Popups – How to Get Less of Them

Posted on: January 17th, 2011

Tired of having pop-ups interrupting your web browsing? How about various notifications to update, register, etc?

Pop-ups can be an annoying distraction especially when you are searching for something online. Most pop-ups are usually not relevant to what you are searching for, and quite frankly, they can be seen as an invasion of privacy sometimes. Here are a few tips to help reduce pop-ups:

If you use Internet Explorer, we recommend switching to Mozilla Firefox. Unless you routinely need to access websites that are designed to work only with Internet Explorer, we recommend using Fire Fox as this has proven to be effective in blocking pop-ups & also providing better security against rogue (fake) antivirus software. We have two articles that deal with the process of switching from Internet Explorer to Firefox: Switching From Internet Explorer to Firefox & Notes on Switching From Internet Explorer
Use ad blocking. Most popups are advertisements so by blocking ads you significantly reduce the chances of popups. The best way to do this is using Firefox with the Adblock Plus add-on. We described this in another article: Eliminating Ads on Websites
Eliminate toolbars. Toolbars are those lines with icons and boxes that take up the space on the top of your browser. While some of these have pop-up blocking capabilities, generally they themselves create pop-ups and most of the time they are not used at all. Here’s some more information on this: Unnecessary and Unwanted Toolbars
Scan your computer regularly. This will help to make sure that any unwanted software is cleared off your computer. If you notice that your internet is going slower than usual, chances are you may have picked up some unwanted software. “Malwarebytes Antimalware” has proved to be a good tool for eliminating advertisement software that might have gotten on your computer without your knowledge. You can download it from here: http://filehippo.com/download_malwarebytes_anti_malware/
Try not to load free games, free screen savers and other suspicious “free” software, unless you are certain they are from a reputable source. These almost always come with ads and unwanted components that install with them. It’d very much recommended to check out the website that you are planning to download software from, before actually doing it . You can do that by visiting www.siteadvisor.com and looking up the site report — look at the user comments too, not just the rating.
Weed out your startup items. Many non-browser related popups happen right after you turn your computer on. Generally, only less than half a dozen startup items are actually necessary; the rest are mostly annoyances and drain the performance of the computer. In the article named How Can I Keep My Computer Running Fast? we described a safe method to find out what startup item is needed and which one is not.

If you are using Internet Explorer: Check your browser settings to ensure that its set to block any programs trying to get access to your computer. In the control panel under Internet options, you can select the privacy level under the privacy tab. Make sure that your privacy settings are at least “Medium” or “High medium.” This will help to block any cookies that try to access your computer without your permission.

Clean up your browser from time to time. If you have websites that you like, use the bookmark feature to save them, or use the “save to favorites” option. Cleaning out the cookies from your browser will require you to re-enter your password on any website that you are normally signed into. So make sure you remember the passwords (or have them written down) before cleaning up the cookies.
One of the easiest ways to do this is by using a useful little software called CCleaner: http://filehippo.com/download_ccleaner/

Chose those software that don’t generate unnecessary messages. A well designed software should not bombard its user with messages or tons of requests to make decisions. If you receive too many messages from a software that you use then search around on the internet to see if there’s an alternative software to the one you currently use.

This list might look quite a handful but if you just implement a few of these. You’ll still experience some relief from popups. They cannot be totally eliminated because sometimes they are necessary for the operation of a software, or they display important and relevant information (such as discovery of a virus on the machine).

You can also read some more on popups here: http://www.webopedia.com/DidYouKnow/Internet/2008/block_popups.asp

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