Stop pop-up windows with a free Windows program

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It's nice to have software on your side when you just can't help visiting sites that are run so shabbily.

technofile
Al Fasoldt's reviews and commentaries, continuously available online since 1983

Stop pop-up browser windows with a free Windows program

Sept. 12, 2001

By Al Fasoldt
Copyright © 2001, Al Fasoldt
Copyright © 2001, The Syracuse Newspapers

   Pop-up windows drive me crazy. I hate them. My Web browser hates them. My cat hates them.
   If you can't stand them, either, listen up. I've found a free program that gets rid of them. It's not perfect, but then nothing in life is perfect anyway. But it does a great job.
   It's Pop-Up Stopper from Panicware. Pop-Up Stopper runs on any modern version of Windows. (I use it on Windows 2000 and my wife runs it on Windows 98.) It requires Internet Explorer 5-something (5.0, 5.5 and so on). If you're running an older version of Internet Explorer, upgrade so that you can take advantage of this software.
   You can get Pop-Up Stopper from http://www.panicware.com/. It installs easily and behaves perfectly well, taking up no discernable processor time. Windows 2000 doesn't suffer from resource problems the way Windows 95, 98 and Me do, so I wasn't able to find out if it dragged Windows down in that way, but my wife reported no ill effects under Windows 98.
   Pop-up windows are Web pages that open by themselves and sometimes refuse to close. They're common at Web sites run by scoundrels, miscreants and sleaze artists, but they also show up at sites you might actually like to visit.
   My general advice is to stop going to sites that pop windows up in your face, but it's nice to have software on your side when you just can't help visiting sites that are run so shabbily.
   Pop-Up Stopper also blocks the newest kind of annoyance, the "pop-under" window made infamous by the X10 company. (I actually owned X10 products until I took a hammer to them when I encountered the incredibly tasteless "pop-under" windows sponsored by X10. They popped on top of the trash heap nicely.)
   Pop-Up Stopper is a no-brainer. You don't have to configure anything, and you don't have to set up a fake proxy server for your browser. You can tell Pop-Up Stopper to flash an icon in the Taskbar tray or play a chime (or do both) each time it blocks a pop-up or pop-under window. That's a good idea, since it lets you know the program is working. (It also informs you that some sites are just plain impolite. Why any Web designer would create windows that refuse to close is beyond understanding.)
   Panicware does not charge for Pop-Up Stopper but it does encourage donations. If you like what this wonderful utility does, send the folks who make it a couple of bucks.