Best Ad-Blockers for Google Chrome, Opera, Safari and Microsoft Edge

Contents

The best and safest ad-blockers for Google Chrome, Opera, Safari and Microsoft Edge webbrowser and detailed instructions on how to use them

Why use uBlock Origin, AdBlock or Adblock Plus and not any other adblocker for Google Chrome, Opera, Safari and Microsoft Edge?

Answer: Because uBlock Origin, AdBlock or Adblock Plus gives you the possibility to easily and manually block things you never want to see (other adblockers I have tried doesn’t give you these options).

Note: Since these links will show some images, I advice you to disable images temporarily in Chrome browser settings first or install an image blocker (click on the three dots on the right upper side of google chrome, then enter “settings”, in settings search “images”, go to “content settings”, click “do not show any images”, press “done”. Now all images are disabled. To activate the images again in order to use an extension instead for blocking images, follow the same steps.

uBlock Origin for Google Chrome, Firefox, Opera and Microsoft Edge

Important: To my knowledge, this adblock should work in the same way in Google Chrome, Firefox, Opera, Vivaldi and Microsoft Edge, so even though this information was specifically written for Chrome, I know the same information also applies to Opera, Vivaldi and Firefox, and presumably the rest of them as well.

This adblocker is the perhaps the best of them all but more advanced and comes with the additional plus that it has no “acceptable” advertising built into the program, which means there is no need to disable anything as with the other adblockers. It also helps you keep your Ad-Blocker active and the webpage working, when you visit a website and it asks you to disable.

The other adblockers can’t visit certain sites without having to disable the adblocker completely for it to work, which of course is unacceptable unless one have an image blocker activated; but these problems won’t occur with this adblocker.

This adblocker is also more lightweight and takes less resources on your browser and hence speed up internet surfing. I have noticed some improvement my self since I started to use it. It’s manual blocking abilities is also great but not to be compared with Adblock Plus.

If people want to use uBlock Origin I would recommend that they have some other adblocker installed alongside as well in order to benefit from their additional blocking abilities, such as Adblock Plus which has superior manual blocking abilities. Please read the manual blocking abilities of AdBlock and Adblock Plus for Chrome, Opera, Safari and Microsoft Edge in order to learn how to use a second adblocker alongside the main one.

uBlock Origin for Chrome:

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/ublock-origin/cjpalhdlnbpafiamejdnhcphjbkeiagm/

Note: Most browsers that are based on the Chromium* source code, such as the Vivaldi browser, should be able to install extensions directly from the Google Chrome Web Store.

uBlock Origin for Firefox:

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-us/firefox/addon/ublock-origin/

uBlock Origin for Edge:

https://github.com/nikrolls/uBlock-Edge/releases

uBlock Origin for Opera*:

https://addons.opera.com/en/extensions/details/ublock/

* I recommend no one to use uBlock Origin for Google Chrome, Opera, Vivaldi etc. unless they use it with Wizmage Image Blocker for Chrome since uBlock makes conflicts with Fast Image Blocker and hence does not block all images because of that, such as youtube embed images and others. But with Wizmage Image Blocker activated it won’t be a problem. If you don’t use Wizmage, or if the Chrome compatibility stop working eventually so you can’t use Wizmage and provided the uBlock Origin/Fast Image Blocker problem persists, then you must use AdBlock instead since it makes no conflicts with this image blocker and all images gets blocked, and it is also a very good adblocker when configured correctly.

Note: “uBlock Origin” is not to be confused with the older and obsolete “uBlock” adblocker still around; nor must the user think ublock.org links to the “uBlock Origin” adblockers (it does not).

Important: In order to make this adblocker work properly as the other adblockers, you need to enter settings and select additional blocking elements.

To enter settings, click on the icon and press the small gear icon on the top or anywhere on the black color, or right click the adblock icon and press “options”.

After you have enter settings, go to “3rd-party filters”, and select the following filter lists in addition to those already selected:

Adblock Warning Removal List‎
Anti-Adblock Killer | Reek‎
Anti-ThirdpartySocial
Fanboy’s Annoyance List
[also select all the languages you frequently surf the internet with further down in the list]

Note: Remember to press “Apply changes”.

Remember to scroll down and select all the languages you commonly surf the internet with also.

Note: With “Fanboy Annoyances List” and Fanboy “Anti-Thirdparty Social” enabled, you won’t need any other “Fanboy-Social Lists” or “Anti-Cookie Filters” since they are already included.

You can of course select many more filter lists if you want too.

As you can see, there are lots of filters to choose from and that one can add manually in this adblocker. But be aware though, the more filters you add (especially unselected malware domains), the more likely it is that websites will start to become broken.

For a lot more blocking lists that you can add manually, visit this website:

https://filterlists.com/

How to manually block things with uBlock Origin for Google Chrome, Firefox, Opera and Microsoft Edge

Important: To my knowledge, this information should apply to Google Chrome, Firefox, Opera and Microsoft Edge, so even though this information was specifically written for Chrome, I know the same information also applies to Opera and Firefox, and presumably the rest of them as well.

uBlock Origin is the most advanced and hence most complicated of all the adblockers, and has similar manual blocking abilities as Adblock Plus.

One way to block something with uBlock Origin is to right click on the adblock icon and press “block element”. However, since doing so is highly buggy and often results in elements being selected by itself randomly, it is best to avoid doing this and instead click on the adblock icon, and then clicking on the pipette icon.

This will enter the advanced blocking mode where you can manually select anything on the website, as you will notice when you move around on the page and it highlight things that you can block.

If you right click on something and press “block element”, this only allows you to block that specific item.

Note: In order to get the box visible where you are supposed to choose blocking rules (at least in the version as of this writing) you need to move the mouse to the lower right corner of the screen. This will enable or make visible the box.

Important: Another hassle with this program (at least in the version as of this writing) is that it is simply not enough (most of the time) to simply press on the code you want to generate. For example, when I clicked normally on an ##.avatar code on another website, the following code was generated:

Wrong:

###msg_342199_extra_info > .avatar > a[href^="http://www.example.com/forum/index.php"] > .avatar

Right:

##.avatar

This wrong code is completely useless (at least for our purposes) since it will only block the single avatar in question selected and only on that specific page. (Sometimes the code it gives from normal click does the trick, so you will have to test what works in different cases.)

What you need to do in order to make the program give you the right and exact code you want is to hold down the ctrl key (on the keyboard) while clicking on the code. This will generate the proper and exact code that you can see displayed in the box picture above, such as:

##article

Note: The website’s name will be added automatically to the code when you press “Create”.

If you press the “Preview” button while having selected an element, you will see what happens to the site. If it does as you intended, press “Create”. If you want to cancel the whole blocking process, just press the “esc” button on your keyboard or press “Quit”. If you want to pick something else, press “Pick”.

Note: The video box is completely removed in “Preview” mode and if I “Create” this rule it won’t be visible anymore on any page on this whole website unless they change the code.

If you want to remove a filter you made or add several of your own, right click the adblock icon and press “options”, then go to “my filters”. Here you can immediately edit, delete or add whatever you want (just remember to press “Apply changes” afterwards).

Note: In order to avoid having to shift unnecessarily between browsers just in order to generate a blocking rule and then have to copy the rule and manually add it into another webbrowser/adblocker afterwards, it would be easier to just have Adblock Plus installed alongside uBlock Origin on the same webbrowser that you use (as I do). If you do so, unsubscribe from all filter blocking lists in Adblock Plus for Chrome, Opera etc. so that there won’t occur any conflicts between the two programs, and whenever you want to block something that uBlock Origin can’t block, just use Adblock Plus instead since it certainly or most probably will get the work done, and let it be activated at the same time for provided the program is activated on the same webbrowser with your other adblocker, then you won’t have to move the blocking rule from one adblocker to another.

How to use Adblock Plus alongside another main Adblocker of your choice without any filter subscriptions activated:

You can also delete (x) the adblocking lists if you want.

I use both webbrowsers/adblockers when needed to generate different blocking rules that I can later also manually add into any other adblocker or webbrowser (not all webbrowsers support the same adblockers).

AdBlock for Google Chrome, Opera, Safari and Microsoft Edge

Important: To my knowledge, this adblock should work in the same way in Google Chrome, Opera, Safari and Microsoft Edge, so even though this information was specifically written for Chrome, I know the same information also applies to Opera, and presumably the rest of them as well.

This adblocker is the most popular for Google Chrome and is perhaps the most easy to use and is good and serves all the purposes for most users.

Enter this link with the webbrowser you are currently using and it will give you the download link for that specific version:

https://getadblock.com/

Note: This adblock allows non-intrusive ads (usually text ads only) which they call “Acceptable Ads” by default but this option can be disabled in settings.

To go to AdBlock settings, click on the adblock icon, then click “options”.

When in “options”, go to “filter preferences”, then check and uncheck the same things as is shown in the list and image below in order to make it block as much ads as possible:

AdBlock custom filters
EasyList
Check and Add filters for another language or languages you are using and surfing the internet with -- Select Language -- (note: you can select several languages)
Adblock Warning Removal list (removes warnings about using ad blockers)
EasyPrivacy (privacy protection)
Fanboy’s Annoyances (blocks in-page pop-ups, social media and related widgets, and other annoyances, such as cookie warnings and notices)
Malware protection

Also add “AakList (Anti-Adblock Killer)” into your adblocker in order to remove additional websites’ adblock warnings against you using an adblocker by clicking this link:

abp:subscribe?location=https://raw.github.com/reek/anti-adblock-killer/master/anti-adblock-killer-filters.txt&title=AakList (Anti-Adblock Killer)

Also add “Fanboy Anti-Facebook Filters” in order to remove all kinds of social media buttons and annoyances that does not get removed with the above mentioned filters by clicking this link:
abp:subscribe?location=https://secure.fanboy.co.nz/fanboy-antifacebook.txt&title=Anti-facebook
Now your AdBlock lists should look similar to this:

Remember to uncheck “Acceptable Ads” at the top for otherwise the program will show you some advertisements.

Also add a filter for every language you commonly surf the internet with (you can add several languages).

You also don’t need the “Antisocial filter list” or any other “Cookie removal list” when using “Fanboy’s Annoyances” since they are included.

How to manually block things with AdBlock for Google Chrome, Opera, Safari and Microsoft Edge

Important: To my knowledge, this information should apply to Google Chrome, Opera, Safari and Microsoft Edge, so even though this information was specifically written for Chrome, I know the same information also applies to Opera, and presumably the rest of them as well.

Don’t like some site “nagging about you using an adblock?”, or taking up space with things you don’t want to be in the way? Well, in AdBlock, click on the adblock icon and press “Hide an ad on this page” (or right click on something you want to block) and follow the instructions. In fact, with this option you can block anything (yes anything!) that you don’t want to be shown.

For example, if you wish to block all avatars, images, videos, frames, columns etc. on a website or forum, you can click “Hide an ad on this page” and then click on an avatar, image, columns or whatever else is possible to manually select, and the program will give you an option that disables the specific html code for all those avatars, images, videos, frames, columns etc. You will notice, when clicking on the different options the program gives you, if all or only one of the avatars, images, videos, frames, columns etc. disappears or gets affected when scrolling and looking around the page, or if the whole page or parts of the page gets removed. Choose what you think fits your needs. Similarly, if you want to block only a certain image or images, that is also possible.

Note: I made the program selected this entire column in order to make the adblocker program remove this frame. You will of course need to move around into different positions of the page with your mouse pointer in order to make it select everything or only parts of a column etc., and when you have what you want, click on what it has selected for you in order to proceed to the next step. (You will understand better if you try to select an element to hide yourself.)

Note: After having clicked on the selected column in the previous image, now the steps to remove it appears. You can click on the grey slider in order to move the black square to different positions as well as dragging the square itself in order to make the program select different elements—if the starting position did not do what you want. You will see what happens to the page when you move the slider to different positions and you can scroll up and down and take a look and the result.

Since the starting point did the job immediately in our example, the right column is now gone as can be seen in the image, and if you block it like this the right column will be removed from every single page on this website (until they change the code).

If this is what you wanted do to, press on the “Looks good” button as seen in the above picture and proceed to the next step.

Note: If you don’t want to think more about it, just press “Block it!” After pressing “Block it!” one time, you will have to wait for some seconds before the browser responds. Clicking several times will only add the code several times into the list and is therefore unnecessary.

If you want to manually edit the code, press “Edit”. You can also remove the check box which says “Type will be DIV”. Although when both are checked the blocking will work, the code would be more correct and more universal as example.com##[class="column--secondary"] instead of example.com##DIV[class="column--secondary"].

If you want to go back and select something else, press “Back”. If you want to cancel the whole process, press “Cancel”.

If you blocked something wrong and the site don’t work as it should, click the AdBlock icon and press “options”, then go to “customize”. There you will see a header called “Manually edit your filters:” and under it in the box you will see the rule that you generated. Press “edit” and remove the rule, then press “save” and try to generate a new rule again and see if that one works.

Note: After removing the code from the list, press the “Save” button, and “Don’t forget to save!”

With practice you will learn how the manual blocking works and will thus be able to make websites appear more after your liking by hiding stuff, entire columns, videos, all images or specific images or avatar etc. If AdBlock can’t block something in the way you want, “Adblock Plus” for Firefox or Chrome will in all likelihood be able to do it. If you want to use AdBlock as your main AdBlocker, generate a rule then in Adblock Plus in Firefox or Chrome if it works better and then manually add it into your AdBlock filter list on any webbrowser.

Please see the information on Adblock Plus for Firefox or Adblock Plus for Chrome, Opera, Safari and Edge in order to learn how to use it also.

Note: In order to avoid having to shift unnecessarily between browsers just in order to generate a blocking rule and then have to copy the rule and manually add it into another webbrowser/adblocker afterwards, it would be easier to just have Adblock Plus installed alongside the other adblocker of your choice on the same webbrowser that you use. If you choose to do so, unsubscribe from all filter blocking lists in Adblock Plus for Chrome so that there won’t occur any conflicts between the two programs, and whenever you want to block something that the other program can’t block, just generate a rule in Adblock Plus and let it be activated at the same time for provided the program is activated on the same webbrowser with your other adblocker, then you won’t have to move the blocking rule from one adblocker to another.

How to use Adblock Plus alongside another main Adblocker of your choice without any filter subscriptions activated:

You can also delete (x) the adblocking lists if you want.

I use both webbrowsers/adblockers when needed to generate different blocking rules that I can later also manually add into any other adblocker or webbrowser (not all webbrowsers support the same adblockers).

Adblock Plus for Google Chrome, Opera, Safari and Microsoft Edge

Important: To my knowledge, this adblock should work in the same way in Google Chrome, Opera, Safari and Microsoft Edge, so even though this information was specifically written for Chrome, I know the same information also applies to Opera, and presumably the rest of them as well.

This adblocker has good manual blocking abilities (more on this later). But I would not recommend this as anyone’s main adblocker (unless they have experience in manually blocking things) since AdBlock is much easier to use when manually blocking non-ad related content that you don’t want to see, and uBlock Origin is better generally if one configure it correctly.

Enter this link with the webbrowser you are currently using and it will give you the download link for that specific version:

https://adblockplus.org/

You can disable “Allow some non-intrusive advertising” in settings.

To go to Adblock Plus settings, click on the adblock icon, then click “options”, go to the section “Filter lists”, then check and uncheck the same things as is shown in the list and image below in order to make it block as much ads as possible.

Adblock Warning Removal List
EasyList
Malware Domains
EasyPrivacy
Fanboy’s Annoyance List
AakList (Anti-Adblock Killer)
Anti-Facebook List

I will attach an image so that you can better see what you need to do:

Remember to uncheck “Allow some non-intrusive advertising” at the bottom of the image.

Problem: I don’t have any of those boxes to check or have only EasyList and Adblock Warning Removal List or some other.

Solution: I will give you the direct links so that you can add the filters you need manually (if the links don’t work, just search the name listed).

Note: Click the “open this dialogue” to automatically add and install the filter into your Adblock Plus program (or any Adblocker for that matter that is activated on any webbrowser).

Note: These links won’t work as a direct url, or if opened from a pdf or word document, but needs to be opened with a webbrowser that has an adblocker installed.

Fanboy Annoyances List

Hide and block social content, social widgets, social scripts and social icons.

Hides in page Pop-Ups and other annoyances; thereby substantially decreasing web page loading times and uncluttering them (this list also includes the popular Fanboy-Social List.)

Removes cookie and privacy warnings (this list also includes the popular Fanboy-Anti-Cookie Filters)

Disable social media buttons used to share content on social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus and others are placed on almost every website that you visit. Even if you don’t click them, these buttons send requests to the social network’s servers which then uses the information to create a profile based on your browsing habits.

Adblock Plus can disable social media buttons from websites, ensuring that social networks cannot create a profile based on the websites you visit.

To enable this feature, open this dialogue and click Add.
EasyPrivacy - Disable Tracking

With every browsing session, there are multiple firms tracking your online activity and browsing history. Hundreds of ad agencies are tracking your every move. With Adblock Plus, you can easily disable most tracking and browse the web more anonymously.

According to Stanford University research, the EasyPrivacy tracking protection filters are the most efficient of all available tracking protection solutions.

To enable this feature, open this dialogue and click Add.
Disable Malware Domains

If your computer is slow at startup or riddled with pop-ups, it may be infected with malware. Computers infected with malware are vulnerable to all types of cyber attacks, including stolen identity. Infected computers can also be used to send spam emails or attack other computers or servers, stealing passwords, social security numbers, personal documents and credit card information.

Adblock Plus can be configured to block domains known to spread malware, protecting your computer against viruses, Trojan horses, worms, adware and spyware.

To enable this feature, open this dialogue and click Add.

Also add “AakList (Anti-Adblock Killer)” into your adblocker in order to remove additional websites’ adblock warnings against you using an adblocker by clicking this link:

abp:subscribe?location=https://raw.github.com/reek/anti-adblock-killer/master/anti-adblock-killer-filters.txt&title=AakList (Anti-Adblock Killer)

Also add “Fanboy Anti-Facebook Filters” in order to remove all kinds of social media buttons and annoyances that does not get removed with the above mentioned filters by clicking this link:

abp:subscribe?location=https://secure.fanboy.co.nz/fanboy-antifacebook.txt&title=Anti-facebook
Note: With “Fanboy Annoyances List” and “Fanboy Anti-Facebook Filters” enabled, you won’t need any other “Fanboy Social Blocking Lists” or “Anti-Cookie Filters” since they are already included.

As one can see in the above image of Adblock Plus for Chrome, there is an option to press a button at the bottom called “Add filter subscription” in order to manually add more filters for additional languages, but this list is not complete and missing many languages.

Please visit this link for more complete ad-blocking lists of all kinds and in various languages:

https://filterlists.com/

I don’t recall having much problems with ads showing themselves with Adblock Plus installed when I used it frequently even without additional language lists, but that might be because I surfed the internet with images off also.

How to manually block things with Adblock Plus for Google Chrome, Opera, Safari and Microsoft Edge

Important: To my knowledge, this information should apply to Google Chrome, Opera, Safari and Microsoft Edge, so even though this information was specifically written for Chrome, I know the same information also applies to Opera, and presumably the rest of them as well.

Adblock Plus might be a better choice for more advanced users provided one understands how and where to click on the page in order to block something, and for these reasons it could preferred to AdBlock, although AdBlock is much easier and sometimes even better than Adblock Plus in blocking things.

In order to block something with basic blocking abilities in Adblock Plus, right click on an image or frame you want to block and press “block element” and follow the instructions (this is not generally recommended to do unless you only want to block one specific image or images).

Note: If you have uBlock Origin and Adblock Plus activated at the same time, you will see two exactly the same “Block element” buttons under one another when right clicking image elements, and only the uBlock Origin “Block element” button when clicking everything else.

If no “block element” shows itself from right clicking an element, you need to click adblock icon, then press the “block element” button (if it doesn’t show, refresh the page).

This enables the more advanced blocking feature, as you will see when you move around on the page in order to highlight things to block (you can block anything it highlights from pictures, videos, frames, boxes, entire columns, video holders, avatar holders, all the videos etc.).

Note: The yellow is the entire element Adblock Plus gives me as an option to block when I move around with my mouse in a certain way (you will understand how it works if you click on “Block element” and move around on the page with the mouse and see what kind of things it highlights that you can block). If I choose to click on this with my mouse, it will take me to the next step.

If I want to cancel, I either press the “esc” button on my keyboard or click on the AdBlock Plus icon again and click on “Cancel”, as shown in the image.

Press on what you want to block and the program will show you the generated rules. In this case, it gave me two different codes. If you are uncertain what to choose, just “Add” both.

Note: After adding the above codes, this is what happened to youtube’s startpage! So now I will never have to see anything on this page at all unless they change the code. You can do the same on any site of your choice.

After you have generated a rule, it will be added into the Adblock Plus “options”, the section “add your own filters”. Here you can delete the rules you generated if they don’t work as they should, or add many others you already have. For simpler handling of the rules and in order to paste and copy, press “Edit filters as raw text”.

Note: In order to block all avatars or images on a specific website, it may not be enough to right click on the avatar or image and press “Block element” (although it could be, as is explained in Adblock Plus for Firefox section below), since this will only generate a url rule in order to block that specific image. You will need to click on the Adblock Plus icon, then press “Block element” in order to get it to do more advanced blocking. But even with this, it might not be enough to press on the image itself as in the Firefox version (with AdBlock, however, it would be enough to press on the image and for this reason it is a little easier to use) since in Chrome it would only generate a url to block for that specific image or images.

Wrong (in Adblock Plus for Chrome etc.):

The above example would only generate the following kind of code:

||example.com/forum/index.php?action=dlattach;attach=2107;type=avatar

This code only applies to that specific avatar, image or folder and/or only that specific page or pages.

Right (in Adblock Plus for Chrome etc.):

If you click right like in this example, the following kind of blocking rule will appear:

example.com##.avatar

This is the code that will block all the image/avatar holders on the entire website and hence removes all the avatars.

Google Chrome

Image Blockers