AdBlockPlus is one of the most popular plug-in for Firefox, but recently after the massive popularity of Chrome, people like you and me have started to wonder if annoying ads can be blocked by some similar method in Chrome, until now there has not been a proper method to do that, (NO I’m not talking about the earlier bookmarklet method). A Chrome plug-in (yes, a plug-in) called AdSweep does the ABP type blocking for you, if you are using Chrome and dying for a way to know how to use that on your installation of Chrome, I’m happy as always to give you a full walkthrough with screenshots.
Install Google Chrome (Obviously)…
Switch to the Developer Version of Chrome, you need the Dev version of Chrome for Ad blocking to work.
Use the Dev Channel Switcher given in the link and switch Chrome to Dev edition and reopen chrome and update chrome. To do this you have to click on the wrench icon in chrome and go to about chrome and it will automatically check for updates and update you to the latest Dev edition of Google chrome.
Now visit the AdSweep site and download the AdSweep chrome extension for chrome.
Put the downloaded file AdSweep.crx to C:\AdSweep.crx (or whatever folder you like to).
Enable extension support for chrome by adding the following switch to the chrome shortcuts in Desktop, Start Menu and Quick Launch, add “chrome.exe –enable-extensions” to the target in each of the shortcuts (please see the below screenshot).
Now the fun begins,
Open the command prompt, and using the command prompt go to the folder where your copy of Chrome is installed, to find this out right click in your Chrome shortcuts and look at the target. Usually its, “C:\Users\YourUsername\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\Application”.
Now type in the following command in command prompt:
“chrome.exe –install-extension=C:\AdSweep.crx” and press ENTER.
That’s it, now ads are automatically blocked in Chrome. SO no annoying ads show up in your window.
To check if AdSweep is working properly, go to AdSweep.org in Chrome and a RED label should show up like the below screenshot, in the right top corner of your Chrome window.
Please Note: there is no way to check websites before they load in Chrome yet, so this method hides the ads but does NOT block the ads like AdBlockPlus in Firefox.
Here is a Small comparison:
When I try to add the switch to the target field, it says the path in the target is not valid. I’ve tried with and without the space between chrome.exe and the hyphen to no avail. Any suggestions
well did u try it on the dev edition or the normal edition? did u switch it to the dev edition? the main reason for switching to the dev edition is to use this switch.
@theWizard: Yes, I’ve followed all the instructions. Running the dev version.
Wouldn’t there have to be a file by that name in order to direct to it..?
I think you left out a step >_<
This doesn’t work. At least in Vista when I try to install the extension it just launches Chrome. When I close it and try from the modified shortcut the homepage is set to http://xn--enable-extensions-802j/ which fails to load and then if I try a different website it has all the ads.
Also, AdSweep goes ahead and blocks youTube videos for you so that it’s a pain in the ass to watch them.