Ads. We all hate them. And, yes, I'll stop you before you go there – I realize there are plenty on Windows IT Pro. Sometimes more than other times, but, they pay the bills and allow us to continue to provide free and valuable content for IT Pros.
Fortunately there are tools to help eliminate them from our online life and I know many of you use such tools. For those using Internet Explorer one of the more popular tools has always been Adblock Plus. The Adblock Plus community continues to provide a valuable free plugin for Internet Explorer that blocks banners, pop-ups, and video ads and is even smart enough to bar ones on Facebook and YouTube.
AdBlock Plus has supported all public Internet Explorer versions for years, boasting over 200 million downloads, but in a support statement today has announced that support for Internet Explorer 6 and 7 will come to an end. The reasons are clear. There's just no way to continue to support browser with older, unsecure standards. This does not mean that the organization is ending support for Windows XP, just for older Internet Explorer versions.
In addition to the end of support, the organization's web site will also be modified, removing "hacks" that ensures versions prior to IE8 would display correctly.
The full set of reasons are detailed in the organizations support statement: Discontinuing support for Internet Explorer 6 and 7
Bottom line: Move to a newer version of Internet Explorer, and please, please, consider shutting off the computer completely before ever booting Windows XP.
