5 simple steps for getting rid of Live Messenger Ads

A coworker of mine was just complaining about the annoying ads in Live Messenger – here’s how to fix it

1. Close Live Messenger and all IE instances
2. Open your hosts file (C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts) with Notepad
3. Add the following line (this redirects requests for the MSN ad server to your local computer)
   127.0.0.1     rad.msn.com     #Live messenger ads
4. Save your hosts file
5. Restart Messenger

That’s it – no more ads

Should you ever want the ads back, or need access to rad.msn.com for some reason, simply remove the line (or comment out the line with a leading #)