Annoying Pop - Ups

[Gem]

How do you stop those stupid adverts from spontaneously popping up on screen whilst on the internet?

[Cactus]

Hi, download and install Pop-Up Stopper from http://www.panicware.com/popupstopper.html It's free for personal use, and you don't even have to register if you don't want to. I use it, it's brilliant. The only minor inconvenience is that you have to hold down CTRL when you click some links (java windows and the like) but it's not much hassle. Certainly better than having to keep closing all those useless pop up ads!

[whiskygalore]

Or, if you don't want to install software, CTRL + 'W' when one appears shuts them down quickly.

[TheHitMaker]

Or install a firewall - Zonealarm, available as a free download from www.zonelabs.com is good - stops anyone accessing your machine as well.

[magpie]

Zone alarm won't stop pop-ups. Also, using a pop up stopper on this site may intefere with your being able to post messages

[lisaj]

I've found that nearly all the pop-ups I've encountered are from a very small handful of advert or marketing hosting companies. Killing access to their servers by editing my hosts file (system32\drivers\etc\hosts) means that whilst they may still come up occasionally, they certainly can't cause any more havoc, like bringing up another pop-up everytime you close it... I've had a wonderful idea recently of how to get rid of pop-ups forever, but since it has quite a high commercial viability, I'm not telling - sorry.