Here’s What to Do Now That Microsoft Edge Is Phasing Out Ad Blockers
An alternative browser may be in your future.
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Emily Long Freelance Writer
Experience
Emily Long is a freelance writer based in Salt Lake City.
After graduating from Duke University, she spent several years reporting on the federal workforce for Government Executive, a publication of Atlantic Media Company, in Washington, D.C. She has nearly a decade of experience as a freelancer covering tech (including issues related to security, privacy, and streaming) as well as personal finance and travel.
In addition to Lifehacker, her work has been featured on Wirecutter, Tom’s Guide, and ZDNET. Emily has also worked as a travel guide around the U.S. and as a content editor. She has a masters in social work and is a licensed therapist in Utah.
August 13, 2026
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Table of Contents
If you're a Microsoft Edge user, you will soon find that some older extensions—like uBlock Origin—no longer work. That's because Microsoft is following Google Chrome's lead in transitioning to the Manifest V3 extensions platform and disabling MV2 add-ons in the process. Edge is built on Google's Chromium engine, so the change isn't unexpected, but it does impact users who rely on older ad blockers.
Microsoft is ending support for older Edge extensions
Microsoft recently announced that it will begin turning MV2 extensions off by default over the next few months, and support for these add-ons will end completely for most users by the close of 2026. (The transition for enterprise is expected to be finalized in early 2027.)
Microsoft notes that 95% of MV2 extensions on Edge have already moved to MV3, leaving fewer than 60 in the Edge Add-on store still on MV2. That includes uBlock Origin, which does have an MV3 version in uBlock Origin Lite, but the latter isn't as powerful as its predecessor and hides content rather than keeping it from loading in the first place. AdBlock, AdBlock Plus, and AdGuard are other MV3 alternatives with Edge versions, though they are not perfect replacements for uBlock Origin either thanks to restrictions on how MV3 ad blockers are able to filter content.
What do you think so far?
If you want to retain the ad-blocking features you're used to, you can move away from Edge (and Chrome) to a browser that's not Chromium-based. The alternatives also tend to be pretty decent when it comes to privacy. One is Firefox, which runs on its own Gecko engine and still allows these older ad-block extensions, including uBlock Origin. DuckDuckGo and Brave both have built-in ad-blocking capabilities. Note that Opera, which is Chromium-based, has said the platform plans to continue MV2 support for now, but that may end eventually.
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