Windows Agent — How protection works

The Windows agent is the program that applies on the supervised computer the rules you have configured in the panel. It is not a browser extension: it is installed as an operating system service and acts before any browser has the chance to open a website.

This matters because browser extensions have limitations: incognito mode disables them and your child could install a different browser to avoid them. LocalGuard’s agent does not have that problem.

What gets installed on your child’s PC

When you run the LocalGuard installer on your child’s PC, these components are installed:

Component	What it does
LocalGuard service	The main process that applies protection. It starts automatically every time Windows boots and runs in the background, invisible to the child.
Watchdog	A monitoring process that constantly checks the main service is active. If the service stops for any reason, the watchdog automatically restarts it.
Local proxy	A component placed between the browser and the internet connection. All traffic from the supervised user passes through here before reaching the internet.
Local security certificate	A certificate that lets the agent show the supervision screen even on https:// websites. Without this certificate, blocking still works but the browser would show a connection error instead of the supervision screen.

The agent is configured specifically in the Windows user profile of the supervised user, not in the entire system. This means if the PC has multiple user accounts, the agent only affects the child’s account.

How protection works step by step

When your child tries to open a website, this is what happens in fractions of a second:

1. The browser sends the request to LocalGuard’s local proxy.
2. The agent checks the current rules received from the panel.
3. It evaluates whether the domain is blocked by a rule, a category, the night profile, or the time limit.
4. If the domain is allowed: it lets the connection through to the internet normally.
5. If the domain is blocked: it returns LocalGuard’s supervision screen to the browser.
6. In either case, it records the event and sends it to the panel to be visible in Activity.

This process is so fast that the child does not perceive it as any slowdown in normal browsing.

Why incognito mode cannot bypass protection

Incognito (or private) mode in browsers does not save history or cookies, but it does not change how the browser connects to the internet. Traffic still passes through LocalGuard’s same local proxy in the same way as in a normal window.

When your child opens incognito mode in Chrome and types a blocked address, the agent intercepts it exactly the same way as in a normal window and shows the supervision screen. The result is identical.

This is the fundamental difference from browser extension parental controls: extensions live inside the browser and incognito mode disables them. LocalGuard’s agent lives in the operating system, above the browser.

Compatibility with the most popular browsers

Chrome and Edge

These are the browsers most seamlessly integrated with LocalGuard. They respect the Windows system proxy settings and automatically trust the LocalGuard certificate. Blocking works in normal windows, in incognito (Ctrl+Shift+N in Chrome, Ctrl+Shift+P in Edge), and in any open tab.

Firefox

Firefox is the special case. By design, Firefox maintains its own proxy configuration and its own certificate store, independent of the Windows system. For LocalGuard to work fully in Firefox:

1. In Firefox, open Settings → General → Network Settings → Configure connection.
2. Select “Use system proxy settings”.
3. For the certificate, go to Settings → Privacy & Security → View Certificates → Import.
4. Import the LocalGuard certificate (the agent can tell you where to find it, or you can export it from the Windows store).

If you do not configure Firefox this way, websites blocked in Chrome will still be blocked, but instead of seeing the supervision screen, Firefox will show a generic connection error.

Brave and Opera

These browsers have built-in privacy features, including their own VPNs or alternative proxy settings. If these are active, they may try to route traffic away from LocalGuard’s local proxy.

Recommendation: Configure a browser policy in the panel for Brave and Opera. You have three options:

• Allow: Only if you have verified they correctly respect the proxy and certificate.
• Notify: You receive a notification when your child opens one of these browsers, so you can decide what to do.
• Block: The browser process closes before it can navigate outside the agent’s control.

Other browsers your child installs

If your child downloads a browser the agent does not recognize, that browser is marked as “unrecognized”. You can see which browsers your child uses in Activity → Applications, where the agent already reports which processes it has seen running. From the panel you can decide what policy to apply to each one.

How to verify the agent is working

From the panel

The quickest method is to go to Devices in the panel and find the child’s device. If the “Last contact” field shows a recent time (less than 5 minutes if the PC is on), the agent is active and communicating with the panel.

If the contact field shows a time from hours or days ago with the PC on, the agent may have stopped working.

From the PC

Open PowerShell (search for “PowerShell” in the Start menu) and run:

Get-Service LocalGuard

The expected result is:

Status   Name               DisplayName
------   ----               -----------
Running  LocalGuard         LocalGuard

If the status is not Running, the service is stopped. To start it:

Start-Service LocalGuard

Full component verification

Component	How to verify	Expected result
Service	Get-Service LocalGuard in PowerShell	Status Running
Watchdog	Service restarts if you manually stop it within seconds	Restarts on its own
Proxy	Windows user’s proxy settings → Manual proxy active	127.0.0.1:8888
Certificate	Windows Certificate Manager → Trusted Root Certification Authorities	LocalGuard certificate present
Panel	Devices section	Recent last contact

Events the agent records in the panel

In the Activity section, you can see these types of events the agent reports:

Event type	What it means for you
Website visited	Your child opened that website and it was allowed
Website blocked	Your child tried to open that website and the agent blocked it
Unrecognized browser	Your child used a browser you have not validated
Certificate missing	The certificate is not present — blocked HTTPS websites may show an error instead of the supervision screen
Proxy restored	Someone tried to change the proxy settings — the agent restored them automatically
Application opened	A specific application ran on the PC (if you have process reporting active)

Silent installation (for multiple PCs)

If you need to install the agent on more than one PC without going through the interactive wizard, you can use silent mode:

localguard-setup-vX.Y.Z.exe /S /SERVER=https://localguard.pro

Replace X.Y.Z with the version of the installer you downloaded. After silent installation, the device appears in the panel like any other.

Common problems

The child changed the proxy settings

The agent will watch and automatically restore the proxy settings if someone changes them. When this happens, you will see a proxy_restored event in Activity. If the restoration fails repeatedly, the agent may also close browsing until it is corrected.

The supervision screen does not appear — just a browser error

This usually happens when the LocalGuard certificate is not installed or the browser does not trust it. The website is still blocked (your child cannot access it), but instead of seeing the supervision screen, they see a generic “connection not secure” error.

To fix it:

• Verify the LocalGuard certificate is in the Windows certificate store (Trusted Root Certification Authorities).
• In Firefox, import the certificate manually as explained in the Firefox section.

Uninstalling

If you ever need to uninstall the agent, do it from Windows Control Panel → Programs → Uninstall a program → LocalGuard.

Uninstallation removes the service, watchdog, proxy, and certificate. If the browser still shows proxy errors after uninstalling, go to Windows Settings → Network & Internet → Proxy and make sure “Use a proxy server” is disabled.