Players are hacking and cheating like its 2012 all over again


© Activision

Last week, Activision released PlayStation 4 and PS5 ports of Call of Duty: Black Ops and Black Ops 2. They cost $40, don’t include the paid DLC maps, and feature no quality-of-life improvements. That didn’t stop a lot of people from buying them. But players returning to BLOPS 1 or 2 all these years later are running into hackers and cheaters using exploits to ruin matches or hit max level. Things are so bad that Activision has even turned off some playlists infected with naughty players.

On July 9, after some leaks and a previous confirmation from Activision, Black Ops and Black Ops 2 arrived on PS4 and PS5. While Xbox players had been able to play these two popular CoD games for years via backward compatibility, PlayStation owners had been unable to enjoy 2010’s BLOPS or the 2012 sequel. Now, players have flooded PSN to relive the glory days of Black Ops, but because these releases appear to just be slightly modified versions of the original PS3 games, people are already hacking and cheating en masse in these new ports.



Across Reddit, Twitter, and YouTube, you can find players sharing stories of Black Ops 1 and 2 lobbies on PS4 and PS5 being filled with various cheaters. One of the most popular cheating methods involves players modifying their PS4 save data, joining matches of Domination, and then blowing themselves up to get a shit-ton of XP and reach max rank and prestige.

You can find clips of people joining CoD: Black Ops Domination lobbies on PS5, quickly followed by a kill feed showing numerous people blowing themselves away with grenades as soon as they spawn. This often leads to the match having to pause and reconnect to a new host and then filling back up—if it fills back up at all—with new players who also proceed to do the exploit.

While that’s annoying, an even worse problem involves players killing hacked players and getting a massive amount of negative XP that effectively locks them to negative level one. And because you have to be at least level one to matchmake with players, this softlocks you out of multiplayer access.

“Part of me was afraid this was gonna happen. Another massive L for CoD,” posted one Reddit user.

“Exactly the same experience here…anyone arguing this doesn’t ‘hurt’ anyone should watch this clip,” posted another user under a video of people using the exploit in a BLOPS match.

“6 games in a row unplayable… Ground war and domination is ruined,” said another player.



Things are so bad that on Monday, Activision confirmed it had disabled some playlists in Black Ops so it can “investigate reported issues.” Likely, it has turned off playlists that contain Domination or the large-scale mode Ground War, which can reportedly also be exploited.

Frustratingly, as players have pointed out online, these exploits, hacks, and cheats have been a problem for years on the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions of Black Ops and its sequel. And many CoD vets were worried that these new ports, being basically bare-bones transfers of the PS3 versions, would inherit the same flaws and be hacked and ruined in days. And that’s…exactly what happened. While some are hopeful Activision will fix things up, other players aren’t so sure, seeing as the Xbox 360 versions of the games are still broken and borked all these years later despite being playable again on modern Xbox hardware.

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The top-end model even has an anti-glare display, much like Samsung's Ultra phones.



The US has been trying to effectively kill HUAWEI since 2019, but the company still manages to launch some cutting-edge Android phones every year. It launched the HUAWEI Pura 90 series in China earlier this year, and it’s now launched the slightly rebranded Pura 90s Pro and Pura 90s Pro Max in global markets. Interestingly, the latter device in particular stands out among camera phones.

The Pura 90s Pro and Pro Max share several features. This includes a Kirin 9030s chipset, 12GB of RAM, 256GB or 512GB of storage, a flat LTPO OLED screen, IP68 and IP69 ratings, wireless charging, and a 6,000mAh battery. Unfortunately, European models only offer a 5,270mAh battery, ostensibly due to EU regulations.

HUAWEI’s Pro Max device has several upgrades over the Pro model. One notable improvement is the use of Kunlun Glass with anti-glare properties compared to the Pro’s “second-generation” Kunlun Glass. HUAWEI says you should expect reflections to be reduced by up to 70% compared to conventional glass. Either way, that’s great news if you like the Gorilla Armor protection on Samsung’s Ultra phones. Other notable differences include a 6.9-inch OLED panel versus a 6.6-inch display, and 100W wired charging versus the Pro’s 66W charging.

A cutting-edge camera setup



HUAWEI’s Pura 90s Pro Max brings a truly advanced camera system. For one, there’s a 50MP 1/1.28-inch main camera with an RYYB sensor and a variable aperture (f/1.4 to f/4.0). This sensor also offers LOFIC technology, enabling wider dynamic range (and therefore better sunset photos and backlit snaps) compared to conventional cameras. Motorola and Xiaomi have also debuted this tech in 2026, and we’re expecting to see it on plenty more phones in the future.

The Pura 90s Pro Max offers a pretty crazy telephoto camera setup as well. Expect a 200MP 4x periscope camera, complete with a large, 1/1.28-inch sensor size. Furthermore, HUAWEI says this is the first 200MP camera with an RYYB color filter. All conventional cameras use an RGB (red, blue, green) color filter, but HUAWEI has long swapped out the green elements for yellow ones. This change is meant to boost light intake, therefore delivering better low-light snaps. So we’re expecting the periscope camera to perform well when the sun goes down.

HUAWEI says the 200MP periscope camera also has CIPA 7.0 stabilization, matching the vivo X300 Ultra. The firm adds that its 200MP real-time RAW processing enables high-quality 20x shots. In fact, the manufacturer showed off a 20x video during a media briefing, revealing sharper, less washed-out video than the X300 Ultra’s output. But we’ll need to actually use the phone to see whether this bears out in real-world conditions.

Other notable Pro Max camera details include a 40MP ultrawide camera (f/2.2, RYYB) and a True-to-Color 2.0 sensor. Early RYYB cameras were susceptible to a yellow tint, so a dedicated sensor for color reproduction should be a big help if this is still a problem.

Meanwhile, the Pura 90s Pro retains the same 50MP LOFIC main camera with a variable aperture. However, it packs a 50MP 4x periscope camera (f/2.1, RYYB, 5cm macro focusing) and a 12.5MP ultrawide camera (f/2.2, RYYB). In other words, it’s a clear step down from the Pro Max, but still a very capable camera platform.

HUAWEI Pura 90s Pro series availability



HUAWEI’s phones haven’t offered official Google Play Services integration since 2019, and it’s no different on the Pura 90s range. That’s a shame in light of the impressive camera hardware on offer here, especially on the Pro Max. Otherwise, you can expect EMUI 16 and no discernible update policy.

Fancy the HUAWEI Pura 90s Pro Max? Then it’s available in Orange Ocean, Blush Gold, Blaze Purple, and Graphite Black colors. The former colorway in particular is a standout option, featuring an orange-and-blue gradient that includes the phone’s frame. Prefer the Pura 90s Pro instead? It’s available in Coconut White, Guava Soda, Orange Soda, and Mulberry Black colors.

The HUAWEI Pura 90s Pro Max starts at €1,149 (~$1,310) for the 256GB variant in Europe. Meanwhile, the Pro model starts at €899 (~$1,025) for the 256GB variant. There’s no word on wider availability just yet.

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A bunch of Microsoft products are losing support in 2026

Microsoft is walking away from more products this year than it did in 2025. Products that still run on millions of devices, including Windows 11 24H2, Office 2021, SQL Server 2016, and Windows Server 2012’s last ESU year, all expire in 2026. While 2025 was mostly about Windows 10, 2026 is a pile-up.

Also, in case you didn’t know it already, once a product hits its date, security updates, bug fixes, and paid support stop, unless Microsoft happens to offer an Extended Security Updates program for it, and even ESU only covers critical security fixes, nothing else.



Note that this doesn’t mean a software becomes unusable. It just stops being protected. For a note-taking app, that’s alright. But for a database sitting behind your company firewall, the consequences can be devastating if you don’t do anything about it.

So, we went through Microsoft’s official 2026 lifecycle page, checked every date, and ranked all of it by how many people it hits and how bad the fallout. Here is the list of all important Microsoft products losing support in 2026:

#1 Windows 11 24H2 (Home and Pro) – October

Windows 11, version 24H2 for Home and Pro editions reaches end of servicing on October 13, 2026. Since 24H2 has been the default install on every new Windows 11 PC since October 2024, that covers most of the consumer install base.



To check which version you have, press Win + R, type winver, and press Enter.

However, Windows 11 24H2, 25H2, and 26H2 all run on the same platform, codenamed Germanium. As Windows Latest reported, Microsoft has already started force-installing 25H2 on eligible Home and Pro PCs to clear this exact deadline, and it takes minutes with one reboot.

Enterprise and Education editions get a reprieve until October 2027. Open Settings > Windows Update and check now. If 25H2 hasn’t landed yet, force it. There’s no real reason to wait.

#2 Office 2021 and Office LTSC 2021, all editions – October

This is not very good news for me, because when I bought my PC, it came with lifetime support for Office 2021, and the then-ignorant me didn’t realize that lifetime meant just 5 years! Unlike Windows versions, updating from one Office version to the next isn’t free.

Every version of Office 2021 dies on the same date as Windows 11 24H2. Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Access, OneNote, Publisher, Visio, and Project 2021 all go, plus the Office 2021 LTSC builds for Windows and Mac. Microsoft lists all nine apps separately under the same October 13, 2026 retirement, and there’s no partial exemption.



Note that older perpetual releases, like Office 2016, received 10 years of support. Anyone who paid once for Office 2021 specifically to dodge a Microsoft 365 subscription is now facing another purchase decision half as far apart as they’d probably budgeted for.

Home users and small businesses on the perpetual, non-subscription version of Office feel this. Of course, Microsoft 365 subscribers can ignore it, since their apps update on their own. Either way, the path forward is a Microsoft 365 subscription or buying Office LTSC 2024, which carries support through 2029!

#3 Windows Server 2012 and 2012 R2, final ESU year – October

Windows Server 2012 and 2012 R2 left mainstream support in October 2023, and Microsoft sold organizations three more years of Extended Security Updates as a bridge. Come October 13, 2026, that bridge is closing. There’s no ESU Year 4 coming.

Windows Server 2012 still runs a lot of domain controllers, file servers, and business-critical apps that never got scheduled for migration. Server operating systems tend to outlast the hardware refresh cycles built around them, and 2012 has had an unusually stubborn tail.



Any organization still running the 2012 family in production is exposed, particularly on premises rather than in Azure. (Azure-hosted instances get ESU coverage for free during this same window, a detail plenty of admins seem to miss.) The way out is migrating to Windows Server 2025 or moving the workload into Azure Virtual Machines to keep security coverage without a separate ESU bill.

#4 SQL Server 2016 – July

SQL Server 2016 hits extended end of support on July 14, 2026. It’s the biggest database deadline on the calendar this year. SQL Server 2016 has quietly become a workhorse release, under ERP systems, reporting infrastructure, and countless custom apps that nobody had urgent reason to touch.


SQL Server 2016. Source: ZDNET

Microsoft does sell Extended Security Updates for up to three more years after the cutoff, but only to organizations that plan for it. And the catch is that ESU Year 1 pricing starts July 15, 2026, and covers only what Microsoft classifies as critical severity, not the broader range of fixes a fully supported version gets.

Any business still running production workloads on SQL Server 2016 needs a plan, especially in regulated industries like healthcare and finance, where unsupported database software is also a compliance problem. Upgrading to SQL Server 2019 or 2022 works, and so does migrating to Azure SQL Database or Azure SQL Managed Instance, where Microsoft handles the patching for you.

#5 SharePoint Server 2016 and 2019, plus Project Server 2016 and 2019 – July

Same date as SQL Server 2016. SharePoint Server 2016 and 2019 both reach end of extended support on July 14, 2026, alongside Project Server 2016 and 2019, according to Microsoft.

Organizations that built custom intranets, document workflows, or records management systems on top of on-premises SharePoint may be affected. SharePoint Online has kept gaining features for years while the Server editions were frozen in time, so Microsoft isn’t cutting off something current here. They’re closing a door most admins already saw coming.

Enterprises and government agencies running on-premises SharePoint farms may feel the most heat, especially since data sovereignty rules make a full cloud move practically unfeasible. Migrating to SharePoint Server Subscription Edition keeps things on-premises with continued support, while moving to SharePoint Online under Microsoft 365 is the other route.

#6 Microsoft Publisher – October

Publisher is the odd one out in this list, because apart from losing support this year, it’s being retired. Microsoft’s support page confirms Publisher drops out of Microsoft 365 after October 2026, and subscribers lose the ability to open or edit Publisher files once that happens.



Of course, the perpetual, locally installed version keeps technically running past the cutoff since it’s within Office LTSC 2021’s support window, but it stops receiving updates, and Microsoft has already pulled it from sale. There’s no Publisher 2024. Microsoft’s suggested alternatives are Word and PowerPoint for layout work, which says plenty about where the company sees this product going.

Small businesses, churches, and community groups that still use Publisher for newsletters and brochures are the affected group here, a surprisingly loyal user base for software most people assumed died a decade ago. We recommend converting existing .pub files to PDF or Word before the cutoff.

#7 Exchange Server and Skype for Business Server, ESU Period 2 – October

Exchange Server 2016 and 2019 technically reached end of support in October 2025, but Microsoft split the paid Extended Security Updates bridge into two periods to soften the blow. Period 1 expired in April 2026. Period 2, which is the real final cutoff, runs out on October 31, 2026. Skype for Business Server 2015 and 2019 follow the identical two-period schedule.

Once Period 2 closes, that’s the end of the line. No more ESU purchases for either product!

Organizations still running on-premises email or unified communications that haven’t migrated to Exchange Online or Teams need to move now. Exchange Online under Microsoft 365 is the cloud path, while Exchange Server Subscription Edition is the option for anyone who has to stay on-premises.

#8 Windows 11 Enterprise and Education 23H2, plus .NET 8, .NET 9, and PowerShell 7.4 – November

Four unrelated products share this one date. Windows 11 Enterprise, Education, and IoT Enterprise editions on version 23H2 reach end of servicing on November 10, 2026, a year after Home and Pro editions of the same version lost support back in November 2025. With it, .NET 8 (an LTS release), .NET 9 (a Standard Term Support release), and PowerShell 7.4 (also LTS) all hit end of support the same day, confirmed directly on Microsoft’s lifecycle page.

IT teams managing Windows 11 23H2 fleets on enterprise licensing need to move, along with developers with apps still targeting .NET 8, .NET 9, or PowerShell 7.4. Upgrade managed Windows devices to 24H2 or later, move .NET apps to .NET 10, and update PowerShell to 7.6 or newer.

#9 Windows 10 2016 LTSB and IoT Enterprise LTSB 2016 – October

The 2016 Long-Term Servicing Branch editions of Windows 10 reach end of extended support on October 13, 2026. LTSB and its successor LTSC, exist specifically for kiosks, medical devices, and industrial equipment that need a locked-down OS with no feature churn for a decade at a stretch.



Manufacturers and healthcare providers using specialized hardware on the 2016 LTSB branch are a narrower audience than mainstream Windows 10, but a higher-stakes one. A migration to a currently supported LTSC release is the only real path, since these devices rarely click through a Windows Update prompt.

#10 Windows 11 SE – October

Windows 11 SE, the stripped-down education edition built to go after Chromebooks, loses support on October 1, 2026. Microsoft confirmed back in 2025 that no further updates were coming and has been nudging schools toward standard Windows 11 editions. As expected, the $250 Surface SE that launched alongside it isn’t getting a successor either.



Schools and districts that bought into the Windows 11 SE and Surface SE ecosystem are stuck with a bet Microsoft seems to have given up on. Moving managed devices over to standard Windows 11 Education or Windows 11 Pro Education licensing is the only supported way forward.

#11 Dynamics CRM 2016 and older Dynamics products – January

Dynamics CRM 2016, along with Dynamics GP 2016, GP 2016 R2, NAV 2016, and C5 2016, all lost support in the first third of the year. Dynamics CRM 2016 went first, on January 13, 2026, with the GP, NAV, and C5 2016 releases that followed on April 14, 2026.

Businesses running on-premises CRM or ERP on these specific 2016-era Dynamics products, mostly mid-market companies that never made the jump to Dynamics 365’s cloud model, had to migrate to Dynamics 365 Business Central or the relevant cloud Dynamics 365 app.

#12 Microsoft Configuration Manager, version 2409 – June

Configuration Manager 2409 reached end of support on June 6, 2026. ConfigMgr runs an 18-month rolling support window per release, so this is routine stuff, but IT admins still stuck on the 2409 branch had to update before the date to keep getting fixes. Moving to 2503 or later through the standard ConfigMgr update path cleared it.

#13 Visual Studio 2022 LTSC channels, versions 17.10 and 17.12 – January and July

Visual Studio 2022‘s Long-Term Servicing Channel builds have staggered end dates through the year. Version 17.10 LTSC lost support on January 13, 2026, and 17.12 LTSC follows on July 14, 2026. The LTSC channel exists so development teams can freeze their tooling on purpose, so these dates mostly come to teams that deliberately opted out of the mainstream release train and need to move to a currently supported LTSC channel, or switch to mainstream servicing.

#14 InfoPath 2013, SharePoint Designer 2013, and legacy virtualization tools – April and July

A cluster of older Microsoft tools wind down through the middle of the year. Microsoft Application Virtualization 5.0 and 5.1, Microsoft BitLocker Administration and Monitoring, the Diagnostics and Recovery Toolset, and User Experience Virtualization all ended April 14, 2026. InfoPath 2013 and SharePoint Designer 2013 follow on July 14, 2026, the same day as the SharePoint and Project Server retirements above.

Enterprises still running App-V for application virtualization, or teams that built forms and workflows in InfoPath and SharePoint Designer instead of Power Apps and Power Automate, are the ones with work to do. Migrating InfoPath and SharePoint Designer workflows to Power Platform is something Microsoft has been pushing for years anyway. The virtualization tools mostly point toward modern app deployment options inside Configuration Manager instead.

#15 Azure service retirements – September and October

A handful of Azure AI and infrastructure services shut down within weeks of each other. Azure Anomaly Detector, Azure Metrics Advisor, and Azure Personalizer all retire October 1, 2026, while Azure API for FHIR and Azure FXT Edge Filer go September 30, 2026.



Developers who built applications against these Azure AI services (a small but technically committed crowd) are the ones affected, since Microsoft has spent the last two years steering everyone toward Azure AI Foundry and Azure OpenAI instead. FHIR workloads move to Azure Health Data Services, while Anomaly Detector, Metrics Advisor, and Personalizer workloads have nearest equivalents waiting in Azure AI Foundry.

So, should you be worried?

Although I made this into just fifteen entries, the real count runs past fifty if we dismantle every Office app, Dynamics variant, and individual Azure. Yes, that’s a very large number, even for a software giant like Microsoft.

Windows 11 24H2 and Office 2021 hit the widest audience by far. SQL Server 2016 and the July server cluster may have the biggest business risk. Everything past that is not as big a deal as it seems.

Microsoft has a habit of stacking its biggest deadlines into the same two windows every year, mid-July and mid-October. Whatever you’re running, it’s worth checking against Microsoft’s lifecycle page directly instead of procrastinating over a few more months.

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On the track of small-size esports tablets, from the RedMagic Gaming Tablet 3 Pro to today's fifth-generation Pro, RedMagic has always been exploring one question — how much esports usage scenario can a portable tablet actually carry? When we held the RedMagic Gaming Tablet 5 Pro in our hands, this question seems to have a clearer answer. Tianji.com (Skyworth Digital/Tianji Net), after an in-depth experience, brings this review.



In terms of appearance, the unit Tianji.com received this time is the "Deuterium Peak Transparent Silver Wing" color version, continuing RedMagic's iconic transparent and flat back panel design language, with the back panel presenting a cool metallic silver-gray texture under light. The whole machine feels solid in hand, with evenly distributed weight and no obvious sense of heaviness, with the total weight of the machine being approximately 363g. For an esports tablet with a built-in cooling fan and an 8200mAh large battery, this kind of weight control deserves recognition.



In terms of back cover design, this generation goes further on the basis of the cyber esports style — under the flat back panel, the brand new transparent liquid cooling structure is fully visible, with cool water-cooling RGB light strips lighting up according to the cooling state, and while running you can even clearly see the trajectory of the fluorinated coolant flowing through the pipeline, injecting a sense of cyber life into the cold hardware.



In terms of the screen, this generation of the RedMagic Gaming Tablet 5 Pro is equipped with a 9.06-inch, 2400×1504 resolution OLED esports screen. What's surprising is that the refresh rate has further increased to 185Hz. In FPS, racing and other high-frame-rate-sensitive esports scenarios, the improvement in every frame can be synchronously captured by fingertips and eyes. Paired with a 4.9mm ultra-narrow four-equal-side design and a 90.1% ultra-high screen-to-body ratio, the visual immersion is extremely strong. Whether holding it horizontally to play games or browsing content in portrait mode, the equal-width-on-all-sides look makes the entire screen appear as if it is floating above the body. Brightness is likewise not to be underestimated, with local peak brightness reaching up to 1600nit, and global excitation brightness also reaching 1100nit.



In terms of touch control, the RedMagic Gaming Tablet 5 Pro is equipped with the S3930 Synaptics (Xinsi) touch chip, with a multi-finger native touch sampling rate reaching 300Hz, an instantaneous report rate as high as 2000Hz, and support for 10X super-resolution touch, making operation faster, more accurate, and more stable — the synergy of the 185Hz ultra-high refresh rate, OLED low latency, and the S3930 touch chip allows every frame of the player's operation on the esports battlefield to seize the first opportunity.



In terms of game compatibility, the RedMagic Gaming Tablet 5 Pro fully leverages the advantages of this 185Hz high refresh screen. Currently, several popular games including "Cross Fire: Gunfight King," "Dawn Hero," and "Rhythm Master" have already adapted to the 185Hz ultra-high frame rate, while mainstream shooting games such as "Delta Force," "Call of Duty Mobile," and "Peacekeeper Elite" have also adapted to the 165Hz high frame mode. Combined with the OLED screen's natural low-latency characteristics, in FPS and other high-frame-rate-sensitive esports scenarios, both the smoothness of the visuals and the responsiveness of operation have significant advantages.

In terms of performance, the RedMagic Gaming Tablet 5 Pro is equipped with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen5 flagship processor, using TSMC's third-generation 3nm process technology. Both CPU and GPU performance have achieved significant improvements compared to the previous generation, while energy efficiency performance has also been greatly optimized. Tianji.com actually tested "Delta Force," and under ultra-high frame rate, the gaming experience was smooth and silky, with responsive operation, and the average frame rate for the entire match was as high as 166FPS, with the body basically showing no obvious heating, a satisfying performance.



In order for this tablet to have a more comprehensive gaming experience, the RedMagic Gaming Tablet 5 Pro, with the support of RedMagic Lab's self-developed translation engine, has overcome the technical difficulty of translating X86 instructions to the ARM architecture, and has built a PC emulator into the system, further lowering the threshold for users to play games. Users can play games from platforms such as PS, Steam, and Xbox via streaming, or import games locally in the PC emulator, or directly log into their Steam account to download from their game library, while also supporting cloud save synchronization. This allows the RedMagic Gaming Tablet 5 Pro to freely switch between multiple forms such as an entertainment tablet, a gaming handheld, and a console streaming terminal. For many users, this may be one of the few one-stop gaming experience solutions currently available.



In order to adapt to gaming needs in different scenarios, the RedMagic Gaming Tablet 5 Pro also supports connecting various external devices: plug in a controller and it becomes a complete handheld gaming console form, and cast to a TV while connecting a Bluetooth controller to unlock the console experience.



In addition, this generation has been upgraded to dual Type-C ports, both specified as USB 3.2 Gen2, located at the bottom and on the left side respectively, fully optimizing the experience of charging while playing when held horizontally.



In terms of battery life, the RedMagic Gaming Tablet 5 Pro has a built-in 8300mAh super-large capacity battery, which is at a leading level among tablet products of the same size. Combined with the high-efficiency chip and system-level power consumption optimization, in Tianji.com's actual battery life test, it is sufficient to support long hours of gaming and audiovisual entertainment needs, with no need to worry about battery anxiety.

In terms of charging, the RedMagic Gaming Tablet 5 Pro supports up to 80W wired fast charging. Tianji.com's actual test showed that half an hour of charging can reach 73% battery, and it takes a total of 52 minutes to fully charge, allowing players to quickly recharge during fragmented time and return to the battlefield at any moment.

Overall, the RedMagic Gaming Tablet 5 Pro has completed a fairly comprehensive evolution within a limited 9.06-inch body. It can be said that the RedMagic Gaming Tablet 5 Pro is not just a gaming tablet, but an all-around esports terminal that can seamlessly switch between tablet, handheld, and console at any time — for players pursuing the ultimate portable gaming experience, this may be one of the most noteworthy choices currently

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No Premium? No problem. DuckDuckGo-t your back!



Imagine you’re watching a YouTube video, completely invested in what’s happening, and then an ad suddenly interrupts. It’s annoying every single time, and I’m sure I’m not the only one who feels that way. I’d much rather install an ad blocker in a few minutes than pay for YouTube Premium just to avoid ads.

The only downside is that YouTube has been getting increasingly aggressive about ad blockers, often showing warnings or refusing to play videos. I was almost ready to give up on ads and live with them until I came across DuckDuckGo’s new free ad blocker option. I decided to give it a shot, and guess what? It worked.

If you’re tired of YouTube constantly nagging you about ad blockers, here’s how you can get it working on your device, too.

How do you deal with YouTube ads?



How to block YouTube ads with DuckDuckGo



Before I tell you more about what it was actually like using this, let’s get you set up first.

If you’re using a Mac, Windows PC, or an iPhone, you’re in luck. YouTube ad blocking is already enabled by default in the latest version of the DuckDuckGo browser, so there’s nothing you need to configure. Just make sure the browser app is up to date, open YouTube, and start watching your videos as you normally would.

Android users have one extra step, though. DuckDuckGo says YouTube ad blocking will be enabled by default on Android “soon,” but until then, you’ll need to turn it on manually. Update the app to the latest version, then follow these steps:

   1. Open the DuckDuckGo app on your Android phone.

   2. Open a new tab and tap the three-line menu (hamburger icon) in the top-right corner.

   3. Tap Settings.

   4. Scroll down to Other Settings and select YouTube ad-blocking.

   5. Turn on the Block Ads on YouTube toggle.



That’s it. Once you’ve enabled the setting, open YouTube in the DuckDuckGo browser and enjoy your videos without the usual stream of ads getting in the way.

This wasn’t supposed to work so smoothly



I followed these steps on my Google Pixel 10a, and the whole setup took barely a minute. The funny part was that I was skeptical. I’d tried enough workarounds over the years to know that many of them stop working sooner rather than later, so while I was hopeful, I wasn’t getting my expectations up.

Obviously, I had to try it for myself. The first thing I did was play a one-hour episode of one of my favorite YouTube shows. I simply hit play and watched. There wasn’t a single ad from start to finish. Honestly, it felt a little weird because I’d become so used to YouTube interrupting videos that I kept expecting an ad to show up. It never did.



So I kept going. I watched music videos, podcasts, long documentaries, cooking videos, and pretty much anything else I’d normally have open on YouTube — and it all ran smoothly. Even though DuckDuckGo warns you might notice a little extra buffering, I didn’t experience any during my testing.

The experience was even simpler on my iPhone, MacBook, and Windows PC. Since YouTube ad blocking is already enabled by default there, all I had to do was make sure DuckDuckGo was up to date. After that, it was the same story. I ended up spending far longer on YouTube than I’d planned, partly because I wanted to test it properly and partly because, for once, I wasn’t constantly being pulled out of the experience by ads.

There’s a bonus feature worth knowing about



While I was poking around the browser, I stumbled upon another feature that caught my attention. It’s called Duck Player, and it complements YouTube ad blocking surprisingly well.

Instead of opening videos in the regular YouTube player, Duck Player uses DuckDuckGo’s own built-in video player. The biggest advantage here is privacy. It uses YouTube’s strictest privacy settings for embedded videos, which means you aren’t tracked with cookies or served personalized ads while you watch. The videos you watch in Duck Player won’t influence your YouTube recommendations, and it won’t remember your place in playlists either.



If that sounds like something you’d like, you can enable Duck Player from the browser’s settings. Better yet, you don’t have to choose between the two. Duck Player and YouTube ad blocking work together, so you get a cleaner, more private YouTube experience without giving up either feature.

So, how is DuckDuckGo getting away with this?



Of course, this made me wonder how DuckDuckGo was pulling it off, given that YouTube has spent so much time cracking down on ad blockers. So I dug into how it actually works. DuckDuckGo relies on community-maintained filter lists from uBlock Origin, which are constantly updated by an active open-source community to keep pace with the way websites, including YouTube, serve ads. On top of that, DuckDuckGo applies its own tweaks to improve compatibility and keep things running smoothly.

My only hope is that it stays this way, because right now it’s exactly what I was looking for. I don’t have to add another monthly subscription to a list that’s already long enough, and after using it across my Pixel, iPhone, MacBook, and Windows PC, I genuinely don’t miss YouTube’s constant ad interruptions.

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