# shunf4/proxychains-windows

Windows and Cygwin port of proxychains, based on MinHook and DLL Injection

Repository: https://github.com/shunf4/proxychains-windows
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/proxychains-windows
Language: C
License: GPL-2.0
License Family: copyleft
Last push: 2022-11-13T07:30:25+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 23/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-02T17:46:02.011165+00:00)
- activity 0, release rhythm 8, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 2418, "days_push": 1389, "days_rel": null, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 0}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 1143, forks 134 (observed 2026-08-28T04:03:44.934159+00:00)

## What it is
A Windows and Cygwin port of proxychains that forces dynamically linked Win32 or Cygwin programs' TCP connections through one or more SOCKS5 proxies. It works by injecting a DLL and hooking Winsock functions in Ws2_32.dll using MinHook.

## Use cases
- route a Windows command-line program through a SOCKS5 proxy
- force a Cygwin tool's traffic through a proxy chain
- hide my real IP when running a Windows app
- proxy a program that has no built-in proxy support
- test how an application behaves behind a SOCKS5 proxy
- circumvent network restrictions for specific Windows executables

## When to choose
- you need proxychains-like SOCKS5 proxying on Windows or Cygwin
- the target program is dynamically linked and has no native proxy settings
- you want a lightweight CLI proxifier without changing system-wide proxy settings

## When to avoid
- you need guaranteed anonymity or strong security guarantees
- the target program is statically linked
- you need HTTP proxy support or proxy authentication beyond SOCKS5
- you need a stable, production-grade tool - it is hack-based and may crash programs

## Facets
- artifact type: cli-tool
- maturity: maintenance
- function: proxy, networking, security
- domain: privacy, censorship-circumvention, networking, developer-tools
- platform: windows, cli
- tags: socks5, dll-injection, api-hooking, proxifier, cygwin, proxychains, command-line

## Member repositories
- shunf4/proxychains-windows (main) score 23

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:03:44.934159+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-30T06:34:58.280033+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/shunf4/proxychains-windows (fetched 2026-08-28T04:03:44.934159+00:00, sha 8f6a89863c46)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.