use the IP address of the computer running the proxy server with the same Port number, here is an example using a hostname instead of an IP address:

I hope this guide has been useful and please read more of my guides, thank you.