Vista - Remove Advertising from Windows Live Messenger

Hi,

I just upgraded to Windows Live Messenger and there is a annoying flashy ad
at the bottom of the window, is there any way I can remove this please?
Otherwise I'll just have to un-install it!

Many thanks,

tso617

So you're saying you want to use ad-funded software, without being exposed
to ads?

There are plenty of MS IM clients that don't have ads. Problem is, they
don't fully support the WLM feature set.

So you have a quandary, you can use feature-rich software and see a few ads
now and then, you can use a 3rd party app with a limited feature-set and no
ads, or you can find a way to block the ads and steal use of the software
without paying your fair share.

FWIW, it's only an ad sometimes - most of the time it's a video showcase.


"tso617" <tso617@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:CE0081C1-7328-48AE-AD65-F2EE2C341403@xxxxxx

Hi,

To be fair, it would be nice if you could pay some how to have it removed. Windows Messenger
(not Live) didn't have the ad since it was "bought" with Windows. The older Messenger:Mac
client also got rid of the ad if you had Office:Mac installed too.

--
Jonathan Kay
Microsoft MVP - Windows Live Messenger
MSN Messenger/Windows Messenger
MessengerGeek Blog: http://www.messengergeek.com
Messenger Resources: http://messenger.jonathankay.com
(c) 2009 Jonathan Kay - If redistributing, you must include this signature or citation
--

"Neb Okla" <n_okla@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:#PBk7jlzJHA.2084@xxxxxx

1. To be honest I'd rather not touch Microsoft products with a barge pole but
I am forced to as the applications I use only run on an MS OS!
2. I'm not interested in a feature rich client. If MS want to throw money at
developing tools and features that in my opinion will only be used by a small
percentage of the total users then thats upto them but why should the rest of
us have to carry the burden of the few just so MS can say "look at me..look
what I can do.."?
3. I pay my fair share - I forked out nearly GBP400 for a load of Windows
Vista -64 bit licenses and I can tell you I'm less than impressed with the
quality of the OS.
4. Thanks for the prompt, I've found a client with no advertising now so
I'll be uninstanlling WLM as soon as I've finished this post.


"Neb Okla" wrote:

This week the ads include a video of a dog humping a woman. Its supposed to be funny but its obviously fake and I imagine could be offensive to some. I'm all for disabling these ads.

The ads must be regionalised (UK) and if I saw that ad I would report it to
the Advertising Standards Agency here in the UK, perhaps it could be the
first steps towards getting the ads disabled....on that thought I'll keep it
installed and check the ads every day for something offensive.


"otown" wrote:

Yes they probably are regionalized...here is the link...
Dog Loves Grandma - Sympatico / MSN Video

otown wrote:If you add:
127.0.0.1 rad.msn.com
to your "hosts" file (mine is C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc\hosts)
then the ads will go away.

If you run a webserver on your system (as I do) then you can arrange the
URI /ADSAdClient31.dll to point to your content of choice, in my case a
little ad.html in the root of my server.

By an amazing coincidence, http://swiftys.org.uk/ad.html is also an
image of a dog on top of a woman - our dog Poppy fast asleep on top of
my wife, in turn fast asleep on the garden chair. :-)

Incidentally, swiftys.org.uk is rather difficult to contact, which is
fine by me.

--
Steve Swift
http://www.swiftys.org.uk/swifty.html
http://www.ringers.org.uk

"Swifty" <Steve.J.Swift@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:ek4QGqL0JHA.1716@xxxxxxAw

--
Jonathan Kay
Microsoft MVP - Windows Live Messenger
MSN Messenger/Windows Messenger
MessengerGeek Blog: http://www.messengergeek.com
Messenger Resources: http://messenger.jonathankay.com
(c) 2009 Jonathan Kay - If redistributing, you must include this signature or citation
--

Thanks, changing the Hosts file seems to work.....I clicked on the link to see your pic but couldn't connect......