To coincide with the release of the Vista installable FlashBang, I’m also releasing an app to complement it. Even though WPF/E has yet to really take off, I’m sure Silverlight will start gaining some momentum. In advance of that I’m releasing LightSwitch, which oddly enough does the same exact thing FlashBang does for Flash, but for Silverlight content. The system requirements are the same as FlashBang, and they are that you’ll be running XP with Service Pack 2 OR Windows Vista and have the .NET Framework 1.1 or later installed and of course that you’re using Internet Explorer.

The application is provided on a free of charge and free to distribute basis. I will gladly accept donations of any amount via PayPal, and please note I do need the donations as both LightSwitch and FlashBang are both unsigned apps users of Vista will see unwarranted and nasty messages till I can afford a cert and get the apps code signed. So any funds that I receive will go towards the $125/yr that’s required to maintain the cert.

Download: LightSwitch (updated 4/27/2007 12:01AM, please uninstall previous versions first)

If you have any questions or comments feel free.

Note also, it looks like there is a minor bug in that if you have IE open while you’re installing FlashBang or LightSwitch the icon won’t be activated in IE by default. Please be sure to close all IE windows before installing either app. If you run into this little bug go to View then Toolbars then Customize, scroll the list and Add FlashBang / LightSwitch to the toolbar.

If you’ve uninstalled either of the apps you can still Disable and Enable Flash  and Silverlight using the Manage Add-ons feature of Internet Explorer found under the Tools menu. Really though, this is all the app actually does to block the content. Sadly it means disabling all other good content and not just the ads. Other options include a nice big hosts file, or also use FireFox which has some other ways of blocking ads through CSS and such.

Tags: Designing, Ideas, Internet, Rants, Work