I just bought a new computer (Win-11). I must have had some kind of ad blocker on the old one, but now the ads come hot and heavy and I have forgotten what to do about it.
Another, more minor question. On my old computer (also Win-11, upgraded from 10) when I clicked on the timer in the lower right corner, a window opened with a month’s calendar and a clock with ticking seconds above it. I can get the calendar, but does anyone know how to get that clock?
Switch to Brave Browser from Chrome or Edge. It has ad blocking built in, but is otherwise as compatible as any Chromium-based browser, faster and less of a memory hog than Firefox.
I switched to the Brave browser last year. It took a little while to get used to the minor differences but now use it all the time.
Yeah, once you get used to it, the experience is great. It’s really the only browser I use, even on my Chromebook (in Linux mode) and also on my phone. It’s how I watch YouTube on my phone, since the blockers are built in.
I use AdBlock and UBlock Origin on my Win 11 Edge browser and it does the job for me.
I see the clock above the calendar on my system…I wonder if it’s because I use a program that re-works Explorer. But I can’t remember the name of that program now…I’ll drop it in if I remember it.
Anyway, did you try:
Mine is set to “Off” but I still see the time but like I said I use that other Explorer program.
I should note that I wasn’t able to watch an ad-supported YouTube video in Brave and also wasn’t able to visit a website (https://www.allenedmonds.com/).
I use U Block Origin for both Firefox and Chrome.
So far it seems to work well.
I have tried Ad Blocker Ultimate but it seems to need tweaking as it does not totally block everything occasionally.
Both of these are considered extensions and can be found in the browser menu under Extensions.
I tried Brave browser on my phone and it didn’t seem to work very well.
Of course I might try it again but I uninstalled it after a number of unknown “games” started appearing out of nowhere.
You people are amazing. I have installed U-block Origin and the ads have disappeared and I followed @ZipperJJ ‘s suggestion and there is the clock. Who knew?
Loads up just fine for me. (Yes, I’m using Brave.)
Same here. Except Firefox, don’t care for Edge.
I use uBlock Origin and Ghostery.
For both of you…
Why use both? What does one do the other does not. And perhaps more importantly, do yuo find them fighting with each other.
I’ve used Adblock alone on Edge or Chrome for a long time. Seems to taste great and last a long time. I’m wondering what addinh UBlock or switching to it gains me?
The suggestions so far have all been good, but I’ll also add one for EFF’s Privacy Badger. The others are all list and filter based, while Privacy Badger is designed to block trackers based on their behavior.
I use both uBlock Origin and Privacy Badger.
Have you considered editing your “hosts” file?
I have a a massive hosts file that I got from [Blocking Unwanted Connections with a Hosts File]. This routes a lot of that kind of garbage traffic to the bitbucket, blocking a lot of unwanted popups and advertising.
The downside is that it also blocks a lot of shopping links, too… but that should tell you where those shopping links are actually taking you before you go to where you thought you wanted to be.
TLDR: uBlock Origin (or uBlock Origin Lite for Chromium browsers) is the main free and open-source one that’s free of conflicts of interest.
Fundamentally they are all similar and derivative. Their main adblocking ability comes not from their own special software but from a global community effort called EasyList (among other similar lists, but that’s the main big one).
Adblock Plus was the original golden standard. But they sold out to the advertisers (the “Acceptable Ads” program) many years back and uBlock spun from that, then uBlock got bought and and turned into Adblock (not Plus). There’s just too much money for them not to “sell out”, essentially. So uBlock Origin is the one that spun off from all the commercial endeavors and has so far not sold out and has remained free and open source: GitHub - gorhill/uBlock: uBlock Origin - An efficient blocker for Chromium and Firefox. Fast and lean. · GitHub
That should be the only ad blocker anyone needs, unless you’re on a device that support doesn’t support it (like some phones).
There’s no reason to use uBlock Origin plus another one. If anything, just add more lists to it (check the preferences; it comes with a lot of lists that you can optionally enable).
uBlock Origin Lite is similar, but it’s crippled compared to the full version on Firefox because Google crippled it on purpose: uBlock Origin - Wikipedia (blocks slightly fewer ads in theory, but in practice it’s usually good enough)
You don’t need to manually do this if you already have an ad blocker. They often include hosts file already, e.g. in uBlock Origin:
And they can do much more fine-grained blocking than just a domain name. Many websites have moved to serverside ads on their same server, so a hosts file won’t be effective there but a content-blocking ad blocker (which is any of the ones mentioned here) will still work.
To be honest…I don’t know. It’s been a long time like that, maybe I thought “two better than one.” I suspect I’ll make a change after I’ve read a little more here.
hosts files are great for blocking ads and tracking in things that are not browsers. I use Pi-hole for my phone and tablet. It is acting exactly like a hosts file, it just lives off the device. I also use it for my Roku, and some other things. It blocks lots of ads and trackers.
For a browser though, ad blocking extensions work much better than a hosts file (or Pi-hole). All a hosts file can do is block a particular hostname, so googleads.g.doubleclick.net. What a hosts file cannot do, but an ad blocking extension can, is use a regular expression style filter, like ~ads-sidebar.$image, to allow desired content from a particular host through, but block the undesired content.
So let through content from example.com/cat-memes, but block content from example.com/ads.
uBlock Origin is also quite customizable, but custom settings can be a bit on the confusing side. Default install is generally acceptable for most.
Best to avoid Chrome browser & Google search as much as possible if ads & any semblance of privacy is a concern.
Until late last year, I used uBlock Origin in Chrome but then Google changed something that forced the ad blocker to be disabled. That’s about when I switched to the Brave browser (after hearing it recommended on this board).
It just kinda depends on how much you care about conflicts of interest.
Chrome does have uBlock Origin Lite now, which is generally good enough, but not quite as powerful as the full version (which is only on Firefox now). Google is ultimately an advertising company, after all, and they’re not going to go out of their way to ensure compatibility for ad-blocking plugins, and they’re going to keep trying to squeeze ads in in various ways (See Manifestv3 controversy and FLoC)
Brave is basically a reskinned Chrome with adblock and some other stuff built in, but it’s also a commercial endeavor and has some crypto-advertising crap. On one hand it was made by Brendan Eich, who invented Javascript (the underpinnings of the whole interwebs) and was the former CEO of Firefox/Mozilla. On the other hand he was kicked out of Mozilla for being anti-gay, and is a regular Republican donor. So some of that Brave money will flow directly to those causes. (But I’m sure the same is true of Chrome and Safari and any other browser; those companies are all kowtowing to MAGA now.)
Most browsers are reskinned Chrome: Edge, Brave, Opera, Samsung Internet, etc., so ultimately they’re all subject to Google’s whims. The only ones that aren’t are Safari and Firefox, and the upcoming Ladybird and Orion. Most of them nonetheless have “good enough” ad blocking.
The only truly open one is Firefox (hence why it has the strongest ad blocking), but Firefox is also over 80% funded by Google as a weird anti-anti-trust thing, so they’re ultimately still tied to Alphabet’s whims. (edit: correction, only 83% of Mozilla’s revenue comes from Google, not 90%+)
Google pretty much owns the entire web and it’s really only by their grace (or insufficient fucks given) that we have adblockers at all…
If you don’t care about any of that, use whichever browser or ad blocker is good enough. Most of them are. Firefox and uBlock Origin are the main actually open and non-commercial ones.
FWIW I used and loved Chrome for 20+ years, and only switched back to Firefox last year (grudgingly) after the Manifest v3 change that killed UBO on Chrome. Firefox is slow and buggy and I generally dislike it, but it’s still worth it to me… that’s just how much I hate ads.