I am going to introduce you to the “hosts file” in Microsoft Windows. It’s a normal file which has size of just 1 KB. So what makes this file so special? Well, this seems-so-ordinary file can help you remove 99% of ads you commonly see whenever you surf the Internet. An added advantage is that you will not need any 3rd party programsto achieve this. This guide is dedicated to everyone who has never heard of it. This method works perfectly for Windows XP, Vista and 7.
All we need to do is add entries of all the advertisement provider’s server IP. But there are thousands of them. So what next?
Lists of almost all the ad servers have been compiled by a organization called MVPS. So, all you’ll need to do is copy paste what they have compiled…
Here’s how we do it:
- Get the list if all ad-server websites from here.
- After the web page has been loaded, Press Ctrl + A on your keyboard to select the whole list. Then press Ctrl + C to copy the list.
- Now go to C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\DRIVERS\ETC and open the hosts file with Notepad.
- Now select the contents of this file and press “Delete“.
- Press Ctrl + V to paste the new list.
- Press Ctrl + S to save the file.
- Close the file and restart your computer. Voilà! Advertisements don’t load in your browser!
