I am now using Winders 10 and the new EDGE browser… and all my anti-advertising add-ons are no longer working and I am stuck with MULTIPLE advertising subwindows that are playing AUDIO that I cannot get to SHUT UP!!!
The download time for the audio and video even locks up my PC while I am typing this and I have to wait for it to start playing the Verison advertising and other gobbledgook, and it all sounds like someone rapidly tuning a radio to different stations.
I CALL FOR A BOYCOTT OF ALL ADVERTISERS THAT ARE SO RUDE IN THIS MANNER.
Semper: My computer still has 8.1 and no edge. But the last few days have the same audio ads and they freeze up my computer while running. Mute button only partially helps…
Currently working off my Vista machine with IE8, Firefox and Chrome. IE8 locks up with some of them. Firefox crashes and so far Chrome is chugging on. Some of the audio ads get through.
I am sick of articles that are linked to a video - I want to READ the article, not view the video.
Isn’t there some way to still use IE11 on 10? Otherwise, using a third party browser may be your best option. If computer lock-ups were not an issue, you could simply turn off your speakers.
My biggest problem with them is that some freeze the page on the video or automatically scroll to the video while the ad is playing, sometimes repeatedly.
I would stick a screwdriver in the speaker cones if I didn’t need the speakers for other purposes. I have an alarm program that I wrote that alerts me to events I need to be reminded of and it uses sounds as part of the alerts. So turning the volume down is not an option for me.
BUT!!!
I have what I think is a satisfactory fix… but it takes some explaining how to do it.
The gist is to add a bunch (and I do mean a BUNCH) of site URLs to the “HOSTS” file. This list “redirects” the browser from going to one of the listed URLs to a dummy address that just causes the data to be dropped.
To edit your HOSTS list, do this:
Copy and paste the following URL into a blank page of your browser:
This will bring up a text list (a HUGE text list) of advertiser URLs (with some comments that sort of explain the list). This is the aforementioned “BUNCH”. Don’t close this list yet, you will be coming back to it in a minute.
In the “Search Windows” box on the left side of the Windows Task Bar (bottom of the desktop) type:
Notepad
and in the list that shows up, above where you are typing, RIGHT-click on the ‘Notepad’ entry and select “Run as Administrator” to run Notepad.
Then, in Notepad select “File|Open” and wend your way to:
C:\Windows\System32\Drivers\etc"
and at the bottom of the file select window select to view “All files” (instead of “*.txt” only). Then click on the file named ‘Hosts’ and click the “Open” button.
This will open the present Hosts file, which may be small or large, depending on what other programs might have added to it. (“Spybot Search & Destroy” has an option to insert m
Designing and selling adware is a huge and profitable business. Just like our virus/trojan/and other malware producer friends, its a heckuva living…somehow…someplace. They are the initiators, and everyone else down the line is purely reactive. AKA ‘stung’.
For the past several months, whether on Win7, or with Win10 as of early August, my yahoo news home page shows the little blue halo and everything freezes, except my mouse, whenever a script is activated and a new ad loads per the server’s instructions. That’s about every 20-30 seconds by my reckoning. I’ll be posting a comment, and while attempting to type the second ‘m’ in ‘comment’, the cursor stops and all I get is nothing as I repeatedly type the ‘m’. Then, the blue halo shows where the cursor arrow should be and I get a countertop dingle bell sound. I have to manually retrieve the cursor and place it after that lonesome ‘m’.
I don’t know if my enemy is Mr. Software Engineer in Kazahkstan, or if it’s Mr. Kasperski just down the road. [:(!]
Yes, IE-11 is still available in Windows 10. You can get to it by searching for “IExplore” or “Internet Explorer” in the ‘Search Windows’ box at the left edge of the Task Bar. Also, there is a menu entry in EDGE itself to open the presently displayed web page in IE; Click the three dots on the right side of the menu bar and then select “Open with Internet Explorer”.
Secondly, MS has not provided a way to do “add-ons” to EDGE, so there is presently no way to connect a helper app such as an ad-blocker to it… lots of complaints about that on-line… which is where I found the instructions and the list of advertising URLs to add to the Hosts file (in my previous post).
On this poster’s computer the scratchy voice ads only happen on trains’ website. if I go to another site voice stops but returns when going back to trains. It even interfers with trains’ audio. Hey IT better look into this.
Please don’t use such a broad brush on ‘advertisers’, as the vast majority of web sites are funded by some kind of adverts.
I do agree with the OP, some ads are just Rude and overly intrusive. I have Adblock turned off on frequently visited sites like trains.com and still have not heard any audio ads when using Firefox.
To reduce the ‘video noise’ I’ve removed the standard Adobe Flash; I will fire up Opera (which uses ‘pepper’ flash from Chrome) if I really need to see something that requires Flash.
Using the immature Win10 and Edge brings to mind the expression ‘glutton for punishment’. To each his own … [2c]
I have no idea what is going on with Firefox on my Vista machine. Crashes on nearly every web page - no matter the site. Reloaded it and it is still happening, needless to say the machine has been rebooted a time or three.
Ads on which site? Trains? I use Firefox and AdBlockPlus (ABP), as well as Ad Muncher, and never see any ads, either on Trains or anywhere else for that matter. Ad Muncher, which is now free, blocks ads at the system level so it works on all browsers and some programs. However, it’s not nearly as effective as ABP. MS Edge, available on Windows 10, is not a mature, competitive browser. Ad blocking, as well as other extensions are coming, but last I heard it wasn’t until next year. While using one’s Hosts file is one way to combat ads, it’s way too time consuming to constantly maintain.