Ad blockers not only get rid of annoying and distracting advertisements, they also help prevent accidentally installing software that may do nasty things like send you more advertisements or record your key presses (and therefore passwords!) and send them off to who knows where. There are several different ad blockers out there, and some are better than others. Historically, Ublock Origin has been the best and has the best track record.
Seeing which web browser you are using
To start with, you need to figure out which web browser you are using. The default in Windows 10 is Edge, but many people use Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox. I personally use Google Chrome because I like how it syncs across all my devices and I use a lot of Google’s services. The email for this website is managed by Google, my school email is managed by Google, my personal email is managed by Google, the list can go on and on. So, these are the icons for the three major web browsers:
Since you’re browsing this site, one of these should appear at the bottom of your screen. Follow the instructions for the browser you’re using below:
Google Chrome
To install Ublock Origin, visit the Chrome Web Store and then click the “Add to Chrome” button on the side. Then click the “Add Extension” button on the window that slides down from the top. That’s it. It is that easy. From now on you shouldn’t see advertisements.
Microsoft Edge
It is slightly more complicated to install web browser addons in Microsoft Edge because you need to have a Microsoft account. To install Ublock Origin, visit the Microsoft Store. Once there, click the “Get” button. The Microsoft Store app will open. From there, click “Get” and if not already signed in, you will have to sign into a Microsoft account and the addon will install.
Mozilla Firefox
Like Google Chrome, installing Ublock Origin is very easy in Firefox. Just go to the Firefox Browser Add-Ons site. Click the “Add to Firefox” button, then click “Add” in the dropdown window that comes up. That’s it. No more annoying advertisements.
Disabling Ublock
In nearly all cases, websites will continue to work properly while blocking ads but occasionally they will tell you that you must disable your ad blocker to continue. If it was up to me, I would say you should just not use those sites but ad revenue is how many websites pay the bills. Running a website isn’t free so I can understand their decisions in some cases. If you need to disable the ad blocker, look near the top right of your window for a red shield icon like this:
After clicking the red shield, you’ll see a large blue or gray icon that looks like the symbol you’ll see on a power button. If the button is blue, ad blocking is enabled. If the button is gray, ad blocking is disabled. You can click it to switch back and forth. You can quickly turn ad blocking off for a site this way, and then quickly turn it back on when you leave the site.
