C.M. from Midwest USA writes:
While we are on the qualities of Outlook, is there any way to kill/get rid of/make invisible that strip of advertisements on the right side of my screen?
You’ve probably heard the old adage that there is no such thing as a free lunch. Well, its true. As much as we love using free online tools like Outlook.com, somebody has to pay the bills to help develop and maintain the service. Microsoft, Google, Yahoo! and numerous other sites, do this through advertisements. Online ads can be annoying, frustrating, or just plain distracting, however, there are a couple of things you can do to remove ads from Outlook.com.
1. Upgrade to Outlook Plus
Outlook.com is a free email service for all who want to use it, but Microsoft offers a paid version of the service called Outlook Plus. For $19.95 a year, you can upgrade to Outlook Plus and get a completely ad-free experience when reading your email. So, the bar on the right hand-side of your screen that usually contains advertisements is removed for Outlook Plus users.
To upgrade to Outlook Plus, login to your Outlook.com account and click the gear in the top right hand corner of the screen. Then select More Settings.
On the next screen, under Managing Your Account, click Upgrade to Ad-Free Outlook.
This will take you to the Outlook Plus page where you can click Upgrade Now where you will add your billing details and begin the process of upgrading your account.
2. Use an Ad Blocker
If $19.95 a year is more than you want to pay to remove ads on Outlook.com, the your other option is to use an ad blocker. An ad blocker is a add-on for your browser that detects ads on a webpage and hide them so that they are invisible to the naked eye. There are several to choose from, and most are free, but a good one to start with is AdBlock Plus.
Adblock Plus is available for a number of popular browsers like Internet Explorer, Chrome, Firefox, and Safari, and installing it is easy. Simply go to the AdBlock Plus website and click in the green Install button to add it to your browser for free.
Once installed, navigate back to Outlook.com and take a look at the sidebar on the right hand side where the ads used to be, and be prepared for a pleasant surprise. The ads that once littered your inbox are now hidden from view!
~ Jonathan
THANK YOU!!
Download “webmail ad blocker” to your browser and it removes the whole sidebar not just the ad’s
Thank you!
Woohoo!! Thanks a ton, mate! That stupid bar has been eating my screen space for more than an year now. Thanks a lot for mentioning the extension! 😀
Thanks a bunch!!!
Thank U!!
Just wanted to say that AdBlock does indeed remove the ads, but the ad bar is still there and keeps getting bigger and bigger. It now covers half of the mail making it unviewable. You stated that there’s no free lunch.. Considering Microsoft and Google are two of the richest companies there is because of us, perhaps they ought to go back to mail being a free service as it costs them nothing. The name change from Hotmail to Outlook did not come with any different or extra special services that I can see.
If a user got extra services or storage space a nominal fee might then be in order..
This tactic of slowly blocking out the viewing area and asking for money to unblock it seems an awful lot like a hostage/ransom scenario or extortion to me.
FANTASTIC … THANKS … Those ADS were ANNOYING!!!!
I’m trying to figure out why with the latest version of Outlook, in IE none of the buttons/icons appear, and when you check a box (that also doesn’t appear until you mouse it) the check doesn;t appear. Works ok in FF, so it may be due to an adblocker (since the adds appear in FF but not IE) Just the latest annoyance in the growing string of annoyances ever since Win8…
I’d like to know how to adjust the column sizes while looking at my Inbox. I have been able to adjust the size with old versions..now I cant. Right now I have the following showing: From/Subject/Date & Time. I need to reduce my screen size to below 100% to show more info.
I’m especially wanting to close the gap between the From & Subject columns. Any suggestions?
Hello. And Bye.