Cloudflare WARP

About Cloudflare WARP

This client does two related things. It replaces the resolver the machine uses with an encrypted one, so name lookups stop travelling as plain text that any network in the path can read or rewrite, and it wraps the rest of the traffic in a tunnel out to the nearest edge location. Because it operates as a network adapter rather than a browser feature, everything on the machine is covered: the browser, the mail client, the updater, the lot.

The connection uses a modern tunnel protocol built for mobility rather than an older enterprise stack, which shows most when a laptop moves between networks. Switching from wired to wireless, or from an office network to a phone hotspot, does not drop sessions the way a reconnecting client does, and battery impact on a laptop stays modest.

Modes are switchable in one panel. Full tunnel for public wireless, resolver only for a home network where the tunnel is unnecessary, and off for the moments when a captive portal or a corporate network refuses to cooperate. A split tunnel list keeps chosen applications or address ranges outside the tunnel, which is what makes local printers and network shares keep working.

There is also a filtering mode that blocks known malicious hostnames at the resolver, which stops a lookup before a connection is ever attempted. It is not a replacement for protection software on the machine, but it removes a whole category of accidental clicks before they reach anything.

What is included in this build

• System wide tunnel covering every application, not only the browser
• Encrypted name resolution replacing plain text lookups
• Modern tunnel protocol that survives moves between networks without dropping sessions
• Switchable modes for full tunnel, resolver only and off
• Split tunnel list keeping chosen applications and address ranges outside the tunnel
• Optional resolver filtering that blocks known malicious hostnames
• Automatic selection of the nearest edge location with manual override
• Low battery and processor overhead on laptops

Changed in version 2026.6.905.0

• Improved reconnection behaviour when moving between wireless networks
• Faster edge location selection on first connection
• Better handling of captive portal detection on public networks
• Reduced idle processor use
• Fixed a case where split tunnel rules were not applied after a reboot

Installation walkthrough

These steps assume a clean machine. If a previous release of the same application is present, deal with that first, since an overlapping install is the most common cause of a setup that stops halfway.

1. Disconnect any other tunnel client first, since two virtual adapters will conflict.
2. Extract the archive and run the installer as administrator.
3. Allow the network adapter driver to install when prompted.
4. Reboot once so the adapter registers with the networking stack.
5. Pick a mode and add any local address ranges to the split tunnel list before relying on it.

System requirements and file details

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