How to connect manually using Surfshark Windows app – Surfshark Customer Support

In this article, you will learn how to manually connect using the Surfshark Windows app.

You will need a Windows device and an active Surfshark subscription to follow along. Don’t have a subscription yet? Check out Surfshark plans.

We will cover the following:

Get your credentials
Choose a Surfshark server
Configure the manual connection using the Surfshark app
Ensure your connection was successful

NOTE: You can connect manually using Surfshark VPN for Windows from version 2.6.3 and later.

Get your credentials

NOTE: These are not your regular credentials, such as your email address and password.

Enter the Surfshark login page and log in. Then, click on VPN > Manual Setup > Desktop or mobile > OpenVPN to generate your credentials.
Once there, enter the Credentials tab and click on Generate credentials.

NOTE: Keep this tab open as we'll need it for later.

Choose a Surfshark server

Open the same page on another browser tab, go to the Locations tab, and locate the server that you wish to connect to.
Under each flag, you will see the hostname of this server. Copy it — you will need to enter it to connect to this server.

Configure the manual connection using the Surfshark app

NOTE: The setup is exactly the same if you choose to connect via OpenVPN / TCP.

Launch the Surfshark app and click on Connect manually.

Enter all the required details:

Protocol: You can leave the default option or choose your preferred one (OpenVPN UDP or OpenVPN TCP)
Service username: Surfshark service username (refer to Get your credentials section in this article)

Service password: Surfshark service password (refer to Get your credentials section in this article)

Hostname / IP: Hostname or the IP address of the server you want to connect to (refer to Choose a Surfshark server section in this article)

Port: It will change automatically. In case it does not:

OpenVPN (UDP): 1194

OpenVPN (TCP): 1443

Once finished, press Connect.
When connected, you will be greeted with the following screen. To disconnect, press Disconnect.

Ensure the connection is successful

We always recommend checking if Surfshark VPN is working after setting it up for the first time. You can easily do it by performing Surfshark IP leak test and a DNS leak test. For your convenience, both are available on our website.