I read through a bunch of responses and to be honest none of them were fairly conistent. I've seen scripts registry hacks, etc. So I experimented on three different systems with a specific set of tactics...
Tactic #1. I saved the no-ads.pac file into a folder off the root drive that follows the 8.3 old Microsoft naming convention.
Tactic #2. I followed the setup using some of the advise I read from the message boards, including the file:/// versus file:// UNC naming conventions.
Work Product >>> As a result of some testing and tinkering, I realized that I got this to work without the registry hack. So to prove it, I tried it again and again and again. The following test systems were:
(A) Windows XP Professional running IE7
(B) Windows XP Home running IE6
(C) Windows Vista running IE7
In every case, I found the pattern that was required to make this work without the requirement for the registry hack. Follow these post-download steps to the letter for installing this on Windows XP or Windows Vista with IE7...
IE7.1: Create a folder of the root system drive called C:\NOBANNER
IE7.2: Open IE7 and select TOOLS > INTERNET OPTIONS > CONNECTIONS Tab > LAN SETTINGS Button.
IE7.2.1: Check USE AUTOMATIC CONFIGURATION SCRIPT
IE7.2.2: Type in (WITHOUT QUOTES) "file://c:/nobanner/no-ads.pac"
IE7.2.2: Click the OK Button
IE7.3: Without closing the Dialog box, select the following: SECURITY Tab > LOCAL INTERNET Icon > SITES Button
IE7.3.1: Make sure the local intranet zone is setup as follows...
IE7.3.1.1: UNCHECKED - AUTOMATICALLY DETECT INTRANET NETWORK
IE7.3.1.2: CHECKED - INCLUDE ALL LOCAL (INTRANET) SITES NOT LISTED IN OTHER ZONES
IE7.3.1.3: UNCHECKED - INCLUDE ALL SITES THAT BYPASS THE PROXY SERVER
IE7.3.1.4: CHECKED - INCLUDE ALL NETWORK PATHS (UNCs)
IE7.3.2: Click the OK Button
IE7.4: Without closing the dialog box and select the following: GENERAL Tab > DELETE Button under the "Browsing History" subsection
IE7.4.1: Click the DELETE FILES Button under the "Temproary Internet Files" subsection (and make sure you delete all offline content)
IE7.4.2: Click the YES Button
IE7.4.3: Click the CLOSE Button
IE7.4.4: Click the OK Button to finally close the INTERNET OPTIONS Dialog box
IE7.5: Close all IE7 windows and applications currently running
IE7.6: Open a website that already had a banner ad that you know of to inspect the changes in the IE7 display behavior.
** FOR IE6, some of the exact clicks are different when you get into the lowest levels of the other dialog boxes, but the flow is identical. If anybody follows these steps in the exact sequence that has a problem, please post a reply or send em a message with your expereince. I want to ensure that the registry hack is really not required. Inexpereinced people get scared of what they consider deep system changes like these registry alterations.