[Patch] Yahoo! Messenger Ad Remover

75 Comments

• 

  rashid

  

• 

  ME

  

• 

  Y!

  VG said:

  ^^ Thanks. You got it.

  But you didn't! And I suppose never will.

• 

  Zeshi

  hi its cool kiran

• 

  Amy

  Since GTalk has been launched, I am using it and the best part is most of my friends have also shifted to it. My yahoo messenger has a huge contact list, but now, most of the time I can only find 1 or 2 person online. That is the fact. I think, yahoo asks more for their innovetion. Yahoo messenger is a tool to drag people into their userbase, not a direct way to make profit. But they are failing now. Big ADs are surely a BIG reason for that. Yahoo even inserts AD at the bottom of every email I (used to) send from yahoo mail. That is not fair.

  I consider this AD remover is a kind of protest against the high price (Big ADs). I dont use the AD remover because I have switched to Gtalk. It is not yahoo hatered, its all about being a satishfied customer.

• 

  halfpint

  Hi, i used the patch, but it won't stay working for me. It patches but then it stops working shortly after i log back into yahoo messenger. Any ideas why? Its frustrating.

• 

  dedndave

  Hi halfpint - Not sure but, you may want to check the following file:
  C:\Program Files\Yahoo!\Messenger\Cache\urls.xml
  In this file, you will see several links.
  Remove only the advertisement lines from the file.
  Leave the Insider and other lines intact.
  (Insider can be disabled in preferences)
  Once you have removed the ad lines, close the file.
  Next, right-click on the file - Properties - and set it to read-only.
  This will not work for versions 9.0.0.2018 or 9.0.0.2034.
  For those versions, I have written a patch that removes ONLY the
  main window ads:
  http://www.4shared.com/file/72236491/426f3d41/YM_Patch.html

• 

  halfpint

  Hi dedndave, Not sure if my first reply went thru, its not showing. But do you mean remove the urls.xml? What do you mean by remove the advertisement line? That lost me. Please explain more. Thanks

• 

  dedndave

  ok -
  The urls.xml file is a text-based file, similar to html files.
  You may edit the file using Notepad.
  Right-click on the file, then Edit.
  Remove these lines entirely (only the end of the line listed here):
  Messenger Ad
  Messenger Idle Ad
  Webcam Viewer Ad
  Webcam Viewer Ad Big
  Webcam Viewer Ad Medium
  Webcam Upload Ad
  Chat Adurl
  Chat Transition Ad

  The other lines are for valid/desirable urls.
  Most of the patches I have seen empty this file altogether,
  but those versions have problems because Messenger can
  no longer retrieve certain icons etc. from the desirable urls.
  If you simply delete the file and sign into Messenger, the
  file is re-generated. That is why we set it to read-only (the
  program can no longer get the ad urls). This method worked
  up to version 9.0.0.2018, where Yahoo! fixed the program to
  remove the read-only file attribute before updating it.
  If you like, you may add me on messenger as dedndave.
  I will help you out, as you can edit the file with Messenger running.

• 

  dedndave

  Any luck halfpint ?
  If not, let me know what version Messenger you have.
  (Messenger main window - Help - About Yahoo! Messenger)
  I need all the digits like 8.1.0.421 or 9.0.0.2034.
  - Dave