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Ad Muncher Changelog

What's new in Ad Muncher 4.94 Build 34121

Oct 20, 2014
  • Fixed error about missing download source in Install.ini.

New in Ad Muncher 4.94 Build 33900 Beta (Oct 17, 2014)

  • Removed all of the license management and anti-piracy code.

New in Ad Muncher 4.94 Build 34089 Beta (Oct 17, 2014)

  • Implemented an entirely new update system, designed to handle the increased load we're anticipating from the free release.

New in Ad Muncher 4.93 Build 33707 (Jul 13, 2012)

  • The biggest new feature in v4.93 is the new Ad Muncher Toolbar. This is normally hidden to avoid annoyance, but can be shown by holding CTRL or SHIFT and right-clicking on a filtered page. You'll then see options to exclude or report the page, as well as an option to munch specific content.
  • You can also see when popups have been blocked, and easily open them if needed. CTRL or SHIFT + Right click on a filtered page = This toolbar removes the need for the old browser-specific extensions, and in future will make it much easier to provide functionality on other platforms.
  • The filter list in v4.93 has undergone some extremely significant reworking. This includes literally thousands of bug fixes, and new filters for a huge number of new ad types.
  • The filtering engine itself has also received many improvements, and combined with the new list users should notice a much improved browsing experience.

New in Ad Muncher 4.93 Build 33705 Beta (Jul 12, 2012)

  • Fixed crashes of some 64bit processors under Windows XP.
  • A few final filtering tweaks and fixes.

New in Ad Muncher 4.93 Build 33676 Beta (Jul 4, 2012)

  • Many small fixes and tweaks to memory management and filtering code.
  • Fixed dialog display after registration reset.
  • Fixed icon recreation after explorer crash, also fixed the same when running as an administrator.

New in Ad Muncher 4.93 Build 33502 Beta (May 2, 2012)

  • Fixed occasional interference with HTTP protocol switching.
  • Welcome balloon is now not shown if balloons are disabled on the system, which avoids some weirdness when clicking the icon on some versions of Windows.
  • Fixed system tray error message.
  • Several improvements and bug fixes to the new system tray and other interface code.
  • Version number is now displayed in a more compact way.
  • Implemented a better method of handling new list formats in the config file to avoid old types piling up.
  • Removed the recently blocked popup list from the logs tab, as these are now available through the toolbar and reporting them from the browser to the program introduces a small delay in opening all popups.
  • Improved engine behavior when helper files are retrieved and filtering is disabled.
  • Rewrote the system tray handling code from scratch. Now displays an "installation complete" balloon on installation or upgrade instead of opening the browser. Supports high-DPI display setups for the tray icon, allows for easier language translation, and removes another chunk of old ASM code.
  • Removed some old tray icon hiding preferences (now just hide/don't hide).
  • Fixed incorrect behavior when clicking the "Import configuration" button on the registration dialog.
  • Fixed hung installer on some systems when launching URLs.
  • Fixed OS detection code.
  • Many internal improvements to the codebase.
  • Fixed bandwidth saved value shown on "About" tab.
  • The prompt shown when trying to sort the filters by category or keyword now defaults to "No".
  • Fixed version reporting when sending reports from the toolbar.
  • Fixed broken shortcut key combos.
  • Removed the option to open blocked popups from the system tray menu, as this is now available in-browser with the toolbar.
  • Added an option to the "Interface" tab to disable the in-browser toolbar if required.
  • Many more improvements to helper script handling.
  • Improvements to helper script handling.

New in Ad Muncher 4.93 Build 33116 Beta (Mar 21, 2012)

  • Removed the option to prevent modifications to the browser status bar. No modern browser needs this feature as they have all removed support for status bar modifications.
  • Improvements to helper script handling.
  • Many more improvements to helper script handling.
  • Added an option to the "Interface" tab to disable the in-browser toolbar if required.

New in Ad Muncher 4.93 Build 33053 Beta (Feb 20, 2012)

  • Fixed possible loss of licensing details when retrieving updates.
  • Vastly improved handling of external content on excluded pages so that excluded pages should rarely need extra filters to exclude them completely from filtering.
  • Made browser extension compatible with recent Firefox releases.
  • More improvements to exclusion handling and helper script embedding.
  • The "about" tab of the configuration window now shows the last four characters of the registration code to help users see which code is in use.
  • Improved handling of MP4 videos.
  • Fix to the beta update check frequency.
  • Improvements to mutex handling in the config code.
  • Fixed crashes under Windows XP.
  • Finished implementing a new toolbar system for Ad Muncher. This system displays a toolbar inside filtered pages whenever the shift key is held down, or when a popup is blocked or other information needs to be displayed. This system has replaced the old browser extension system and means we don't need a different version of the extensions for every browser type, and will allow us to expose much more complex functionality in the future.
  • Fixed bug where installations that were configured to check for beta updates and had basic licenses were failing to receive non-beta list versions.
  • Improved tag removal code.
  • Improved the appearance of the system tray icons.
  • Added hotpatch support to patching engine.
  • Fixed potential crash when a page was excluded from filtering and then included again.

New in Ad Muncher 4.93 Build 32930 Beta (Nov 17, 2011)

  • Fixed potential crash from 64-bit patches under Windows XP.
  • Implemented code to allow us to release list updates as betas for testing before going out to a wider audience. To receive these, enable the option to "Load development versions..." on the "Updates" tab.
  • Added option to the list for "Automatic check frequency" named "Automatic", which will let the server decide how often updates should be checked for based on recent release schedules.
  • Many improvements to how the helper script is packaged and inserted, for example it can now be updated via the filter list.
  • Improved removal statistic recording.
  • Fixed possible crash when exporting configuration.
  • Fixed lack of filtering on some sites.
  • Reduced the number of changes Ad Muncher's helper script needs to make to certain anchor tags to avoid conflicts with some sites, eg: Vimeo.
  • Fixed possible breaking of the helper script if the user switches between different versions of the betas.
  • Improved method used for replacing script tags to avoid problems on some sites.
  • Implemented the ability to supply extra content via the server supplied filter list. This is currently used for the helper scripts but can be extended to allow us to package icons/etc for use in a web interface.
  • Moved the helper script and CSS to external files so that the amount of code inserted into filtered pages is reduced substantially.
  • Improvements to helper script insertion.

New in Ad Muncher 4.93 Build 32869 Beta (Sep 14, 2011)

  • Fixed possible loss of licensing details when retrieving updates

New in Ad Muncher 4.93 Build 32852 Beta (Sep 14, 2011)

  • Moved the helper script and CSS to external files so that the amount of code inserted into filtered pages is reduced substantially

New in Ad Muncher 4.93 Build 32836 Beta (Sep 14, 2011)

  • Implemented the ability to supply extra content via the server supplied filter list. This is currently used for the helper scripts, but can be extended to allow us to package icons/etc for use in a web interface

New in Ad Muncher 4.93 Build 32805 Beta (Sep 14, 2011)

  • Improved method used for replacing script tags to avoid problems on some sites

New in Ad Muncher 4.93 Build 32803 Beta (Sep 14, 2011)

  • Fixed possible breaking of the helper script if the user switches between different versions of the betas.

New in Ad Muncher 4.93 Build 32800 Beta (Sep 14, 2011)

  • Reduced the number of changes Ad Muncher's helper script needs to make to certain anchor tags to avoid conflicts with some sites, eg: Vimeo.

New in Ad Muncher 4.93 Build 32799 Beta (Sep 14, 2011)

  • Fixed lack of filtering on some sites

New in Ad Muncher 4.93 Build 32792 Beta (Sep 14, 2011)

  • Fixed possible crash when exporting configuration

New in Ad Muncher 4.93 Build 32791 Beta (Sep 14, 2011)

  • Improved removal statistic recording

New in Ad Muncher 4.93 Build 32790 Beta (Sep 14, 2011)

  • Many improvements to how the helper script is packaged and inserted, for example it can now be updated via the filter list.

New in Ad Muncher 4.93 Build 32746 Beta (Sep 14, 2011)

  • Added option to the list for "Automatic check frequency" named "Automatic", which will let the server decide how often updates should be checked for based on recent release schedules.

New in Ad Muncher 4.93 Build 32739 Beta (Jul 13, 2011)

  • Fixed potential crash from 64-bit patches under Windows XP.
  • Implemented code to allow us to release list updates as betas for testing before going out to a wider audience. To receive these, enable the option to "Load development versions..." on the "Updates" tab.

New in Ad Muncher 4.92 Build 32692 Beta (Jun 10, 2011)

  • Many improvements to the memory management code.
  • Fixed Ad Muncher browser extension under Firefox 4.0.1 and newer.

New in Ad Muncher 4.92 Build 32684 Beta (May 30, 2011)

  • Added extra checks to ensure the ad removal counter is saved when shutting down the computer.
  • Fixed URL opening code in the installer so it won't launch browsers in the administrator context (where Ad Muncher can't filter them).
  • Implemented a system for swapping new filtering engines into Ad Muncher as needed. Currently being used for testing and development of a new upcoming engine.
  • Modified the installer to not show a confirmation screen at the end of installing or upgrading. Instead it will now launch Ad Muncher immediately and display a page in the browser that will notify the user if a newer version is available and display the change log.

New in Ad Muncher 4.92 Build 32591 Beta (May 3, 2011)

  • Many improvements to the memory management code.
  • Fixed Ad Muncher browser extension under Firefox 4.0.1 and newer.

New in Ad Muncher 4.91 Build 32562 (Mar 24, 2011)

  • Fixed error message under IE9 on some pages.
  • Fixed occasional error message when using the context menu extensions in IE9.
  • Added code to the installer's manifest so it doesn't show a warning about the installation failing under Windows 7.
  • Recompiled with latest server list.

New in Ad Muncher 4.91 Build 32500 Beta (Mar 22, 2011)

  • Extended the timeout for creating the configuration directories from 10 to 30 seconds to help avoid problems with delayed network connections on system startup.
  • Improved the load time of the hook DLL.
  • Tracked down a very difficult bug in the hook handling code that could result in aborted outbound connections.
  • Implemented blank SWF replacement.
  • Removed old IP Scramble code to make way for a faster method of routing connections.
  • Improved helper script handling of mouse interference prevention.
  • Fixed bug in keyboard shortcuts.
  • Fixed conflict with some 64-bit patching systems that could cause patched 64-bit browsers to crash.
  • Fixed possible corrupted connection when filtering is disabled.
  • Added a checkbox option to the "Options" / "Filtering" tab allowing filtering to be disabled on intranet connections.
  • Fixed bug in handling of disabled connections.
  • Fixed possible browser crash when Ad Muncher was closed.
  • Fixed possible stalled connections when a browser tried to connect the same socket again after it was already connected.
  • Implemented smaller blank SWF replacement.
  • Added code signing to the hook DLLs and 64-bit hook launcher for a little extra security.
  • Fixed potential lack of filtering in 64-bit processes if Ad Muncher was closed and launched again.
  • Fixed potential crash when relocation certain kinds of x64 jmps and calls.
  • Fixed error messages about missing "Object" under IE9 on some pages.
  • Fixed error message about server-supplied filters under IE9 sessions embedded inside external apps (eg: FeedDemon).

New in Ad Muncher 4.9 Build 32193 Beta (Aug 19, 2010)

  • Finished implementing the new patching system. The new system is a great improvement on the old one, and should result in more reliable and stable connection intercepts. It also fully supports filtering of 64-bit applications (for example, Internet Explorer 64), and will allow us to filter some functions that we couldn't previously. The latter capability is planned to enable Ad Muncher to deal with more system annoyances in the future.
  • Fixed crash under XP.
  • Added authenticode signature to the installer and main Ad Muncher program file to help our users tell when the installer has been modified by third parties.
  • Changed the arrangement of the installer and main program files, resulting in a 5% reduction in installer size and a 59% reduction in installation size.
  • Improved UAC handling in the installer.
  • Fixed possible failure to filter content.
  • Improved XML overlap correction.
  • Improved error reporting in automatic update system.
  • Improved error reporting when failing to load hook code into Winsock DLL.

New in Ad Muncher 4.81 Build 31376 Final (Feb 5, 2010)

  • Fixed erroneous "0" that was displayed in the browser status bar under some circumstances when it should have been blank.
  • Added an interface so we can disable certain parts of the helper script as necessary, which was required to fix a conflict with the most recent version of Facebook's web site.
  • Fixed occasional blank source URLs in log entries.
  • Removed code designed to check for very very old browsers because a conflict with some third-party software that injected scripts into websites could not be resolved and the check would only be useful extremely rarely.
  • Added code to isolate exactly which filter any JavaScript errors occurred in so it can be reported to the user.
  • Switched to a new method of isolating errors in user-supplied JS filters that uses much fewer browser resources and minimizes any impact on page load times.
  • Improved error reporting when a script error is detected in a server-supplied script filter.
  • If Ad Muncher is unable to access its configuration folders on startup, it will now retry once a second for ten seconds, to avoid problems with storing configuration files on a network drive which is inaccessible on startup.
  • Added provision in the helper script for server-supplied filters to tweak popup blocking parameters as needed.
  • Added workaround to avoid conflict with Softros LAN Messenger.

New in Ad Muncher 4.81 Build 31376 Beta (Feb 5, 2010)

  • Fixed occasional blank source URLs in log entries.
  • Removed code designed to check for very very old browsers because a conflict with some third-party software that injected scripts into websites could not be resolved and the check would only be useful extremely rarely.
  • Added code to isolate exactly which filter any JavaScript errors occurred in so it can be reported to the user.
  • Switched to a new method of isolating errors in user-supplied JS filters that uses much fewer browser resources and minimizes any impact on page load times.
  • Improved error reporting when a script error is detected in a server-supplied script filter.
  • If Ad Muncher is unable to access its configuration folders on startup, it will now retry once a second for ten seconds, to avoid problems with storing configuration files on a network drive which is inaccessible on startup.
  • Added provision in the helper script for server-supplied filters to tweak popup blocking parameters as needed.
  • Added workaround to avoid conflict with Softros LAN Messenger.

New in Ad Muncher 4.81 Build 31325 Beta (Nov 24, 2009)

  • Fixed erroneous "0" that was displayed in the browser status bar under some circumstances when it should have been blank.
  • Added an interface so we can disable certain parts of the helper script as necessary, which was required to fix a conflict with the most recent version of Facebook's web site.

New in Ad Muncher 4.73 Build 31306 Beta (Nov 24, 2009)

  • Most significant changes:
  • A completely new system has been implemented for filtering JavaScript content, which provides much more reliable popup filtering and significantly reduces the chances of unwanted interference with web sites.
  • Significant filtering performance improvements have also been made, along with other minor fixes and improvements.
  • This release also makes Ad Muncher compatible with Microsoft's new Windows 7.

New in Ad Muncher 4.72.30400Beta (Apr 29, 2008)

  • This release makes Ad Muncher fully Vista compatible,
  • as well as addressing some important bug fixes, increasing filtering reliability and vastly improving the installation system.
  • Support for filtering 64-bit applications won't be included until v4.73 so that Vista support is available as soon as possible.

New in Ad Muncher 4.71 Build 28140 (Oct 8, 2007)

  • Fixed bug that could cause Ad Muncher to corrupt registry settings used to launch Ad Muncher on startup, causing it to not launch automatically after the configuration was modified on certain systems.
  • Loosened lockup detection criteria to avoid some false detections.
  • Fixed possible corruption of registration details that could cause Ad Muncher to crash.
  • Improved Ad Muncher's startup time on system boot, decreasing the chances of any unfiltered content being let through before Ad Muncher is ready.
  • Fixed resource leak in socket routing that could cause further connections to go unfiltered or be blocked in certain situations.
  • Added code to trap faults in previously unmonitored portions of code.
  • Fixed page load stalling that could result from HTTP 304 replies with content length headers.
  • Improved handling of malformed HTML comments.
  • Added "Don't show in future" option to the "Update installation complete" dialog.
  • Improved HTML tag analysis during helper script insertion.
  • Improved blocked page content replacement behavior.
  • Finished implementing a new system to manage trial periods and registration installation counts, which utilizes a short "hash" of the hardware configuration to differentiate computers. This system took some time to complete but is fully Vista-compatible, unlike the previous registration tracking system, and will more accurately manage the 30-day trial period.
  • Added system to store certain configuration settings in a seperate "dat" file (License.dat). This information includes the license info retrieved from the Ad Muncher server as well as the most recent advert list. This was done so that in restricted environments Ad Muncher's configuration file (Config.dat) can be set to read-only or protected with some other mechanism without stopping normal Ad Muncher functionality.
  • Improved compilation process to avoid some unnecessary space wastage in Ad Muncher's code.
  • Improved performance of some critical string library functions.
  • Improved method used when compiling helper script, increasing performance and increasing the number of filters that can be used.
  • Fixed crashes under Windows NT4.
  • Fixed possible race condition during shutdown that could cause a crash.
  • Fixed page stalling when certain kinds of "HEAD" requests were filtered.
  • Modified filtering engine to fail more gracefully if it encounters an encoding method it can't handle.
  • Fixed possible crash after routing a large number of connections.
  • Fixed typo on new "alternate method" dialog.
  • Added horizontal scrolling to URL edit box on "alternate method" dialog so it can be copy/pasted if necessary.
  • Fixed possible javascript error when generating helper script.
  • Fixed the random crashes some people have experienced in the early betas.
  • Fixed bug where multiple copies of the same update could be requested by the update system in the same session.
  • Added extra error checks and sanity checks to the update system to prevent any update attempts failing silently.
  • Improved overlap correction to prevent some replies being delayed awaiting more content when they don't need to be.
  • Removed the "Avoid binding to loopback" option, because it was causing far more problems than it was solving.
  • Fixed bug in licensing dialogs that could cause them to appear twice, sometimes crashing the program.
  • Added confirmation dialog when disabling automatic updates.
  • Fixed crash in latest betas when routing buffer size was set to 64kb.
  • Added dialog that will display once if updates are disabled, describing the benefits of automatic updates to the user.
  • Split one mutex used by several bits of code into several different ones to reduce unnecessary locking, and also prevent a possible deadlock when updating the advert filter list manually.
  • Made some improvements to how the filter list boxes are initialized to reduce the time taken to render large lists on the configuration window.
  • Fixed control disabling bug on updates tab.
  • Updated v4.71 to use a different advert list update type than v4.7. A bug has been identified in v4.7 that causes it to crash if lists (custom or default) are used with "add javascript to all pages" and "add css to all pages" filters over a certain size. Recent default lists have started to exceed this limit, so to prevent further crashes no further updates to v4.7's filter list will be released.
  • Fixed possible page stalling when interpreting downloaded image dimensions.
  • Changed where Ad Muncher stores its temporary update files to avoid problems with UAC under Vista.
  • Added Vista manifest to installer exe to require admin rights.
  • Changed how cpuid code is handled to avoid problems caused by inconsistent cpuid results from some Athlon 64 processors.
  • Made changes to how Ad Muncher's default filter list is initialized to avoid lockups when updating the list manually.
  • Made further changes to default list initialization to avoid lockups.
  • Improved integrity checks used with Ad Muncher's buffers.
  • Changed wording of the welcome dialog in Ad Muncher's installer
  • Fixed possible javascript insertion problem in the helper script when retrieving specially-crafted URLs

New in Ad Muncher 4.7.26156 Beta (Aug 30, 2006)

  • Fixed broken blur () removal on google maps
  • Fixed possible memory leak in connection routing tables
  • Fixed document.referrer removal if it was found at the very start of a script or document.write call
  • Fixed broken "Last update" dates on the update tab under Windows 9x
  • Implemented new system to detect lockups in Ad Muncher's threads and offer the user the option to report them when detected
  • Fixed crash when uploading large files (>512KB) to certain sites
  • Added code to the fault reporting HTML form to urge the user to enter their email address and a description if not already done. We were getting far too many fault reports with no contact information, which can make finding the fault cause difficult or i
  • Implemented workaround to a conflict with certain McAfee programs that would block internet access when Ad Muncher and the McAfee programs were loaded. Thanks to the McAfee developers for their help in tracking this down