AdGuard for Windows update: Here is what version 7.2 has to offer

UPD 23 Sep 2019: we released a hotfix that deals with some critical compatibility problems, mainly with Emsisoft software. We also seized the moment to update CoreLibs and make a couple of minor improvements.

You can help us avoid such accidents in the future by joining our beta testing program. We'll thank you and even give you a special beta license key :)

How is AdGuard for Windows doing? Seems like there has been little to no news about it on the blog since spring. But there is an explanation for it all, and it's called "version 7.2"!

For several months, we have been working in full swing on everything - design, performance, compatibility issues with other programs, general filtering improvement and much more. In this post we are going to tell you in detail what the new version is capable of.

And let's start with the fact that this update is closely related to the landmark release of version 7.0. Large-scale changes (reminder: we had a transition to the new CoreLibs filtering engine, as well as a complete redesign of the UI) made back then inevitably entailed a ton of errors that we needed to fix :)

You may ask: where is version 7.1 itself, and why didn’t you talk about it here? As a matter of fact, 7.1 was released in June and was a patch, by which we urgently fixed a few serious issues. But many tasks went on into work on 7.2, where we finally figured all of them out.

But enough with prefaces, let's take a look at changes in the new AdGuard.

Installer redesign

Let's start with the changes you actually can see. In version 7.0, we updated the design of the entire program, but the installer remained ancient the same. And visually the two were in strong dissonance. But we fixed it:

All fresh and clean now

The installer became neater, more compact and, hopefully, more comprehendable.
Also, we added a useful function to it - installer crash reporting tool ↓

Installer crash reporting tool
Anybody can get frustrated when the application suddenly crashes, users and developers alike. And this was especially ridiculous when it was happening at the installation stage - in this case, our usual error reporting tool was useless. That's why we equipped the installer with it's own "error-reporter tool", just in case you have any problems during installation.

The essence is the same: we do not send anything at all without your consent. And when sending a report, you can add a comment describing the problem thus helping our developers fix it faster.

Internal changes

Now let's see what we have hidden under the hood. It is always difficult to tell about details when it comes to technical changes. The fact that they exist speaks for itself. Therefore, although there is a huge number of them in this version, we will only note some of the important ones. And for those who are interested in details, the entire list, as always, is available on GitHub
here　(app related) and here　(CoreLibs related).

Changes in CoreLibs

Fixed compatibility issues
Ad blockers, VPNs and anti-viruses use somewhat similar operational mechanisms, that is why they sometimes conflict with each other. In this version we have focused on troubleshooting AdGuard compatibility problems with some popular anti-viruses (Sophos, Bitdefender, ESET and such) and VPN services (NordVPN, SecureMe, Windscribe and such). More on that in tasks 1064, 1082, 2830 and etc.

**Filtering improvement **
Some filtering rules could have worked incorrectly, and sometimes it’s quite difficult to identify them, no matter how hard our QA team is trying. After all, they can be discovered only under certain circumstances and on certain websites, if several conditions are met. That is why it took us some time to identify those problematic cases. But in the end, we fixed those and generally improved the filtering. More details in tasks 996, 997, 1006, 1039, 1057, 1065, 1066, 1073 and etc.

Speed and performance
So we all understand that programs like AdGuard, which process all the traffic, in some cases, can slightly cut the loading speed on the web. Therefore, we are constantly on alert and improve everything we can. Here, for example, we have accelerated the loading on YouTube and connection to IPv6. But again, it’s the field where we will never stop making AdGuard better. We have also improved responsiveness of the program itself so now it works much faster. More details in problems 903, 925, 936, 1035, etc. 903, 925, 936, 1035 and etc.

Bug fixes from previous versions

We have already mentioned tons of bugs from version 7.0, which had to be fixed in the new version. We were not joking, they really turned out to be a lot :) But this was expected and primarily due to the fact that on a global scale (btw, greetings to millions of our users <3) AdGuard works on completely different configurations and it’s impossible to consider all of them. Just imagine how many different combinations users have, like hardware version and set of installed programs, for example. And the filtering engine, we transferred everybody to, was completely new compared to version 6. So these nuances were inevitable. All the details are here on GitHub.

Well now you are up to date with all the latest news. We just need to remind you how to upgrade to the new version and voilà.

If you have the “Automatic update” checkbox in the Settings (General), then you will simply see a notification about the new version available on the main screen, which you will need to click on.
And if you don’t have auto-updates, then click on "About" and you will see the same message there about the available new version.

If you have any questions, leave us a comment. And see you soon!

Best regards,
AdGuard team