Advice Request Adguard for Windows causing BSOD?

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I had some funny issues with AdGuard Desktop lately. Basically with AdGuard active it kills my download speed to 450Mbit w/o Adguard I go full throttle at 4.7 Gbit


You are 99% correct it's most likely an AdGuard stack issue but just for the sake of posterity I would recommending running a memory check to make sure that it's not some memory error.
 
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cartaphilus said:
I had some funny issues with AdGuard Desktop lately. Basically with AdGuard active it kills my download speed to 450Mbit w/o Adguard I go full throttle at 4.7 Gbit


You are 99% correct it's most likely an AdGuard stack issue but just for the sake of posterity I would recommending running a memory check to make sure that it's not some memory error.
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I've done that already. mdsched.exe found no errors. Thank you for the suggestion, however.
 
I've uninstalled adguard for Windows from, well, Windows. It just causes too many problems right now. The thing that kinda sucks is that I also have to switch browsers. Since Vivaldi's integrated blocker is limited, with no element selector, I can't really use it. Brave is Chromium-based with a better blocker, so I've had to switch to that. It remains to be seen whether or not AdGuard will be viable for me once it's out of beta. But for know I've had to ditch it, and I've not gotten any more BSODs.
 
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Does anyone know if Adguard for Windows version 7 suffers from the same bug?
 
Zero Knowledge said:
@n8chavez I've also had multiple BSODs on 25H2. No AdGuard installed but I use VPN, AppGuard & ESET.

Do you also use Firefox? I'm having multiple crashes everyday, I'm starting to wonder and think a clean install of WIN11PRO is needed..

Tried everything, eventually had to do a DISM restore & sfc/scannow. Seems to have settled down now.

Sorry not much help with AdGuard though.
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As far as I remember Eset uses WFP too
 
Interesting. @Bot, is it possible my BSOD is caused by two things using the WFP at once? The VPN I use is on my router, so that's not it. But I do use Sandboxie,
 
n8chavez said:
Interesting. @Bot, is it possible my BSOD is caused by two things using the WFP at once? The VPN I use is on my router, so that's not it. But I do use Sandboxie,
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Yes — it’s possible for a BSOD to be “enabled” by multiple products using the Windows Filtering Platform (WFP) at the same time, but the important nuance is this:

WFP is designed to have multiple providers/drivers active simultaneously

So “two things use WFP” is not automatically a problem (it’s normal on many systems). The usual cause is that one driver is buggy or hits an edge case, and the presence of other callouts/filters increases the chance of that edge case being triggered (more hooks in the path, more order/interaction complexity).

In your dump module list you had:
  • adgnetworkwfpdrv.sys (AdGuard’s WFP driver)
  • idmwfp.sys (IDM’s WFP-related driver by name, even if it “doesn’t filter” in the way people think about it, it can still register callouts/use WFP APIs)
  • NETIO.SYS / fwpkclnt.sys / wfplwfs.sys (core Microsoft networking/WFP components)
  • SbieDrv.sys (Sandboxie driver — not typically a WFP callout driver, but it is still kernel code that can add stress/complexity when troubleshooting)

So is “WFP conflict” a realistic theory here?

  • If the crash stack points at NETIO/WFP and AdGuard’s driver is involved right before the crash, then yes: a conflict/interaction in the networking filter path is a realistic explanation.
  • But it’s usually not “WFP + WFP = BSOD” — it’s “a specific driver in the WFP/NDIS path misbehaves under certain conditions.”

What about your VPN being on the router?

That generally doesn’t add a Windows WFP driver on the PC, so it’s unlikely to be a direct kernel-level contributor (unlike a VPN client installed in Windows, which often adds its own NDIS/WFP filters).

Practical next steps to prove/disprove the theory (safe, low-risk)

  1. Isolation testing (most useful):
    • Keep AdGuard uninstalled (or revert to a known-good version) and confirm BSODs stop.
    • If you reinstall AdGuard, temporarily disable/uninstall other network inspection components one at a time (e.g., AV “SSL/HTTPS scanning” / “Web access protection” modules, download acceleration tools that hook networking, etc.) to see what combination triggers it.
  2. List what’s actually registered in WFP (so we’re not guessing from filenames):
    • Run an elevated Command Prompt:
      netsh wfp show state
    • If you want to capture more detail:
      netsh wfp show filters
    This can help identify which products have callouts in the same layers/sub-layers.
  3. Prefer “one traffic filter” approach as a workaround:
    • If AdGuard for Windows is unstable on your build right now, use a browser extension-based blocker temporarily (it avoids kernel drivers entirely).
    • Or avoid running AdGuard’s filtering alongside AV HTTPS inspection at the same time (if your AV has that feature enabled).

Bottom line

Multiple WFP users at once is normal, but it can absolutely make BSODs more likely if one driver (often the ad blocker / AV HTTPS interception / VPN client category) is unstable. Given your dump shows AdGuard’s WFP driver loaded and you stopped seeing BSODs after removing it, WFP-path interaction remains a very plausible explanation, and the best “proof” is controlled isolation (one component at a time) plus checking WFP state via netsh.
 
I only mentioned my VPN being on my router because that's the first thing everyone always mentions. VPN killswitches almost always use the WFP, and I wanted to mention that it's not causing the conflict for me.

However, the possibility does exist for an Adguard for Windows 8.0 and Internet Download Manager conflict. It's highly unlikely, but possible I guess. I cannot imagine why IDM would need the WFP though.
 

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