How to Get Rid of Popups

While not related specifically to file extensions, this question comes up fairly often in the forum and so I include this here.

There are several types of popups so it's important that one know which one you want to get rid of. The most common are windows that pop up over (or pop up and then get placed under) a Web page when it is opened (or sometimes when closed or some action is taken). These are generally controlled by Javascript code in the requested Web page. There are several ways to stop most, if not all, of them:

• Turn Javascript execution off. While effective, since many pages use Javascript for display enhancement purposes today doing this will greatly diminish your browsing experience.

• Use a software program. There are many software programs that basically sit between your Internet connection and the Web browser. They identify incoming Javascript designed to call up Web addresses as pop ups or pop unders and disable that code or simply set it aside instead of sending it to the browser. Most of these programs install themselves as part of the browser. There are far too many to list here. Please use a search such as:http://www.google.com/search?q=popup%20ad%20blocker

• Install a browser bar that includes a pop up blocker and does other useful things as well.

• Use a browser that has pop up blocking built into the browser code. The Mozilla-based browsers have this capability and have the advantage of being free. There are others as well. You can find information about the Mozilla browsers at: http://www.mozilla.org/

If the pop ups you are concerned about are little grey boxes that pop up at random times while you are on the Internet, that's a function of Microsoft Messenger and you can turn those off if you choose to. Follow this procedure for Windows:

• Click Start->Control Panel

• Click Performance and Maintenance

• Click Administrative Tools

• Double click Services

• Scroll down and highlight Messenger

• Right-click the highlighted line and choose Properties

• Click the STOP button.

• Select Disable or Manual in the Startup Type scroll bar

• Click OK

Be advised that if you are on a local network where the administrator needs to send out messages this will prevent those messages from coming in so use with care.