Reducing ads in Juno e-mail

Revised 1-30-03

Juno supports their free e-mail through advertising. Your purchases help keep the system free. The problem is that the ads keep collecting on your system and take up space. These need to be deleted occasionally as part of your system cleanup. The process varies slightly from computer to computer. We will cover the general case here.

Apparently even the Premium version collects ads based on your profile. Using this method of cleaning up your ads may help with the Premium version also. You can check to see if you have a folder in the Juno directory called "Ads". If you do, then this discussion is for you.

Open the Windows Explorer or My Computer program and look for the following path: C:\Program Files\Juno and you will find a sub folder called "Ads". You can safely delete this folder and all it's contents. The next time you open Juno, the folder will be recreated ready for new ads. This gets rid of the old ads. You can do this as often as you like. If you do it every time you finish using Juno, the next time you open Juno, you will not see the ads. Please recognize that doing so defeats the ability of Juno to pay for your free service by selling advertising.

That having been said, there are various ways to accomplish the task. (1) Do it manually as described above. (2) Create a batch file to do it automatically when activated. (3) Place a shortcut to the batch file in the startup folder and activate the batch file at startup. (4) Place a statement in the autoexec.bat file that deletes the folder each time you start the computer during the initial startup. I will describe methods 2-4.

Creating a batch file

For Windows 95 through 98: Open Notepad. Type this line: deltree /y c:\progra~1\juno\ads (or copy and paste)

For Me/XP: Open Notepad. Type this line: rmdir /q /s c:\progra~1\JUNO\ads
hit enter & type "juno" on the second line (without quotes)

Save the file as junoad.bat (This gets somewhat tricky. In the Save As dialog box, type the full name and extension and change the file type to All Files). Choose a location. Can be on the Desktop or in the Juno folder. Some users create a folder under the C drive called Batch files just for holding such things.

Test the file by activating it. It should open a DOS window and show the process of deleting the folder. If you get an error message, it will be because the Juno folder is not in the standard location. Look in C:\Juno and if that is the case, modify the line above in the batch file. To modify a batch file, open it in Notepad or right click the file and choose Edit.

If you are using Me/NT/2000/XP, the file will be in the Documents and Settings subfolder. Remember, the command line is a DOS command and must contain only 8 characters in each entry. Notice that the "Program Files" sub folder is truncated to "progra~1". In NT/2000/XP, the "Documents and Settings" sub folder would be stated as "docume~1"

I have created a batch file for Win9x/Me and another for NT/2000/XP. If you don't know how to make one as described above, e-mail me and I'll send it to you.

Place a shortcut to the batch file in the startup folder

Once you have created the batch file, you can use the Windows Explorer program to put a shortcut in the startup folder. This is done by right dragging the file into the startup folder and selecting "Create Shortcut". The easiest way to open Windows Explorer directly into the startup folder is to right click on the start button and select Explore.

Modify the autoexec.bat file

Start, Run (or use the shortcut key), type "sysedit". This opens the editor and displays the autoexec.bat file along with some others. Edit the autoexec.bat file to include any missing lines as follows:

@echo off
cls
deltree /y c:\progra~1\juno\ads

Note: If using NT/2000/XP, the line should read:
rmdir /q /s c:\progra~1\juno\ads

Obviously if you have installed Juno in a different location, the path must reflect the correct location.

Close sysedit, save changes.

As a final note, you can add lines to the autoexec.bat to remove other unwanted stuff too. This is what a typical set of commands might look like as suggested by a reader:

@echo off
cls
deltree /y c:\windows\tempor~1
deltree /y c:\windows\temp
md c:\windows\temp
deltree /y c:\windows\cookies
MD c:\windows\cookies
deltree /y c:\progra~1\juno\ads
scandisk c: /autofix /nosummary
Rem: If you have a second hard drive add the following:
scandisk d: /autofix /nosummary

Explanation: The deltree command deletes the entire folder and contents. The MD command makes a new directory (folder). In 2 cases, the folders are recreated by the program & an MD command is not necessary.

Note also this method will slow down your startup somewhat. Especially running scandisk everytime. Also as noted above, the file may need variations depending on your file structure.

For the more technically able, you might be interested in an e-mail I received about this web page and my answer:

From a reader looking at this web page:
I read your piece about deleting the ads, but you know that they snap right back in, the moment you open Juno. Without deep-hack software (always touchy in its side-effects), you can't cope. So here are a couple other tools you ought to add to your article:
1. Don't "upgrade." Each new version of Juno (and most other software!) incorporates new tricks whereby the software makers get more money and the user gets hassled more. Windows XP is notorious that way. I use 98se, which minds its own business.
2. Be an extreme nobody. Go into Options/UpdateMemberProfile and stop being interesting. Tell them you are 100 years old, have no interests, earn no (under 20K) money, have no occupation, no schooling, et cetera. When they insist you at least click the "other" box, do that but put no explanation in the box (that is allowed). Since staying with Juno 4.0b11 and changing to "nobody," I have had no ads at all. Those ten ad folders keep rushing into their directory, but they can't seem to worm their ads onto my screen. -- David

My Answer:
Very interesting, David
I did not go into a technical explanation of what the ad remover does because most of my stuff was designed originally for beginners that would not understand anyway. But since it is being read by some knowledgeable folks (thanks) I probably ought to add some more info.
The file just deletes the Ad sub folder in the Juno directory which any knowledgeable user can do manually. That has not changed since the earliest version and still exists in version 6. Every time you activate Juno, it puts back the folder and downloads new ads. However the ones deleted never return.
By placing the ad deleter program in the startup file, the old ads are deleted every time you start the computer. If you use Juno Platinum, you still get the ads on the opening screen. I had not thought about how your profile affects what ads they send you, but it is certainly reasonable.

BTW, I did not tell David this, but I do not always agree with not updating. Many times the newer program has features worth having. On the other hand many times the new program will not work on older computers. Every case is individual. My basic advice is "If it works - don't fix it".