How to force only Chrome to send network traffic through VPN connection on Windows 7?

So basically I have connected to a VPN and I want Chrome to use the DNS servers from the VPN network and also send network traffic through that WAN miniport (VPN tunnel). Everything else (Windows Explorer, other applications) should default to using the local network's DNS servers and internet connection.

How can I configure this? I'm not an expert at this so a tutorial/step-by-step guide is greatly appreciated. Thank you!

Solution 1:

I think, for what you want to do, you can use the Proxy Switchy! extension for Chrome and create a different profile for your VPN and set the Network in the Proxy Switchy! settings as so:

This seems to be the easiest way to achieve what you want as selecting a profile will route through that specific connection.

All your other traffic will be routed through whatever the local connection is, and your Chrome traffic will be routed through the VPN.

Solution 2:

Actually, with windows 7, this is easy with windows built in firewall. This link gives a very easy description of the necessary steps. http://practicalrambler.blogspot.com/2011/01/windows-7-firewall-how-to-always-use.html

Basically, make an inbound and an outbound rule blocking traffic of private and domain networks for the program you want to isolate. Be sure to NOT block public traffic with the rules. This also requires that your VPN is setup as a public network and your LAN is setup as private....

Solution 3:

Set up chrome to use the VPN as a proxy.

Solution 4:

Its not actually possible to make ONLY chrome use a proxy/vpn without breaking atleast some other things. On windows, chrome stores those proxy settings (even if you use the proxy switcher extension listed elsewhere) in the standard Windows "Internet Settings" configuration area internally (not sure how to say that correctly).

This is the same menu that you get when going to "Options" from inside Internet Explorer (the browser) or via the control panel.

Most windows apps actually use these system wide settings for its proxy settings if set, and any program setting these, will make chrome use them. Firefox (atleast it did back in 3.x, no personal knowledge from 4.x or 5.x, but I doubt its changed) stored its own proxy settings isolated from windows, so it could be set to have dedicated proxy settings.