Kill MSN Messenger ads

If u, like me, hate and wanna get rid of the annoying ads in MSN Messenger without modifying Windows registry, use software, or mess with firewalls, do the following:

1. Locate Windows’s host file. Search for "hosts" (should be in "x:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc").

2. Make a backup of hosts.

3. Open hosts with a text editor or notepad.

4. Add the lines: "127.0.0.1 rad.msn.com" and "127.0.0.1 ads.msn.com" (like the line with localhost).

5. Save and exit.

6. Start or restart MSN.

Now the ads should be removed. These lines fools Windows into redirecting the adservers url (rad.msn.com and ads.msn.com) to the local computer’s internal ip, which is called the loopback (ip = "127.0.0.1"). This means there's no communication between MSN and the adservers. Hence no ads.

This should work with all versions of MSN (as long as the same adservers are used) and Windows XP (may work on other versions of Windows as well).