CNET Editors' review
Online advertising is one of the best examples of "can't live with it; can't live without it" we can think of: it's annoying, at times extremely so, yet it pays the bills and even occasionally informs, entertains, and assists consumers. Most of the time you wish you could just block it out, though, especially the worst offenders, the flashing, animated Web ads designed to stooge-slap your attention span. AdFender is a free, standalone ad-blocking tool that not only works with all major browsers but also some less common ones, too, such as Opera, Safari, Maxthon, Lunascape, Avant, K-Meleon, and Epic. It can also block ads in P2P and IM apps. It's frequently updated to keep up with the latest adware and browsers.
AdFender's documentation notes that you'll have to allow access through your firewall or security software for its filtering to work. Most of the time, AdFender runs in the background and resides in the system tray, where we could disable or exit the program, open the Main Console, enable debugging, and access other functions. The Main Console is a compact dialog displaying statistics for the Current Session and Lifetime. The left-hand menu let us add or remove allowed Web sites, select apps for filtering, and manage your IE cookies, history, and log files. We could also set AdFender to play a sound when it blocks something, though that can be more annoying than the ads themselves. Under Settings, AdFender had added several Microsoft sites by default, including update, download, and Office sites. There's a good Help file, too.
It's extremely easy to see what AdFender does for yourself: Simply browse to an ad-saturated site, activate AdFender, and reload the page. We did this on numerous pages that see millions of hits every day, including some big news, entertainment, and social networking sites. AdFender didn't block every ad, though nearly everything it allowed was actually a site promotion or was otherwise hosted or linked to the main site and content, so it's debatable if it's even advertising. But AdFender replaced a lot of annoying, flashing, bleepedy-bleeping ads with plain gray bars labeled Advertising. Toggling the tool off and reloading the page restored the ad content. AdFender worked well without being a problem itself.
Publisher's Description
From AdFender:
AdFender is a free and effective ad blocking solution. It removes clutter from web pages such as expanding banner ads, flash ads and blocks other intrusive in-your face advertisements. AdFender runs unobtrusively in the background and help you surf faster saving valuable bandwidth. It works with all leading web browsers, instant messengers and P2P apps. AdFender is easy to use and requires no user configuration. It helps remove profiling or tracking cookies that often compromise your online privacy. AdFender uses minimal system resources and is frequently updated.
What's new in this version:
- Supports all leading web browsers including Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, Safari, Opera, Avant, K-Meleon, Maxthon, Lunascape and Epic.
- Blocks ads in Instant Messengers and P2P apps
- New and faster filter engine using EasyList rules
More Popular Popup Blocker Software downloads
- AdFender
1,445 downloads
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All versions:
3.7 starsout of 14 votes
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Current version:
4.0 starsout of 11 votes
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My rating:
Write review
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"Excellent-Blocks the most annoying banner and popup ads"
Version: AdFender 1.50
Pros
Saves bandwidth and Webpages load faster and cleaner because:
Blocks popups and banner ads.
Blocks the video ads you normally have to watch before the video you really want to watch.
Works perfectly with Norton AV on multiple computers I have installed it.
Only 5MB in memory and uses negligible processor speed. Very efficient on my older computers!Cons
Cannot watch some videos until you see the ad.
Cannot view some webpages, such as referral links from mypoints, fatwallet, slickdeals, etc (But not really an issue, see Summary)Summary
Whenever this software blocks something I really want to view, I simply right click the Tray icon, select disable, and refresh the browser. The page immediately loads and I view what I wanted. I then immediately re-enable AdFender. So simple. If there was any delay, this would be a hassle, but because it happens instantaneously on an older machine, it is not a problem.
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"Watch out for problems with Norton Internet Security"
Version: AdFender 1.50
Pros
Hard to tell given what happened to me after installation
Cons
After installing AdFender and getting the warning about configuring the firewall (Norton Internet Security) to allow access, I opened Norton to do this. Norton immediately crashed and could not be recovered. I had to uninstall AdFender and reboot to get Norton security back. Perhaps if you first modify Norton BEFORE installing AdFender it might work, but since there is no suggestion to do this, I am not willing to try again with this ad blocker software.
Summary
Others claim it is great; my experience was completely different. Another example of you get what you pay for, which in this case in my opinion was nothing but trouble.
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"Better than ad-block"
Version: AdFender 1.50
Pros
This is so much better than ad-block. Ad block only blocked 200 ads a day (took a half hour to reach 200) then they want you to buy their service. Not what I would call free. So far this program has performed terrificly.
Cons
Cannot find anything wrong with this program
Summary
So far this is the best free ad blocking software around.
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"Outstanding ad buster !!"
Version: AdFender 1.50
Pros
It's free and works very well ! Thank you for this wonderful software !
Cons
SO far no.
Summary
Say goodbye to nasty ads.
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"A product to keep"
Version: AdFender 1.50
Pros
The new version is great and really fast. Support for all the browsers out there is a great feature and it does not install any add-ons. Lot of positive reviews from various tech forums...keep up the good work, guys!
Cons
haven't found any
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"crashes google chrome"
Version: AdFender 1.50
Pros
no pros, never saw it in action after it crashed chrome!
Cons
this crashes google chrome and won't let it open. I did not know what caused it and even reinstalled chrome several times and reset all my information. finally i got rid of this adfender program and chrome was up and running again.
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"Get Skinny"
Version: AdFender 1.50
Pros
helps your downloads to be skinnier, Get rid of ads and extras. i haven't \missed a thing and everything works as before except all the damned popups and crap are missing now. YeeeHaaaa!!
Cons
none that i can see
Summary
Clean up your links and get faster surfing.
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"good software"
Version: AdFender 1.50
Pros
works with all browsers on all websites
Cons
sometimes legitimate images do not display
Summary
I tried Adblock and it's almost the right solution. It does block the ads but gave me grief on other websites and forums that are interactive such as "answers.microsft.com". I also noticed a definite slowdown of Internet Explorer with Adblock enabled.
AdFender is actually FREEWARE and it works! It's easy to use and configure and has lots of nice features. It will keep a log of blocked ads and from which site. It can delete advertising cookies. It can show your browsing history and selectively delete the ones you want. And my current favorite feature is "Play a Sound when an Add is blocked". I get a certain perverse pleasure now when I come to websites and hear boing, boing, boing and have absolutely no reason to think of new cuss words to use. -
"I love it!!!"
Version: AdFender 1.50
Pros
Works great, blocks banner ads and flash ads. Couldn't ask for more from a FREE version.
Cons
Does not support SRWare Iron
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"It's free and it's good"
Version: AdFender 1.50
Pros
Easy download and sure does get rid of the annoying banner ads.
Cons
Have to open the UI to see the number of ads blocked.
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