EZBlocker 3

EZBlocker 3 is a Spotify Ad Muter/Blocker for Windows written in C#. It mutes Spotify while an advertisement is playing. It is a complete rewrite of the original EZBlocker, as it did not mute all the ads and Spotify was always muted on startup.

Features

Comparing to the original, EZBlocker 3...

• ... provides better muting (e.g. #215)
• ... does not include any sort of analytics (#103).
• ... is built using a modern UI
• ... offers automatic updating
• ... uses an event based approach instead of polling for a smaller performance footprint

Setup

Download for Windows

No need to install as EZBlocker 3 is a portable application.

Remove application

To remove EZBlocker 3 the "Uninstall" button in the settings menu should be used.

Technical overview

UI

The EZBlocker 3 UI ist built using the Windows Presentation Foundation and the ModernWPF UI Library for a modern Windows 10 look and system theme awareness.

Ad detection

Ads are detected by checking the spotify window title. On startup EZBlocker scans for running processes named "spotify" that have a window and extracts the title. It then listens for title changes by handling the EVENT_OBJECT_NAMECHANGE event using SetWinEventHook. Spotify startup and shutdown are detected by handling the EVENT_OBJECT_DESTROYand EVENT_OBJECT_SHOW events.

Auto update

EZBlocker 3 checks for new releases on startup using the Github REST API. If a newer version is found, it is downloaded next to the app. The EZBlocker3.exe file is then switched out while it is still running and then restarted.

Credits

• Eric Zhang for the original EZBlocker
• Yimeng Wu for the beautiful ModernWPF UI Library
• James Newton-King for his omnipresent Json.NET