Windows 8 Ad Blocking, I'm giving it a try!

MikeHawthorne

Essential Member
Microsoft Community Contributor
Hi

In another post I advised against installing Adblock because of some negative messages I found on some other forums, along with people asking how to get rid of it, and treating it like malware.

But I also found people who liked it.

So I reconsidered, I installed it and uninstalled it and found no problems in getting rid of it.

Then I installed it again, and I also installed a app called Keep My Opt Outs that is supposed to stop tracking cookies which I delete by the hundreds every few days.

I'm going to be the trial horse and see if these programs cause any problems and if they work.

I'll report back after I spend some time with them and let you know how I feel about them in a week or so.

I'm sure that like me there are a lot of people who get tired of having a window pop up right in the middle of what every they are doing.

I can report that right now there are no ads showing on my Chrome page.
We'll see what happens.

Mike
 
I've been you Adblock for a year now....and I've not had one problem with it. Let us know how the other software works...I'm curious.
 
Is this the same as Adblock and Adblock Plus for Firefox and Chrome? I also use a hosts file that blocks tons of junk.
Joe
 
Hi

Just came back for a quick comment.
While Adblock seems to work fine, I'm not seeing that the extension "Keep My Opt Outs" is having any effect.

I'm seeing just as many Cookies when I run SuperAntiSpyware and CCleaner as I did before.
While the software shows a long list of sights that it is supposedly protecting me against, they don't seem to be ones that I view.

This morning when I ran SuperAntiSpyware it showed 56 cookies and that's since yesterday.

Mike
 
I've not use it myself, but reading through the details tab and some of the reviews. It seems that it's not 100% fool proof and you might have to manually add sites. There's also a mention of verifying it with a special link.
 
Hi Again.

Here's something I didn't expect to see.

I'm not 100% sure that this is a result of Adblock, but I noticed today that the annoying ads that I get in front of videos have disappeared.

On my Comcast home page, (the one that Internet Explorer can't display) the news videos (that I never watch because I can't stand sitting through the commercials at the start), now start and play without running the ads.

I can't imagine that this can be because of Adblocker, I figured that they were just part of the way the page is set up, but I went to Youtube and those videos seem to play without displaying the ads either.

Can anyone who has used Adblocker tell me if this is the case.
If it is it would be worth installing it just for this reason alone.

Mike

More time has passed and I'm finding that I no longer have to sit through the commercials before videos either on my home page or Youtube.

It's worth installing Adblock just for this.
 
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Mike
I don't know if you have the Comcast gateway or not but I had some problems with mine. The default setting and the normal setting are 2 different things. When I set mine to the tighter of the two I had trouble getting some things I needed. I had to change the setting then I could get the previously blocked material.
Peter
PS I noticed you were mid 70's as am I. Do you think MS will get it right in our pc life?
 
Probably not in our lifetime.

I'm not having any issues, with Adblocker andI do have Comcast.
I'm using Google Chrome.

I've never been able to get Internet Explorer to work since I moved to Windows 8.
It just can't load some web pages, among them my Comcast Home Page.

The thing I like most about Adblocker and it's something I didn't expect, is that it removes the commercials from the front of videos in YouTube and from the nes vid on my home page.

I really hated having to sit through the videos to watch the videos.

Mike
 
I have noticed you referring to waiting 6 mo.'s until the kinks are worked out - that is a shame. I believe I mentioned I have Comcast and wondered if any of your 3rd parties might be in conflict. I have no issues with either 8 or 8.1 and run only ; MBAM, SpywareBlaster, Defender and the native firewall at default. I did not touch any extra settings like Flash etc.
I also have the Comcast gateway.
Do you have any 3rd party software that might be contributing to your woes?
Peter
P.S. I agree about the commercials that is why I use the DVR only and FF past them on the TV. That is a good idea you have with the pc commercials as long as it is not interfering with the functioning of the OS.
 
Hi

I did update to 8.1 but I had issues with the sound that I could't solve.
The sound is very important to me because I do a lot of video editing.

I use Malwarebytes, Windows Defender and the native Windows firewall along with SuperAntiSpyware.

I have had problems with Windows Explorer on Windows 8 since I first installed it, on my previous computer.
When I got my new computer it had the same issues, so I just use Chrome.

When I did upgrade to 8.1 I still had the same problems with IE.

My Comcast Home Page isn't the only page that won't load and I've found other people having the same issues.
I have no idea why.

A lot of people reported problems with sound in Windows 8, I don't know it they have been fixed or not.
It was very weird, because some sounds on the same file would be distorted while others would not.
All voice file were distorted.

I haven't found any issues with AdBlocker so far, and it does really work.

Mike
 
Hello. A site like this is almost entirely funded by advertising. However, it is recognized that most people who install ad block software do not want to see or click on advertisements anyway. Ultimately, it is the end user choice to install this kind of software. AdBlock Plus is the one primarily recognized as being most popular for Chrome and Firefox.
 
Mike
I could not get my Comcast home page to load until I used my compatibility settings and I could not believe that one setting made it work so well.
Peter
 
I tried every compatibility setting and none made any difference.
In fact "Switching to Compatibility Mode" is the message I get when I try and load it.

Mike
 
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I wish it worked as well for you as it did for me. You need a supervisor tech maybe. Be sure there is n/c. I have the minimal insurance and still ask.
 
It's not worth the effort to mess with it any more.
I posted here over a year ago about it and tried everything that anyone could think of but none of them worked.

Either Chrome or Firefox works fine, so there is some incompatibility between IE and Comcast.
I like Chrome better most of the time anyway. But it occasionally has issues too.

It seems that in 2 years they would have worked it out, and I don't know why only some people get it, but I've had it on both of my Windows 8 computers.

They didn't even run the same brand of video card.

Mike
 
That browser issue is frustrating. If it is any consolation, my next door neighbor tried for two years to just get Comcast. There is a green Comcast box between the her house and mine. I get it well while she cannot get it at all. She has had everyone out to no avail. I guess you have tried a different isp. We thought FIOS would never get here and within 3 month period it is all set to go.
Don't give up. My daughter has it and I see no difference between it and C-cast. Maybe you should ask Comcast to get their own homepage on your pcs. Then they would escalate it to another tier for consideration.
Bring back antennas and made and run in the USA.
 
Other then the issue with Internet Explorer, I don't have any issues with Comcast, it's the only ISP I've had since dial up and the only service available here other then satellite.

We don't use Comcast for our TV that's Dish.

I wan't to make clear that Internet Explorer works fine in Windows 7, it's only in Widows 8 that I have problems.
But that has been on two different computers.

I get reliable 100 mbs service and seldom have any downtime. Maybe 2 or 3 times a year it will be off line for a few hours.

It's certainly better than my friends who have DSL, or Satellite internet.

Whether it is Windows 8 and IE or Comcast I really don't know.

It's not the problem that it would have been at one time, many web sites used to require IE but that's not true anymore pretty much any browser will work with any page anymore.

Mike
 
I just tried to upload 96 photos to a photo processing company who used to accept MSIE for years but changed to FF. I tried FF today and it did not work, It now uses Chrome and did not take the time to see if MSIE is accepted. This is getting silly.
I don't have any cookies or ads or popups with MSIE 11 and MBAM and SpywareBlaster. However I do have commercials in the videos. I might give Adblock a try though to see if it helps. SuperAntiSpyWare is also a consideration.
 
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