I hate Windows 8 - How do I get a new browser without ads

richlalo · Dec 9, 2014

Hi everyone, this is my first time on a forum like this one, but I need the advice of the myriad of poor schmucks that have gone this way before.

I just bought a new Lenovo Flex 2 with Windows 8.1. My old laptop was an IBM R40 with Windows XP Professional. It was slow, but it worked until I ran out of memory! Even with 100 gigs of USB sticks, my poor 24 gigs of on board memory just couldn't hack it anymore.....

Anyways, Microsoft has this advertising policy for their newest brainchild, Windows 8.1: more and more ads, wherever they can be placed! You can change your personal settings but you can't get rid of them. Internet Explorer is the worst culprit! I'm so frustrated with it that I want to chuck this browser in the garbage where it belongs.

IS THERE AN AD FREE BROWSER OUT THERE? Which one do you recommend for a 63 year old geezer with a relatively fair understanding of a computer's workings?

As the great BEATLES used to sing: Help me if you can, I'm feeling down, and I do appreciate you being 'round.... won't you please, please help me!

Thanks everyone!

Richlalo

LauraR · Dec 9, 2014

First off, welcome to Major Geeks.

Honestly, I'm not sure what you mean in regards to

Microsoft has this advertising policy for their newest brainchild, Windows 8.1: more and more ads, wherever they can be placed! You can change your personal settings but you can't get rid of them.
Click to expand...

Where exactly are you seeing ads? You shouldn't be seeing them at all on your actual operating system (when you are not online).

It sounds like you are seeing them while you are online on Internet Explorer, which has nothing to do with Microsoft or Windows 8.1 and has to do with the actual websites you are visiting since they are the ones that put the ads up.

There are many free browsers out there that you can use other than Internet Explorer. In my opinion, they are better than IE and I'll list a couple for you. However, none of them will be ad free and there wouldn't be a difference in the amount of ads no matter whether you were on XP or Windows 8.1. If you weren't seeing them on your old computer, you had an ad blocker installed.

Here are some other browser options:

Firefox
Opera
Chrome

You can make them so they are close to ad free, but that they are part of the reason why you can surf the internet for free.

Here is one way to decrease the amount of ads: https://adblockplus.org/

It is a plug in for your browser. It is available for Internet explorer. It is also available for a number of other browsers. If you click on my link, you will see a green install button. While in any of those browsers, you can click on that link and it should install as a plug in right in your browser. (Just make sure the green install button says "Install for whatever browser you are using". If it doesn't there are icons next to it representing different browsers.)

sexyandy81 · Dec 9, 2014

if you are seeing ads in IE you need to go to manage addons then click on get more tracking protection and then you can download adblock list to IE which will stop most adds coming through.

The tracking list I recommend is easylist which is the same as adblocker.

Hope this helps

theefool · Dec 9, 2014

Or try this:

http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/pc_de_crapifier.html

C0rhHusk3r · Dec 10, 2014

First, do as theefool suggests, run PC De-Crapifier on your new computer. Most new ones these days come crammed with unnecessary programs and out-and-out garbage you don't need. As far as I know, Win 8.1 itself doesn't have any ads whatsoever - I sure don't get them if it does. Ads come from ad-generating malware or the web pages viewed. I use Firefox with extensions to block ads and prevent tracking of my browsing history. I get practically no ads at all. Disabling Flash may also help - if some site needs it (few really do), you would be asked if you want to activate it for that site.

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I hate Windows 8 - How do I get a new browser without ads

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