Stop Every Online Ad in its Tracks
YOU’LL NEED THIS UBLOCK ORIGIN Available from the Microsoft Store.
IS YOUR PC CRUMBLING under the weight of flashy banner ads, irritating pop-ups, and cheesy jingles from websites hell-bent on hawking their wares? Then help is at hand in the form of ad-blocking extensions, such as uBlock Origin. These work inside your web browser to prevent advertising content from loading, allowing you to use your favorite web services in peace. While uBlock Origin has been around since 2014, it’s only recently become available for Microsoft Edge via the Microsoft Store, thanks to the efforts of creator Raymond Hill and developer Nick Rolls.
Unlike other popular extensions, such as AdBlock Plus, which allow some “acceptable” content through, uBlock Origin blocks all advertising by default. Combine this with an extremely low memory footprint relative to other ad-blockers, plus a very intuitive user interface, and you may wonder how you ever survived without it. Before starting, we would like to caution that less is more when it comes to ad-blockers, and indeed all privacy extensions. If you already have an ad-blocking extension installed, be sure to remove it before installing uBlock Origin, otherwise it can cause conflicts. Some websites may not display correctly when filtered for ads; fortunately, uBlock Origin enables you to fine-tune and even whitelist certain webpages.
1 INSTALL UBLOCK ORIGIN
Before starting, save and close any currently open files. If you have not already done so, be sure to run a backup of your system. We also recommend running Windows Update to make sure you have the most recent version of Microsoft Edge. You can access this under “Settings” on Windows 10.
>> When you are done, open the Microsoft Store and type “uBlock Origin” into the search bar at the top-right. Once uBlock Origin appears in the Store window, click it to be taken to the application page. Click the “Get” button to begin installation [ Image A]. Once the download is complete, click “Launch” to open Microsoft Edge. The browser now asks you to confirm that you want to install the extension, and lists permissions. Click “Turn it on” to continue. uBlock Origin icon now appears on the top right-hand corner of your Microsoft Edge window.
2 BASIC FEATURES
As you browse websites in Microsoft Edge, you may see numbers over the uBlock Origin icon on the top-right. This reflects the number of advertisers that are being blocked on the current website. Click once on the uBlock Origin icon to view the number of “requests blocked” both on this website and other websites you have visited since you installed uBlock Origin. The “Domains Connected” value lists the number of distinct websites to which Microsoft Edge is currently connected. The uBlock Origin Extension tries to filter out harmful ones by comparing them to a regularly updated public list of potentially harmful domains. While ad-blocking can be helpful, it may interfere with the functionality of some websites. To quickly disable the uBlock Origin extension for the site you are currently visiting, click the blue power button. Remember, this disables all ad-blocking features for this domain. If you still want to filter out content, you can use the element picker/zapper (see below).
3 FINE-TUNING
By default, uBlock Origin doesn’t block all pop-up windows, because they may contain information you need. If, however, you are being plagued by pop-ups, click the pop-up icon in the uBlock Origin window, which resembles two small sheets of paper. An “x” appears over the button if pop-ups are being blocked [ Image B]. The adjacent button, which resembles a movie reel, is useful for blocking large media content, such as high-quality images and videos, which take a long time to load. The eye symbol button toggles the display of cosmetic elements. You should only need to click this if certain webpages aren’t displaying properly. If you choose to show cosmetic elements, some ads may leak through also.
>> Certain websites use their own fonts for text instead of those on your computer. This takes up more bandwidth and
can potentially be used to run harmful code. To disable “remote” fonts, click the fourth button, which resembles the letter “A.”
4 MASTERING THE ELEMENTS
A lt houghu Block Origin does its best to strip out advertising-related content, you may still see annoying things, such as banner ads and photos. Click the “element zapper” (the lightning bolt button) to choose which elements of your current webpage to show and hide. These changes are temporary, and usually revert next time you restart Microsoft Edge. If you make a mistake and block the wrong element, just refresh the page to undo any changes made with the zapper.
>> If there is an element on a webpage you wish to remove permanently, click the small “eye-dropper” icon next to the element zapper button. This launches the “element picker.” Hover your mouse over the element you wish to block. It is highlighted in red [ Image C]. Click to launch the pop-up window, then choose “create” to enforce a new filter for this element from now on. You can view a list of any filters you have set up using the uBlock Origin dashboard, as well as edit and remove them.
5 DASHBOARD SETTINGS
Click the fourth button to open the uBlock Origin dashboard [ Image D]. From here, you can access the main settings. If you want to display placeholders of blocked elements, uncheck “Hide placeholders of blocked elements.”
>> If you don’t need to see the number of blocked requests for every website on uBlock Origin, uncheck “Show the number of blocked requests on the icon.” Click “Disable Tooltips” if you feel comfortable with using uBlock Origin. Visually impaired users may find reading easier by enabling the “Color-blind friendly” feature. The uBlock Origin extension supports using cloud storage services, such as Dropbox, to sync your ad-blocking settings across your devices. Click “Enable cloud storage support” to allow this feature. A new tab appears where you can enter your login details. If you only use Windows devices, you shouldn’t need to do this, because provided you are signed in with your Microsoft Account on every machine, your uBlock Origin settings sync automatically.
6 MANAGING LISTS
By default, uBlock Origin incorporates a number of public lists, which detail spammy sites, annoying ads, and other objectionable content. These are automatically updated, so you should not need to change any of the settings under “3rd Party Filters” in the dashboard. One exception may be if you find pages are loading exceptionally slowly. Click the “Purge all caches” button to refresh the information.
>> If you regularly access foreign language content, scroll down to “Regions, languages,” and click your language(s) of choice. Click the “Apply Settings” button to download the relevant ad-blocking list(s) for your region.
>> If you have whitelisted any sites by clicking the blue on/ off button under the uBlock Origin icon, these appear in the whitelist tab in the dashboard [ Image E]. Remember that this disables all uBlock Origin features on that website and any sub-domains. If you’ve accidently added a site to the whitelist, left-click to select, then right-click, and choose “Cut.” Click “Apply Changes” to confirm the removal.