zen-desktop

What's New

• Translated block and error pages Before, the block page and the error pages Zen shows when a site fails to load were always in English. They now use the language you chose in the app.
• Exception rule fixes Filter lists often allow something on just one site, with a rule like @@||moatads.com^$script,domain=nascar.com. Zen ignored most of these rules unless a block rule had exactly the same modifiers, which was incorrect behaviour. Zen now applies them the same way uBlock Origin and AdGuard do.
• Lower memory use Zen now uses about 60 MB less memory with the default filter lists.
• Security update Zen is now built with Go 1.27.3, which rejects certificates issued through compromised intermediate CAs (CVE-2026-111943). Your system's certificate store should already reject them, but this adds a second check.
• Other minor bugfixes and improvements.

Thank you for using Zen!

Full Changelog: https://github.com/irbis-sh/zen-desktop/compare/v0.27.1...v0.28.0

What's New

• Self-updates now work on systems with multiple partitions Updates failed if Zen was installed on a different drive or partition from the system's temporary folder. This is now fixed. Thanks to @unpacman for reporting!
• Other minor bugfixes and performance improvements.

Thank you for using Zen!

Full Changelog: https://github.com/irbis-sh/zen-desktop/compare/v0.27.0...v0.27.1

What's New

• Fewer bot checks and block pages Some sites, such as Etsy and Yelp, use bot-detection services that sometimes mistook Zen's connections for bot traffic and showed a block page. Zen now mimics your browser's TLS fingerprint, so these pages load normally. Thanks to @ThisIsJeron for reporting this!
• More accurate filter lists Zen now understands the !#if blocks in filter lists and loads only the rules that apply to Zen. AdGuard Base and AdGuard Spyware now load from AdGuard's Windows builds, which are made for proxy-based blockers like Zen. Before, Zen loaded about 5,000 rules meant for iOS, Safari and Android.
• Lower memory use Zen now uses about 60 MB less memory with the default filter lists.
• Other minor bugfixes and improvements.

Thank you for using Zen!

Full Changelog: https://github.com/irbis-sh/zen-desktop/compare/v0.26.0...v0.27.0

What's New

• Hardware-backed CA key A new experimental setting under Settings > Advanced stores Zen's root CA private key in the Secure Enclave on macOS or the TPM on Windows. The key can't be copied off the device, even by malware. We recommend turning the setting on for most people, so please try it out and tell us how it went. See the documentation for more details.
• NixOS support Zen now runs on NixOS. You can build it from source with the new Nix flake. See the installation guide. Thanks to @ohdonny for requesting this, and @BUTTER-BEAR for extensive help with testing!
• Lower memory use With various optimisations, Zen now uses about 45 MB less memory with the default filter lists.
• Restart after update keeps your state The "Restart" button shown after an update now reopens the window and turns the proxy back on if it was running. Before, Zen could come back hidden in the tray (if it had been started on login), or with the proxy off.
• Fixed Firefox ignoring Zen after Stop/Start Firefox cached the proxy configuration file, so after a Stop and Start in Zen it kept using the old proxy address. This is now fixed.
• $all rules now block page loads Rules with the $all modifier now also block pages you open directly, the same way $document rules do.
• Harder for sites to detect Zen Zen's injected scripts no longer add global polyfills or put scriptlets and extendedCSS properties on window. Pages are less likely to break, and anti-adblock scripts have fewer signs to look for.
• Other minor bugfixes and improvements.

Thank you for using Zen!

Full Changelog: https://github.com/irbis-sh/zen-desktop/compare/v0.25.1...v0.26.0