Rumor has it that Microsoft won’t be supporting Edge extensions in Windows 10 Mobile anytime soon, very possibly because of performance concerns with the company’s mobile OS. That’s bad news for many Windows 10 smartphone users, in part at least because of the limitations that decision seems to place on ad blockers on mobile.
One company offers a solution, however, that could bypass the lack of Edge extensions in Windows 10 Mobile. Adguard makes an ad blocker tool for Android that utilizes a local VPN through which all web requests are run and against which ad blocking technology is applied. According to a reddit post (via MSPU), that company could be bringing its technology to Windows 10 Mobile.
The following video provides an overview of how Adguard works:
Here’s the pertinent info, via the Adguard forum, coming from Adguard forum administrator avatar:
Paolo said: “You can port the iOS version through Microsoft “Project Islandwood” tools and then optimize it for W10M with the proper adjustment for example (time saving).”
Edge does not support Safari content blocking API, so there’s no way we can simply port it:(
Paolo said: “Plus, W10M Proxy/VPN work on phones same as PC if I recall correctly, and now starting from Windows 10 Mobile 14393.x (Anniversary Update RTM build) you can also set “Always background enabled” apps through Battery Saver, see link: http://www.pcworld.com/article/3053…ersary-updates-best-new-features.html#slide14″
This is nice! I’ll make another try and look what we can use for ad blocking after the anniversary update.
Further on, avatar made the following statement:
I did some research and it seems to be possible after all.
We can do the same thing we do on Android. So, we can create a “virtual” local VPN server which will filter traffic system wide.
Adguard does list a potential issue with this approach, specifically the need for special provisioning with the Microsoft developer account. And so, nothing is being promised here. Check out the reddit thread for more information, and we’ll certainly be keeping our eye on this development. Let us know in the comments if you’d be willing to run a local VPN solution in order to block ads from those particularly onerous web sites.
