Remove ads in Yahoo! Messenger

As it is, Yahoo messenger has a small window to display your IM contacts [considering the fact that you don't maximise the window] . To add to this, Yahoo has these irritating ads which even pop-up somtimes and occupy a considerable part of that window. There's a easy way to remove these ads from Yahoo Messenger.


[NOTE: You won't be ale to use the chatroom feature once you disable these ads. So don't try this if you use the chatroom. ]


First of all find out which version of messenger your using. Simply open Yahoo Messnger & on the top toolbar select Help -> About. If your version is 8 then the procedure is just a 2-second thing


First, exit Messenger. Then Download this *.bat file from HERE to your computer. Now simply double click to execute it. You'll see a command prompt window pop up temporarily. And thats all. When you start Messenger, you wont' see those ads.


Here's what the .bat file actually does-


It modifies the following registry entries located at HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\ Yahoo\pager\YUrl by replacing the values with an asterik (*)


-Messenger Ad
-Webcam Upload Ad
-Webcam Viewer Ad
-Webcam Viewer Ad Big
-Webcam Viewer Ad Medium
-Change Room Banner
-Conf Adurl
- Chat Adurl


You'll have to repeat this procedure if you update or reinstall messenger.
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If your using Yahoo Messenger 9.0 , then the above method won't work. Try this instead-

1. Exit Messenger


2.On your comp, navigate to C:\Program Files\Yahoo!\Messenger\YahooMessenger.exe and create a backup copy of YahooMessenger.exe


3.Download a hex editor like HxD from HERE. Extract the setup file using WinRAR and install the software.


4.Launch HxD. Go to File->Open and navigate to C:\Program Files\Yahoo!\Messenger\YahooMessenger.exe in the hex editor.

5.Now click on Search-> Go To and go to the offset 295928 .


6. Look at the right column and replace y from “y.m.s.g.r.a.d.s” with p

7. Next save the file from File->Save and close the hex editor.

Your done. The next time you start messenger, you shouldn't see those animated ads.
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Now, with the latest beta update, even the hex editor hack doesn't work here's another way-

1.Close Yahoo Messenger.

2.Now, on your computer, browse to C:\Program Files\Yahoo!\Messenger\Cache.

3.There will be a file by the name urls.xml here.

4.Open it in notepad and delete all the text from it. Now save the file.

5. Then right-click on it and select Properties. Here, tick the 'Read-only' check box.

6.Now download the Patch from HERE. {Please virus scan this file after download because some people have reported trojans. Download at your own risk}. Run the file and click Patch . If it gives up a pop-up saying “Can not find the file. Search the file?”, then click Yes and show the path of your yahoomessenger.exe file. Now click on patch. After it says patching is done, the bottom banner ad in Messenger should be removed.

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Another trick-

1. Open Notepad.
2. Choose File->Open and go to the following file:C:\Windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts
3. Add the following line at the end of the text file and save it:
127.0.0.1 insider.msg.yahoo.com

This will disable the ads, but please note that it might also prevent Yahoo from loading IMVirons & Audibles.

Credits to thenonhacker for this trick.

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The last alternative to remove ads is to use a software like Yahoo Ad Banner Remover which removes ads from version 7.5 & 8. Download from HERE. It also allows you to run multiple instances of messenger.

One more software is Y.AddsRemover. Download from HERE. Just run it, select all and say 'Remove Selected Ads'

Another software is Ad Destroy. Check it out HERE.

Those are all the ways known till now to disable ads in Yahoo Messenger.

Disclaimer: Please note that you will be violating Yahoo! terms & policies by disabling ads.