Adware is usually a software package that is included with other programs or applications. The use of adware is advantageous for the developer of a software package as the companies whose adware is being used will pay that developer for including them. For this reason, the developer of the program will often be able to provide it for free rather than charging the end user for the time that they have put into the program. The adware and income that is generated for the developer from it is also often an incentive to continue writing additional code, or upgrades for the software application. Many programs that come with adware installed will have the option for the end user to register or license their copy by paying a fee. Once this has completed, the adware portion of the program is usually turned off so that the paying users are no longer burdend by the presence of advertisements while using the program.

There are many concerns that have arised with the advent of adware. Most of these are security related. For example, many adware packages are actually a form of spyware. The reason this is a concern for the end user is because spyware will track the users activity and report it back to the adware developer who will often sell this information without the end user’s consent. Another type of adware that is often annoying is malware. This software will often interfere with the function of programs on the user’s computer by redirecting them to a web site that they did not want to visit in the first place. This can become extremely annoying for any computer user. The terms adware, spyware and malware are often confused because of their overlapping characteristics.

Spyware has become a large concern for computer security and privacy avocates because these programs will send the internet user’s browsing activity to an advertisement company who will then send targeted advertisements to that user. Kazaa is a popular program that uses this technique.

Other adware programs do not track a user’s activity in this way unless the user of the computer has approved it first. However, many developers will include this information in the Terms of Use or End Users License Agreement, so be very careful to fully read these before selecting I Agree.

There are several programs that have become available to end users to help protect from adware and spyware. Some of which are available for free. One of the most popular, with nearly one million downloads each week is Ad-Aware which is provided by Lavasoft. The personal edition for a home user is provided free of charge, but comercial versions do come with some cost associated.

First off, if you are using Internet Explorer 6 and the address bar still shows up find in windows explorer, then this issue may occur if the Toolbar settings are set to remove the Address bar, or if there is a problem with a registry key. Here is what you will need to do to fix this problem.

Start by checking to see if the Toolbar settings are correct. Once you have started Internet Explorer, click on view and then point to Toolbars. If there is not a check mark next to Address Bar, then click on Address Bar to place on there. If there is a check mark there then remove it and re-add it using the same technique. If the address bar is in the upper right corner and is not available, then right click on Address and click Lock the Toolbar to remove the check mark. Now you can click on Address and drag the Address bar to where you want it. If this has not resolved your problem, then you will need to try the next method.

There could be a problem with the WebBrowser registry key, and so we will have to delete it. Remember to backup your registry in case you accidentally chance something else and cause serious problems with your computer.

To get started click on Start, Run and then type regedit and hit OK. You are going to need to locate HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Toolbar. Now that you are here, right click on WebBrowser and delete it. Then click Yes to confirm. Now you are going to want to open up an Internet Explorer window, click on view and then point to Toolbars. The toolbar default settings are now restored and you should once again have an Address bar!

Another problem that can be encountered is when you do not have an Address bar in Internet Explorer or in the Windows Explorer. This is also caused by corrupt values in the Windows registry. Remember, once again, before doing anything in the registry to back it up in case you make and error.

To fix this problem you are going to have to edit the registry to remove the corrupt values. Start by closing all Internet Exploere and Windows Explorer windows and start the registry editor. Now find HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Toolbar. For Windows Explorer find the Explorer sub-key and open it. In the right window pane, locate the ITBarLayout value and delete it. For Internet Explorer locate the WebBrowser sub-key and open it. Now in the right window pane locate ITBarLayout and delete it. Now you can quit the registry editor.

Adblock is a filtering extension for these web browsers that allows a user to prevent advertisements and other page elements from being displayed when browsing the internet. Similar to the built in image blocker in Mozilla’s applications, Adblock will successfully block HTTP requests depending on their source address and can block IFrames, script and Flash for being downloaded or displayed. In 2004 a more advanced version of the Adblock extension for Mozilla web browsers was introduced. This version is called Adblock Plus and offers improvements to the user interface, filter subscriptions and element hiding.

The main focus of the Adbock Plus version of Adblock is its usability. The Plus version has a main window with menu items at the top, and a sidebar that integrates a list of the blockable items on a page which can be removed for the main web browser window. The element hiding of Adblock can be used to compliment regular ad blocking. It uses automatically generated user stylesheets to hide elements on a web page as they load rather than just blocking them. Some of the other newer features of Adblock Plus include the ability to enable or disable filters, and a set of filter statistics to determine the effectiveness of the filters that are being used. Adblock, however, has removed the site-blocking feature that was used in the original version of Adblock.

The first version of Adblock Plus was created by Michael McDonald, which improved on the orgional Adblock by adding whitelisting, blocking of background images, subscriptions to filters, ability to hide HTML elements, ability to hide adverstisements on a per site basis and memory leak fixes. However, Michael McDonald discontinued development of Adblock Plus after this version was released and transferred the development rights over to Wladimir Palant, who released the next version of Adblock Plus in January of 2006.

The subscriptions that are available to users of Adblock Plus can be found on their website. A user can subscribe to more that one list and these lists are automatically updated. This is the easiest way for a user to keep up with the every changing ways that web site developers display advertisements to get around advertisement blockers such as Adblock. If the subscriptions that you are using do not seem to be blocking some of the advertisements that you dislike, you can always individually enter filter parameters to tell Adblock Plus to block them in the future.