Guide
How to unblock websites without installing anything
Last updated July 2026.
A site you need is blocked on the office network, the school Wi-Fi, or by your ISP, and the device in front of you will not let you install anything. No admin rights, no VPN app, sometimes not even a browser extension. That is the situation TrickyBird is built for. It is a web proxy that runs inside a browser tab, so you paste a link or search for a site, press Launch, and the page opens in the same tab through TrickyBird’s own address. Nothing to download, and no account to create.
It runs on any device that has a browser: a work laptop, a library computer, or a phone. Not every site works through a proxy, though, so we publish a live status list of the sites our own tests show working. It is also worth knowing how to check a free web proxy before you trust one, ours included.
Unblock a specific site
Each site here has its own page because we tested it through the proxy ourselves. Paste any address into the launch box and it opens.
Video
Social media
Images
Reference
Why a VPN app will not install on a work or school computer
Locked-down devices are locked down on purpose. A corporate laptop or a school computer is managed by an IT policy, so there is no permission to run a new installer, and often no permission to add a browser extension either. A VPN needs 1 of those 2 things, an app or an extension, and that is exactly the permission a managed device withholds. Blocking the install step is enough to block the VPN, before the network filter even comes into play.
A web proxy skips that step. TrickyBird is a website, so opening it is the same action as opening any other page. There is nothing to install and no admin rights to ask for. That is the reason it can work on a device where a VPN often cannot.
How a web proxy works
When you launch a site through TrickyBird, your browser talks to TrickyBird, not to the site. TrickyBird connects to the site on your behalf, rewrites its HTML, CSS, and JavaScript so every link, image, and script points back through TrickyBird instead of the original address, and streams the rewritten page back to your tab. A small script in the tab catches what the page loads afterward, clicks, further requests, and video, and routes those back through TrickyBird too, so the site’s address does not resurface once the page is running.
This is not a redirect or a DNS trick. The page is actually fetched and rewritten, not pointed somewhere else. It is also narrower than a VPN by design, because only the 1 site you launched runs through the proxy while the rest of your browsing and the rest of your device are left alone.
What stays hidden, and what the logs keep
The address of the site you open never shows up in your URL bar or on the page you see. To be exact, the gateway connects to the site for you, so it does reach the site and records its hostname. What stays hidden is the site’s name, from your browser and from anyone watching your network. The same step hides your IP address from the sites you open, because the site sees the request arriving from TrickyBird rather than from you.
The logs are small and short-lived. What the edge keeps to run the service and stop abuse: a shortened form of your IP address, the hostname of the site you connected to, and basic response details, kept for at most 48 hours. It does not record the specific pages you open, and there is no account for any of it to attach to.
How to open a site, step by step
Opening a site takes 3 steps, and the console is a single page with a box and a button.
- Open the TrickyBird home page and find the launch box near the top.
- Paste the address of the site you want, or type a few words to search for it.
- Press Launch. The site opens in the same tab through TrickyBird’s own address, and the site’s address stays out of your address bar.
Is this legal?
This is general information, not legal advice. Reaching a public website that your network blocks is usually a question of your network’s or your employer’s rules rather than the law, and those rules differ by place. Check your local law and the policies of the network you are on. Do not use TrickyBird to get around paywalls, logins, or copyright protection, or for anything unlawful.
Common questions
- Does this work on a locked-down device with no admin rights?
- Yes, usually. TrickyBird runs in your browser with nothing to install, so it can work on a managed device where you have no admin rights and cannot run an installer. That is the exact step where installing a VPN app fails first. A school Chromebook is one example, a work laptop on a filtered network is another. Whether a specific site loads all the way still depends on the site.
- Is TrickyBird a VPN?
- No. TrickyBird is a web proxy, not a VPN. It opens 1 site at a time in your browser tab rather than routing your whole device through a tunnel, and there is no app to install and no account to create. A VPN covers everything on the device but needs software you may not be allowed to install.
- Do I need to install anything?
- No. There is no app to download and no extension to add. TrickyBird runs in the browser tab you already have open, so it works from a single link on any device with a browser. That also means there is nothing for a device policy to block on a computer where you cannot install software.
- Which sites work?
- Many major sites load and play video through TrickyBird, but no proxy opens every site. We only list a site once our own tests show it rendering through the proxy, and we publish that list on the live status page, so you can look up the site you need before you start.