Kill Windows 11 Ads With This New Tool

Windows 11's woes continue. After a steady decline in market share, user frustration has reached a new high with the addition of unskippable ads in the latest update. Thankfully, a programmer using the alias Maddy (@xM4ddy) has emerged as an unlikely hero with a program called "Oh F*ck Go Back" (OFGB).

This free tool allows users to eradicate all flavours of ads on Windows 11 with a simple click. Maddy, a Linux enthusiast, built OFGB specifically to address the growing ad problem in Windows. The program boasts a user-friendly interface that clearly shows every type of ad it can remove. Clicking a checkbox triggers a safe registry edit, eliminating the risk of users messing up their system with manual edits.

In an interview with Toms Hardware, Maddy mentions her motivations and methods with which she made OFGB. "I was getting more and more annoyed by ads in random places and decided to try to find an easy fix." She then mentions how she figured out the solution, "After coming across a .reg file by Shawn Brink, I found my answer. After thinking more about it, I figured it may be accessible to more people if there was a GUI so that less tech-savvy people could easily set the registry keys without needing any knowledge of the registry."

OFGB has garnered moderate online attention, with a few thousand downloads thanks to shares on Reddit and Twitter. Maddy highlights the importance of sparking conversation around ads in paid software. "People should be talking about this," she says, hoping OFGB will encourage users to explore alternatives like Linux, where customisation and ad removal are effortless.

While Maddy doesn't plan on returning to Windows anytime soon, she built OFGB to empower less tech-savvy users. Her own switch to Linux stemmed from a desire for customisation and the open-source nature of the platform. Interestingly, recent benchmarks even show Arch Linux surpassing Windows 11 in gaming performance, adding another layer to the competition.

Even though Microsoft attempts to navigate these troubled waters, one thing is clear: users are no longer willing to tolerate an ad-infused experience on their paid operating system. Maddy's creation serves not just as a solution but as a symbol of user defiance and wants.

It remains to be seen if Microsoft will listen to its customers and address their concerns, but for now, OFGB offers a glimmer of hope for a cleaner, ad-free Windows 11 experience.

If you’re interested in learning more about Windows 11 and new OS features try our other articles like How to Disable Windows 11 Start Menu Ads and Windows is copying Samsung by adding more ads to its OS.