TorBoost

TorBoost is a single-folder, portable Tor client tuned for maximum download/upload throughput (padding disabled, faster bootstrap, longer circuit reuse). Built in CI from the official tor 0.4.9.11 sources plus pluggable transports (obfs4, snowflake, webtunnel). No installation and no %APPDATA% — every file and all runtime state stays inside one folder, so you can copy or move it anywhere.

Layout

start-tor.exe          double-click to start; asks for a connection mode
data\
  tor.exe              + DLLs, geoip, geoip6, transports
  tun-helper.exe       elevated helper for TUN mode (no console; spawned by start-tor.exe)
  torrc.template       base config (relative paths; sits next to tor.exe)
  torrc                generated by start-tor.exe from the chosen mode
  bridges\             obfs4_tested.txt, webtunnel_tested.txt, vanilla_tested.txt
  tun2socks.exe        TUN mode: routes system traffic through the tor SOCKS proxy
  wintun.dll           Wintun driver used by tun2socks
  data\                runtime state (cached consensus, keys, tor.log)

Usage

1. Download the torboost-win64 artifact from GitHub Actions and unzip.
2. Double-click start-tor.exe, pick a mode:
   • 1 Direct — no bridges (works when Tor is not blocked)
   • 2 WebTunnel, 3 Obfs4, 4 Vanilla — bridges from data\bridges\ Your choice is remembered for next time (data\mode.txt).
3. On 100% bootstrap Tor is running. The system proxy is NOT changed automatically — press P to toggle it on/off (HTTP 127.0.0.1:8118). Press T to toggle TUN mode (see below). Press S to run a speed test (downloads 10 MB from speed.cloudflare.com through the Tor proxy and reports instantaneous and average speed). Press C to stop Tor. SOCKS5 is at 127.0.0.1:9050 and DNS at 127.0.0.1:53530.

TUN mode (all traffic through Tor)

Press T to route all of the system's IPv4 traffic through Tor, not just proxy-aware apps. It needs Administrator: on the first press Windows shows a UAC prompt (launcher runs the elevated tun-helper.exe helper). To turn it off press T again (or run start-tor.exe --tun-off).

How it works:

• Creates a Wintun adapter named TorBoostTun (tun2socks.exe + wintun.dll) and points the default route into it, so all system traffic goes to the local tor SOCKS proxy.
• Points system DNS at 127.0.0.1:53 (tor's DNSPort, enabled with a config reload); port 53 must be free.
• Adds a /32 route on the physical interface for every relay IP from the cached consensus and bridges, so tor's own relay connections bypass the tunnel (without this tor's outbound traffic would loop back into itself). These are refreshed every 2 minutes from a fresh consensus.
• TUN turns off automatically if tor stops, the helper exits, or the tunnel process dies; system DNS and routes are restored.

Notes:

• TUN mode and the P-proxy are independent — you can use either, both, or neither.
• While TUN is on, only IPv4 is tunnelled (IPv6 is untouched).

You can also launch with a fixed mode or command:

start-tor.exe obfs4            start directly in obfs4 mode
start-tor.exe --newcircuit     request a new identity (NEWNYM)
start-tor.exe --update-bridges re-download the bridge lists from the
                               Tor-Bridges-Collector repo and replace them
                               in data\bridges\
start-tor.exe --tun-off        turn TUN mode off (same as pressing T twice)
start-tor.exe --tun-status     print whether TUN mode is on or off
start-tor.exe --stop           stop Tor and restore the proxy

Building

.github/workflows/build.yml builds tor + transports and publishes the torboost-win64 artifact on every push.

• tor-src\ — unmodified official tor 0.4.9.11 source
• configs\torrc.boost — speed-optimized portable config template (becomes data\torrc.template)
• bridges\ — tested bridge lists shipped with the release
• scripts\start-tor.cs — source of start-tor.exe (compiled with scripts\build-start-tor.ps1)