How to Disable Floating Flash Ads

UPDATE: The Memphis Commercial Appeal is at it again with the huge, groady, floating Flash ads, so for the second time I'm recycling this post from the last time they pulled this crap:

Aggravated by those floating Flash ads that so obnoxiously get in your way when trying to read indispensable websites? Especially the ones that move to keep their close boxes hidden and take forever to time out?

The Memphis Commercial Appeal started using them prominently recently, most notably for a Hummer ad campaign. I complained to editor Chris Peck via a comment to a column of his, asking him to show us there is some limit to corporate greed, but the floating ads are still on their site.

So I went Googling to find out how to kill those things. Not wanting to install or purchase additional software, I kept looking until I found a blog post by Flash developer Jesse Warden that reveals "How to Disable Floating Flash Ads." His quite simple and elegant method seems to work, at least for Internet Explorer.

Just go to your Windows/System32 folder, create a text file there named mms.cfg, put in this one line:

WindowlessDisable=1

and save the file.

I will be testing and using this fix until the greedy, obnoxious bastards mess it up. Give it a try and leave a comment on whether it works on your setup and the sites you visit.

UPDATE: I found out that doing the above disables embedded YouTube videos on BlogSpot, so I wrote a couple of one-line batch files to toggle the disable (or you can just enter the commands below in the Run box).

FURTHER UPDATE: Embedded YouTube videos don't seem to be disabled with the fix now.

Call this, say, FlashOn.bat

rename c:\windows\system32\mms.cfg mms.cfx

This renames the mms.cfg file to mms.cfx, which disables the disable.

Call this one, say, FlashOff.bat

rename c:\windows\system32\mms.cfx mms.cfg

This one renames the mms.cfx file back to mms.cfg, which re-enables the disable.

If you can't remember whether WindowlessDisable is on or off, just click the batch file or enter the command for the state you want: no harm done.

Willie Mitchell RIP

UPDATE: Willie Mitchell passed on this morning at Methodist University Hospital in Memphis. What a personal trip it was for me to have his name come up on my caller ID, even if it was really his stepson Hubbie (Archie Turner), who lived with him, calling.

Those of you interested in the music recording arts may want to read a halfway decent piece on the man who recorded all the best stuff on Al Green, Ann Peebles, and others: Willie "Pops" Mitchell:

It's June 2007, and Willie Mitchell is where he's been for most of the past five decades: inside Royal Studio, his longtime South Memphis digs. Little has changed inside these wonderfully funky walls since Mitchell's 1970s heyday -- only now the building is located on a street that bears his name.

Today, like most days, you can glimpse Mitchell in the foyer, where he sits fondling a small keyboard on his desk. Looking impossibly young for his 79 years, he's still sharp, funny, and continues to work the kind of long hours that seem unthinkable for a man his age.
. . . .
Even today, Mitchell remains a hands-on presence during sessions at Royal. "Well, I tell any guy who comes in here, if you want me to do it, then I'm gonna do it. If you want to do it, you can do it somewhere else. Simple as that," says Mitchell.
. . . .
"Memphis don't give a ****," he says. "Man, you can call up and say I'm Willie Mitchell, I need a hamburger. They'll say, 'Well, go buy the S.O.B. yourself then.'"
. . . .
While Memphis may not care, famous musicians still come from far and wide to pay their respects to Mitchell.

"I had a man from England come here and kiss my feet," says Mitchell, "What was his name, Boo?"

"Which one?" asks Mitchell's grandson.

"The one ... Albert ... Costello. Elvis Costello," says Mitchell. "He kissed my feet, and I said who is this crazy man?"

If you got this far, you'll want to read the rest.

Related links:

Hi Records history and sampler