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Windows Insiders can now install Adblock Plus in Microsoft Edge

One of the biggest missing pieces in Windows 10's default browser has finally arrived. If you're running the latest preview release of Windows 10, the Adblock Plus extension is now available from the Windows Store.
Written by Ed Bott, Senior Contributing Editor
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The new Adblock Plus extension is built for Windows 10's Edge browser

The most eagerly awaited extension of all for Microsoft's Edge browser has finally arrived for preview releases of Windows 10.

Adblock Plus is now available for free in the Windows Store. The download adds the extension to Microsoft Edge automatically, giving users of the default browser the same ad-blocking capabilities that other browsers enjoy.

Microsoft released the first extensions for Edge in mid-March, with those first offerings requiring a separate executable download and then an activation step. The integration of Adblock Plus into the Windows Store makes that process a bit smoother.

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After installation, the extension announces its presence in Edge, as shown here, and invites you to activate it.

In every other respect, the new extension should be familiar to anyone who's installed it on Google Chrome.

An optional button alongside the address bar shows how many ads have been blocked for each site.

Clicking that button opens the web-based interface for managing Adblock Plus options.

Those options are remarkably similar to those available in Chrome. Instead of using a chrome-extension:// prefix, the Edge version uses the ms-browser-extension:// prefix.

For anyone using the Current Branch release of Windows 10, the new capabilities aren't available. This and other extensions are offered only in Windows Insider preview releases and won't appear in a released version until the Anniversary Updates arrives this summer.

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