Adblock Plus is finally coming to Internet Explorer — but not on Windows 8

It might surprise you to hear this, but there are still a lot of people out there using Internet Explorer — and they’re all being barraged by web advertisements.

Trying to fix that are the developers of Adblock Plus, who are taking the first steps to porting a version of the popular extension to Microsoft’s web browser.

While the Adblock Plus team years ago dismissed the idea of developing for Internet Explorer, it’s since realized just how important the browser is to its overall efforts. Chrome may have taken over, but Internet Explorer still controls a third of the browser market, according to recent numbers from StatCounter. As Adblock Plus lead developer Wladimir Palant notes, the browser can no longer be ignored.

But it’s going to be a while before the average Internet Explorer user will be able to take advantage of Adblock Plus. Right now, the extension is still in its early stages with a semi-functional user interface and more than a few bugs — which means it’s going to need a whole lot of work.

The situation is a bit worse with Windows 8 and RT, where Microsoft prevents its Metro interface from running third-party code. As Palant points out, this means Adblock Plus won’t work with Windows 8, at least not anytime soon.

Photo: Flickr/Cheryl Brind