This method has been shown to work properly on the majority of users' PC's. I can not, unfortunately, guarantee that it will work on all PC's. I hope that it will work for you, but I must urge you to make backups of your system before you try anything new to prevent the loss of your data.

Note for your consideration:

The hosts.txt files are provided as examples. I do not wish to imply that you should block all of the servers in that list. Whether you block those servers or not is a personal choice, but the example file is provided as a way for you to see what servers are out there that you could block if you wanted to. You may then decide to block all of them, some of them, or none of them - but the choice is strictly up to you. Also, not every ad server on the Internet is in the list, and so you may want to add your own to the list, or remove some from the list that you want to see ads from.

If you want to unblock any or all servers on the list, simply remove them from the list. To remove ad servers from the list, open the list in Notepad and delete the lines pertaining to the servers that you do not want blocked.

If you want to use the Hosts file with your own list entirely, then download this file and follow the instructions in it.

One final note for those concerned with their privacy:

Just to reiterate, if a server is not in your Hosts file, nothing from it will be blocked and it may still try to profile you, send cookies, etc. If you discover a server that is doing this and is not in your Hosts file, you may add an entry for that server yourself to block communication with it. The Hosts file is one quite good method to help secure your privacy, but it is only one of many steps you should take if you desire total Internet privacy. To see more about privacy concerns, I recommend that you visit Privacy.net and take further steps to secure your privacy in addition to the Hosts file.