Use This App to Block Ads on Windows 11
Advertisements—sometimes offers to do something that will benefit Microsoft financially, and sometimes actual paid ads—are popping up all over Windows 11. This month , Start menu ads are rolling out to all users and take the form of “Featured” apps that you haven’t seen yet. installed. Advertising also appeared briefly in Explorer , although this was apparently unintentional. Both the lock screen and settings app have long had calls to action. It’s a mess.
We’ve told you how to manually turn off all Microsoft ads in Windows 11 , but you’ll have to dig into the settings for a long time. If you don’t want to do this, the OFGB app can do it for you. This free and open source application can quickly change various registry settings to disable these ads – all you have to do is check a few boxes.
To get started, simply download the latest version from Github . There are two versions: one small version that will only work if you already have .NET 8.0 installed, and one large version that includes .NET. Use what seems easier to you.
Open the app and you’ll see a bunch of checkboxes that let you disable various features. These include the infamous Explorer ads, lock screen ads, Suggested Content in the Settings app, general tips and tricks that pop up when using Windows, the Windows Welcome Experience, an optional tracking tool that allows you to show a “more personalized” experience. advertising, a “Customized Experience” feature that tracks browsing on your website and shows product recommendations, and “recommended” ads that appear in the Start menu.
Honestly, there are a lot of things you need to disable to get a clean operating system, but with this app, at least it’s all in one place. And hey: it’s easier than wiping your computer to just install a really clean version of Windows 11 , so that’s a plus.