Method 1 — Microsoft Family Safety
Windows has parental controls built in. You create a family group, add a child account, and turn on web and search filters for it. Inappropriate websites are blocked and SafeSearch is forced.
The catch is in the sentence: child account. Family Safety filters the child, and you are the organiser. Its web filter works in Microsoft Edge (other browsers can be blocked outright, which is a blunt instrument), and as the adult on the PC you can change any of it. If you're locking yourself, you'd be both the parent and the child of the same account. That's not a lock, it's a role-play.
Method 2 — The hosts file
C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts, opened as administrator, one domain per line pointed at 0.0.0.0. Free, instant, and it feels serious.
It fails the same two ways it fails on every system: it's a list you write, so the next site isn't on it; and you undo it with the same Notepad window you used to write it. A hosts file is willpower saved as a text file.
Method 3 — A filtering DNS
This is the right mechanism. You point the PC's network adapter at a resolver that refuses whole categories — pornography, nudity, adult themes — for every program on the machine: Chrome, Edge, Firefox, private windows, apps with a built-in browser. Nothing on the PC is asked to cooperate; the site simply never resolves.
And the same weakness as on a Mac: the setting lives in Network & Internet → adapter → DNS, a text box you can clear, and any VPN client swaps the resolver when it connects. The filter is right; the attachment is a sticky note.
Method 4 — SELFCNTRL for Windows
The SELFCNTRL app for Windows installs that category filter in a few minutes, tied to your account, and adds what a bare DNS setting can't: curfews that cut the internet entirely on a schedule (11pm to 7am is the usual one), the pace you chose at the start — cut it dead, or four locked days a week climbing to seven — forced SafeSearch on Google, YouTube and Bing, and the day counter. Tightening applies at once; loosening waits twenty-four hours; the floor never drops.
We'll say it here rather than let you find out: the lock we put $100 behind — the profile that physically cannot be removed — is on iPhone and iPad, because Apple's supervision gives us a way to make a profile immovable. Windows offers nothing equivalent for a personal PC. On the PC you get the same filter, the same curfews and the same account-level delay. And in practice, the device that matters at two in the morning is the phone, not the tower under the desk.
The setup that holds: PC and phone, one account
- Create your space — one email address.
- Lock the iPhone first. Plug it into the PC with a cable, run the SELFCNTRL supervisor, scan the QR code from your account. Ten minutes, once. Full steps in the iPhone guide.
- Install SELFCNTRL on the PC. A few minutes.
- Set the same night curfew on both.
The point isn't any single device. It's that there is no longer a device in the house that isn't behind the same door.
What it never does
Nothing is read or logged: category filtering has no history to keep. No screenshots, no reports, no partner. The app restricts, it doesn't watch. It's spelled out in the privacy policy.
Questions
How do I block porn on Windows 11 for myself, not for a child?
Family Safety assumes a parent and a child. For yourself, use a category-level DNS filter (free resolvers exist, or the SELFCNTRL app), and accept that on a PC where you are the administrator the real lock is the one on your phone — that's where the supervised, immovable profile goes.
Does a DNS filter block porn in incognito mode?
Yes. Incognito changes what the browser remembers, not how the machine resolves a domain. The filter answers before the browser gets a say. More in the guide on private browsing and VPNs.
Can I block porn on a work laptop?
Usually your IT department already does, and you may not have the rights to install anything. For a personal PC, the steps above apply.