Easy way to block Ads in Internet Browsers

This is not a Vista only tip, but applies to all versions of Windows.

I am not against the Ads in web sites. It’s the main source of earning money for most web sites. But I hate to death for the flashing and annoying repeated ads. There is an easy way to block those annoying ads in web pages. You simply block the domain names via local Hosts file.

I have explained it step by step for Vista OS. For all other OS, Please check this web site: http://www.everythingisnt.com/hosts.html

These following steps will open the Hosts file as Administrator and place the contents from pre-tested list from http://www.everythingisnt.com/hosts.html.

1. Click Start (Orb) button and type Notepad. When Notepad is listed in Start window, Right click on the Notepad icon and select “Run as Administrator”
2. Click Continue on User Account Control dialog window.
3. On Notepad, Click File –> Open. Browse to this location: c:windowssystem32driversetc. Open Hosts file. (Tip: you need to select all files instead of *.txt from the drop-down box)
4. Visit this location in your browser: http://everythingisnt.com/hosts. Copy all the contents (Control –A and Control-C).
5. Go back to the Notepad (Hosts file), Paste the contents (Control-V) after the following lines,

127.0.0.1 localhost
::1 localhost

6. Save (File –> Save) and close the Notepad.
7. You may get a warning message from “Windows Defender” about modification of Hosts file. Click Ignore.
8. Reboot your Vista machine. If you don’t want to reboot, follow the steps below to enable the new Host file settings,
a. Open Command Prompt (Start à Cmd)
b. Type “IPConfig /FlushDNS”
c. Close the Command Prompt by typing “Exit”
9. You are DONE. Test it by visiting a site has annoying ads.

You may need to add the missing “Ad” server domain names later if you anything later. You may repeat the steps above to get the new current host file time to time. If you are very saavy guy, you can add new ad servers as you find in your browser(by right-click on the Ad, select properties and get the domain name from the URL).