Hello Everyone. After using Windows 8 on one of my machines, it had become apparent Microsoft is taking a new turn with their operating system. I wondered at first why Windows 8 was so much less expensive than previous versions of Windows. Now it seems clear to me. All the nice games in previous windows are now gone, and if you want games you now have to use metro and Xbox games. If you play the games at all, the big difference is now all the advertisements. I have searched the web to see if anyone has figured out a way to block these ads, but no luck. Microsoft has even fooled around and made it somewhat difficult to alter the hosts file. I'm pretty sure someone will eventually figure out a way to effectively block the ads, but in the meantime, has anyone here found any way to do it now? Thank you.
Im not too sure why, but my xbox live games quit displaying adds on their own ... An example, solitaire ... it tries to load a video from sponsor, can't resolve the link and goes straight to the daily challenges... There end's up being an intermission of about a second between your games, much better then 30 seconds though. Probly something they'll fix in an update though... Maybe you could dig through the appx files and replace any mention to a video url with a shorter one...
noncentz705, that is the exact same program (solitaire - daily challenges) that I play and have gotten tired of the ads on. It's not so bad that they come up once or twice, but the same ads come up over and over. Do you have any idea why they may have stopped on their own on your system? That sounds really unusual for it to do so. anarchist9027, thanks for the hosts file info. I have found info that Win 8 makes it harder to alter the hosts file, especially if you are running Windows Defender (I do not). I do see instructions on that link page for Win 8 and other OSs. I might give it a try, as the list does include the standard MS ad servers.
Centralize your adblocking on a network firewall, Get some cisco gear and install the advanced ip services image on it or deploy a tmg server between your consumer router and switch These days you need an enterprise firewall just to browse the internet