…or how to block adverts like AdBlockPlus does except on your Windows Mobile phone whilst using Opera Mobile.

Having used both AdBlock+ and Greasemonkey on Firefox, one of the things I noticed missing on Google Chrome was the ability to hide the adverts.
Chrome by default doesn’t support any plugins, so I went googling around for a solution and found AdSweep. Turns out that it is possible to have User Scripts in Chrome (the same thing really as Greasemonkey) and after some tweaks and a simple javascript file download the adverts were gone.
Then yesterday I noticed a post on PocketNow.com about using a JavaScript hack to resize the text input box in Opera Mobile.
The trick was using User Javascript (again Greasemonkey), so I wondered if it was possible to use the AdSweep Opera js file on my phone.
The answer is yes 🙂

Simple steps to enabling:

1. Download the Opera AdSweep.js file from AdSweep.org (I suggest on a computer instead of your phone).
2. Using which ever filemanager you prefer (I like Total Commander) create a userjs folder in your Opera directory. On my phone using Opera Mobile 9.7 it was \Program Files\Opera Mobile\profile
3. Copy AdSweep.js from your computer in to your userjs folder on the phone.
4. In Opera Mobile, type opera:config (no http) in the address bar.
5. Under User Prefs you should find the following three options:
   • Always Load User Javascript: Tick
   • User Javascript: Tick
   • User Javascript File: \Program Files\Opera Mobile\profile\userjs\ (this is the location on my phone, make sure it matches the path you used above).

   Make sure you press Save at the end

6. Close Opera (if you have Widgets running and even if you don’t you may prefer a soft reset).

Next time you open Opera you should find adverts start to disappear.