Project Spartan (Edge) Ad blocking!

grubbyashes

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Feb 23, 2015
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Hey guys,
I've spent several hours trying to work out how to block ads in Project Spartan, and I've found a solution, using a feature from IE called "Content Blocking".
It's a fairly long-winded process since it's not natively activated in Spartan, but it works. It also involves some manual labor, so sit tight and read on!

The first thing you want to do is open IE (Yes IE, you'll see why later) and go to this link. (It's an official MS site, so it's safe.)

The next step is to chose a list to block content. It doesn't really matter which one you chose, but I personally use 'Easy List'. Just go ahead and tap "Add TPL" next to the list.

Here's where the long-winded process starts. Open Windows Explorer (Win+E) and navigate to 'C:\users\USERNAME\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Internet Explorer' And in that path there should be a folder called "Tracking Protection". Open it and copy the file within somewhere safe, Desktop for example.

Now it gets a little more tricky, I've had slight variations of the location of the folder during testing. The best way to find the Spartan 'Tracking protection' folder is to navigate to your C drive in explorer, and search the local disk for "Tracking Protection". You should get two folders, one for IE and one for Spartan. It's easy to tell them apart from their paths. Open the Spartan "Tracking Protection" folder.

Finally, paste the file you copied from IE into that folder. Open Spartan and you're done!

I hope this helped people that have been searching for hours trying to find a solution... I eventually gave up and started looking through the Spartan file for any disabled options.

I will state here that this does seem to have a small impact on performance (to be expected) in general browsing and use. I hope you guys found some use out of this, and be sure to leave a thanks. :)
 

Jas00555

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Grubbyashes, you are my hero! Browsing this site using Spartan has been a real pain. This makes everything much better.
 

David Feifer

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Not working on build 10074 for me either. Problem is that when ever you launch edge/Spartan the file that I copied in to the Tracking Protection folder is being deleted.
 

TechFreak1

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Ahh what a life saver!

You just saved an insane amount time for a lot of people, pity you can only thank a post once :winktongue:.

Now to go try it myself :), will update with results.

Edit:
Okay the linked site would make ie crash for me when adding lists. This worked for me. www.iegallery.com/en-gb/trackingprotectionlists.

Second update:

Well it worked... For 1 minute...

The Spartan TPL file is empty and adverts are back... :eck: .
 
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Asskickulater

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Well, to solve the file being deleted issue, set the file to "read only" in the properties box, then Spartan cant delete it, however, it doesn't make Spartan accept it.

It's possible Microsofts A/B testing of build 10074 could be having an effect on weather it takes or not. I'll be watching this oit of raw curiosity to see where it goes, nice catch OP though either way.

to the op: I'd say try zipping up your track file and see if it works on anyone else's, maybe there's another variable with the file you got right and didn't notice.
 

grubbyashes

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Interesting... I had some varied results through testing, and I did find setting it to read only fixed it... Not too sure what else to do here. I suppose we will have to wait until MS release an update. In the meantime, I'll keep experementing.
 

Ten Four

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A bit OT, but I was helping someone with their laptop and I had forgotten how horrible the web is without Adblock installed in Firefox. Not only are the ads horrible, but they intrude constantly and block what you are really trying to see. For me that is a bottom line on any browser I am going to use--there must be a way to reliably block advertising or the web is unusable.
 

Paolo Cardelli

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After hours and hours of testing and searching, the only solution that effectively works on latest Edge right now is:

Adguard

It's one of the best blockers I ever used (very light, very effective, highly customizable, work with any browser and even programs, and it's stable), but it's not free (20$ a year)... :(

Until Edge will get official TPLs or Browser Extensions support, that's the only way I suppose...
 

6029KingStephen

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I agree 100% with Excalibur, the hosts file is the simplest way to block ads. A good source is someonewhocares.org, whose file blocks most ad sources and pop-up merchants. It's browser independent too.
 

Paolo Cardelli

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Hosts are not a good solution, for those reasons:

1) It's much heavier on the system: having all the list I need, plus disabling DNS Client, means not only surfing the web but the whole system to considerably slow down. TPLs or Adguard for example are very light instead;
2) Adblock/Adguard can post-process every page with blocked ads removing white spaces or ugly "X" on the page, in a fraction of a second. Plus block pop-up;
3) Adblock/Adguard are constantly auto-updating, without the needs to reboot the system to take effect.

For now, Adguard is the best solution for Edge on W10, even if Shareware.
I really hope to see TPLs implemented again, or even better the arrival of official Adblock/Adguard Extensions for Edge (Free).
 

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