Icq Without Ads

[locustfurnace]

Originally posted by Goslow@Jun 24 2003, 06:39 AM

sorry to hear that. that is how i currently set up all icq clients for people i help out.

Thanks for the long go slow:-) explaination I created the txt file & deleted the .txt extension .All is well add free & s.ms working :-)

your welcome, glad it now works for you.

[DuLLiFieD]

wanna know when ICQ started with ads? here's when: when they started werking with the worlds sh!ttiest ISP that will ever be.....
who else but AOL!!!

oh and another thing you all may enjoy...

guess who owns the click-thru ad company?? yep, u guessed it, AOL!!

and aol's against SPAM?! lol i think not, one of the most expensive providers and they have an ad on almost every window on thier service.....

why anyone would spend $25+ a month to view a bunch of ads is beyond me!

shyt one could use one of the free IPSs out there and only have ONE rotating banner ad....

AOL SUCKS, they ruin everything they get thier hands or software on. :lol:

peace all
Visit www.WASTEOID.com

[locustfurnace]

Originally posted by DuLLiFieD@Jul 2 2003, 02:08 AM
wanna know when ICQ started with ads? here's when: when they started werking ....who else but AOL!!!

Icq is not working with AOL. ICQ was made by a company in Israel called Mirabillis. and AOL bought it from them for $400 million.

If you dont like the ads, follow this post to the begining, and find my explanation on how to get rid of them.

[Rimmer1]

Originally posted by locustfurnace@May 28 2003, 09:36 PM
you can use older versions of icq, but due to change in protocol to v7 or v8, you wont get your offline messages, but can still send,
its easy to stop the banners, no hacking

go to the icq folder, find the file/folder called AteBrowser

delete it, make a txt file with same name, make it read-only.
thats it.
thats all i ever do.

Does this work with 2003a build 3800?

I have followed your instructions as best i can, and still it doesn't work.

I think i'm supposed to delete the folder called AteBrowser, and the make a .txt file called AteBrowser.txt......then make it read only, if so i have done this but it doesn't work

Any suggestions?

Cheers

[locustfurnace]

Originally posted by Rimmer1@Jul 9 2003, 05:06 AM
I think i'm supposed to delete the folder called AteBrowser, and the make a .txt file called AteBrowser.txt......then make it read only,

you need to enable SHOWING of the file extensions within windows explorer. which I describe also in this posting up above.

the file will be a txt file, but without the DOT txt extension.
it will be a file without any known icon also. so if your ending up with a txt icon on the ATEBROWSER file you made, ya know it is not correct.

you must enable these options - SHOW ALL FILE EXTENSIONS within WINDOWS EXPLORER's folder options.

it will work. I just a day ago helped someone else do just such on her Windows ME.
just take your time, follow the directions above in this post. and you'll have success.
its not too difficult. but if you skip showing all file extensions, then it will fail ever single time.
make sure you delete the folder ATEBROWSER before making the txt file portion.

[Popcorn]

I did all that you said in the above post. It does show as an unknown icon, but I still get a banner on my IM window. I use 2000b
Got any idea how to fix it?
Thanks.

[Popcorn]

I did all that you said in the above post. It does show as an unknown icon, but I still get a banner on my IM window. I use 2000b
Got any idea how to fix it?
Thanks.

[locustfurnace]

Originally posted by Popcorn@Sep 14 2003, 05:56 AM
I did all that you said in the above post. It does show as an unknown icon, but I still get a banner on my IM window. I use 2000b
Got any idea how to fix it?
Thanks.

your talking about the blank tan colored banner? if so, the only way to remove that is when you reinstall ICQ ontop the older version.
so usually when they update the client and you install the newest one, but leaving the old version there, it removes the banner.
for me, i just reinstall icq ontop of the old version, (or same version), to remove the banner

[ramian]

Two ways for a 100% clean ICQ 2001/2002 (No Ads or Ad Boxes) Not sure if this works with 2003 but then, there's no harm trying.

1. Making a clean install:
- install it
- before the first start of ICQ kill the ICQhttp.dll
- Delete the AteBrowser folder and create a "Read Only" text file named AteBrowser (No Extension)
- set Auto Update = No ( HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Mirabilis&#0 92;ICQ\DefaultPrefs )
- your ICQ will stay add-free

2. Killing adds from a existing version:
! You will loose your message history and most of your settings !
! Your contact list MUST be on ICQ server, or you will lose it too!

- Completely Close ICQ
- delete ICQhttp.dll
- set Auto Update = No ( HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Mirabilis&#0 92;ICQ\DefaultPrefs )
- remove the 2001a folder and the Contact List folder
- Delete the AteBrowser folder and create a "Read Only" text file named AteBrowser (No Extension)
- restart ICQ
- type in your ICQ Number and password
- set all your lost settings again
- Contact List will be loaded from the server
- ICQ will stay 100 % add-free

ICQLite

Here a complete and hopefully most simple step-by-step guide:

*) First, shut down ICQ Lite if it's running
*) Click "Start"/"Run..." and key in "regedit"
*) Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Mirabilis&#0 92;ICQ\ICQLite and change the values of LiteBannersActive, LiteCLBannerActive and LiteInterOpActive to "0".
*) Now right-click on key "ICQLite" (in the left pane) and select "Permissions"
*) In the permissions window, click the "Advanced" button
*) Now, deselect the first checkbox which says something about inherited permissions and click "Remove" in the appearing dialog, which will remove all entries in the list, then click the "Apply" button. Why? This will remove all permissions set on this key and disable inheritance. We have successfully blocked ALL access to this key and it's values.
*) Now we have to re-enable value reading so ICQ can find out what we think of its advertisments. Click "Add", key in "Everyone" and click "OK". Now just select the "Grant" of the second entry ("read values") in the list and click "OK". Close the other permission windows with "OK". Note that we gave Everyone access to this key, for simplicity reasons - this will be no big security issue ;-)

Now you can test this by simply trying to change the value of one of the entries to anything else with regedit - you should receive an error which says the new value could not be written.

*) Additionally, you can get rid of the welcome screen by opening HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE&#092;SOFTWARE&#092;Mirabilis&#0 92;ICQ&#092;NewOwners&#092;<YOUR_ICQ_NUMBER>&#092; ICQLite and changing ShowWelcomeScreen to "0" - ICQLite should not be running or it will re-enable this value&#33;

[locustfurnace]

When deleting files, such as the http.dll, you should make a folder such as OLD within the ICQ folder, and move whatever files there, or just rename the file, if the file is ICQhttp.dll, rename it to OLD-ICQ.http.dll.

Deleting files can and does sometimes cause problems. This particular file, i can not rem what problems - if any, where caused by the removal of it. But I do recall removing a file within the icq structure which showed no signs of distress, only til I decided to receive a file from a user, then I was not able to receive the file, it might have been this file, but I am thinking more likley it was the "icqhttpcontrol.ocx".

But I would just suggest not deleting the file, just rename it, or move to a sub folder within the dir. Just to be safe.