After experimenting with a number of other Torrent clients over the past year, I decided to go back to uTorrent, which although not as pared down as some other clients, I find to be more intuitive to use and user friendly. What I did not know was that the latest version of uTorrent apparently now features ads, which I naturally did not want.
It turns out that the option to remove ads is actually present in the uTorrent preferences, although it is somewhat hidden and not intuitively accessible. This post will show you how to disable all ads in in four easy steps, including the top toolbar ad as well as the ad in the sidebar both, which strangely are handled separately.
Step 1: run uTorrent
Behold the two ads in the screenshot below. If you do not see these you have no problem (or are running an older version of uTorrent, in which case you will get them when/if you upgrade).
Step 2: go to Options/Preferences/Advanced
Make sure that ‘Advanced’ is selected in the left sidebar. Next, in the ‘Filter’ search box, type in ‘off’ (which is the first three letters of ‘offers’). This will eliminate all but four entries shown in the list below.
Step 3: change the value to ‘false’ for the two items below
For both “offers.left_rail_offer_enabled” and “offers.sponsored_torrent_offer_enabled”, click on each then change the value to ‘False’ by clicking the radio buttons underneath. Click ‘Ok’ when done.
Step 4: exit and restart
In order for the changes to take effect. Make sure that you actually exit (via the file menu), as in most cases clicking the upper/right red “X” simply minimizes the program to the system tray.
The screenshot below shows uTorrent with the ads gone.
That’s it. Enjoy.
