Top rated securitey vpn for pc free download

The best free VPN for Windows 10 is Windscribe. In fact, Windscribe is the best overall free VPN of 2020. It’s a simple and easy-to-use VPN that doesn’t compromise on security, privacy, or speed. It has an intuitve Windows app which we’ve never had issues with.

You can also use Windscribe Free on a range of other platforms, including:

• MacOS
• iOS
• Android
• Amazon Fire TV

Moreover, Windscribe Free is the only free VPN able to bypass Netflix and BBC iPlayer geo-blocks, which is impressive.

But, if you’re looking for the absolute best VPN for your Windows computer, without any data caps or server location restrictions, you’ll have to pay. ExpressVPN is the best option for Windows users: it’s fast, safe, and you get unlimited data, as well as unrestricted streaming and torrenting.

Your Windows PC might just be the single most important device to protect with a VPN. Really, though, you should be using a VPN on every internet-enabled device you use. Why? For many reasons, but most importantly to keep you safe online.

Without a VPN your ISP, the government, or eavesdroppers can track what you do online. In some countries, like the US, ISPs can sell your personal data to targeted advertising companies without your permission.

Then there’s the danger of public WiFi to consider. Hackers can take advantage of vulnerabilities in public WiFi hotspots to steal your personal information, including bank details. Using a good VPN will help to prevent that from happening.

Online privacy and security aside, using a VPN can unlock the world’s content. Websites previously blocked because of geo-restrictions or government censorship will be yours to peruse (that includes foreign Netflix libraries).

In summary, using a VPN on your Windows device is essential for both online privacy and the freedom to access what you want.

Like all free products, there are some good VPNs, and some bad ones too. But you need to be careful that you don’t end up using a dangerous one.

Not all free VPNs are safe to use. There are way too many free VPNs that use and abuse your personal data, selling it onto targeted advertisers or even handing it over to China.

Some free VPNs contain malware which will infect your Windows device, and others log everything you do online. To be honest, it’s pretty scary.

However, all the free VPNs for Windows we recommended in this guide are secure and trustworthy. Stick to these VPNs and you’ll be fine.

Yes, in the vast majority of countries VPNs are perfectly legal to download and use.

So long as you don’t use them to cover up illegal activities.

Using a VPN doesn’t exempt you from local laws, and you might still get caught if you try to use a VPN for that purpose.

However, some high-censorship countries have banned the use of VPNs.

You can view the ten countries with the harshest VPN restrictions, below.

You can read more about these countries in our guide ‘Are VPNs Legal?’.

The easiest way to use a free VPN on your Windows computer is to download a custom app – if your chosen VPN provider has one that is.

You just need to visit the VPN’s website and download the software from there.

Follow the simple installation prompts and log in with your credentials. Most free VPN services require an email address and password, but they shouldn’t ask for payment details.

Before you connect to the VPN it’s best to take a look at the security settings and enable the VPN kill switch and IP leak blocking features (if the app has them).

If you can choose the VPN protocol we recommend you use OpenVPN as it offers the best balance between privacy and performance. You can read more about encryption and VPN protocols in our guide.

Once you’ve set up the security settings the way you like them to be, pick the server location and click ‘Connect’.

The closer the server is to your physical location the faster the VPN’s speeds will be.

If you want to set up the VPN manually (without using a custom app), you can check out our walkthrough on how to install a VPN on Windows.

The free VPNs that we’ve recommended above are great. They are safe and reliable privacy tools for someone who isn’t ready to take out a premium VPN subscription.

But there’s something these free VPN apps aren’t so good for: unblocking Netflix, especially the US library. Netflix actively blocks VPNs and most of the free VPNs on offer don’t provide solutions for getting around those content blocks.

If you try to use a free VPN to watch Netflix you’ll probably see the dreaded proxy error message:

Luckily, Windscribe is now able to beat the Netflix VPN ban, and it currently unblocks US Netflix. However, you can only use 10GB of data each month. You can read more about this in our ‘Free VPNs for Netflix’ guide.

Alternatively, many premium VPN services work with Netflix (and other streaming services like BBC iPlayer and Hulu). You can see the best VPNs for Netflix here.

All of our recommended VPNs for Netflix come with simple custom VPN apps for Windows computers, so you’ll be able to stream Netflix on your desktop or laptop PC with ease.

Torrenting without a safe and secure VPN puts your online privacy at risk in a number of ways, from exposing all the files you download to your ISP to revealing your IP address to other torrenters.

Thankfully, there are plenty of VPN services that work well for P2P. The majority are paid-for VPNs, but you can torrent using a couple of free VPNs too.

Windscribe is our top free VPN for Windows, and it’s also our current best free VPN for torrenting. Hide.me Free and TunnelBear Free are also good alternatives.

However, all of these free VPNs come with limited data allowances, which is a big problem for downloading big files.

If you’re a regular torrenter, you should opt for a paid VPN that offers advanced security features – like a VPN kill switch, a no-logs policy, and an unlimited data allowance. The best overall VPN for torrenting is ExpressVPN, closely followed by PrivateVPN and NordVPN.

Yes, Windows does have an built-in VPN client, but you still need to have a VPN subscription with a third-party provider in order for it to work.

In order to setup this Windows VPN client, you need to:

1. Open up Settings and go to Network & Internet > VPN.
2. Click ‘Add a VPN connection’.
3. Within the ‘VPN provider’ dropdown menu select ‘Windows (built-in).

1. Fill in the fields labeled ‘Connection name’ and ‘Server name or address’. You’ll need to have already purchased a VPN subscription in order to do this.
2. Select the VPN protocol – you can choose from PPTP, L2TP, SSTP, or IKEv2. Note that you’re restricted to whichever protocols your VPN service supports. PPTP is not secure, so you should avoid it. Using IKEv2 will require installing a root certificate from your VPN provider.
3. Enter your username and password (assigned to you when you purchased the VPN subscription) in the relevant fields.
4. Click save and close the settings app.
5. Click the WiFi icon in the system tray and select the VPN connection.

We recommend using the VPN service’s custom apps rather than the inbuilt Windows client as they come with extra security features and you can usually connect through OpenVPN, our preferred VPN protocol.

It’s easy to change your Windows computer IP address if you use a quality VPN. Simply connect to any one of your VPN’s servers and you’ll be assigned a new IP, with your true IP address remaining hidden from prying eyes.

You can mask your true IP address with the IP address of any country, so long as your VPN service has servers located there.

It’s always best to double-check that your VPN is successfully connected by running a VPN leak test. We use Browserleaks.com to test IP leaks, as well as other types of leaks.

This is what browserleaks.com looked like while we were connected to Windscribe Free’s Atlanta server

We test from the UK, so it’s clear that in the screenshot above Windscribe is hiding our true IP address and replacing it with a US IP address.