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Popup Stoppers - Why use them and where to download free ones
Popup Stoppers prevent those annoying advertisements from "popping" out of nowhere.
There we are, harmlessly browsing the internet looking at various information to enlighten, research and amuse ourselves when all of a sudden *pop* a violently blinking atrocity jumps at us from nowhere. Pop-ups, pop-ins, pop-unders and anything else that likes to “pop” have become all too common on the Internet.
Trying to spend a day browsing the internet while hoping to avoid those terribly annoying pop-up ads has about as much hope as crossing the highway during rush hour traffic without being hit by a car. No matter what marketing and sales people may say or think about the uses of pop-up ads and their benefits as a commercial information source, most of us just plainly hate them (although it could be worse, they could actually make a popping sound!).
Pop-ups can be more than just an annoying ad forcing itself on us all. Pop-ups, pop-ins and pop-unders can even contain malicious pieces of software that install themselves on your computer without your consent (or knowledge). This software then in turn can be used to monitor your browsing habits, steal your personal information or cause severe damage to your computer.
From browser hijacking, spyware, scumware, malware to viruses, trojans and worms anything can be hidden in those seemingly harmless pop-up ads.
As a result most people are interested in protecting themselves from these online 'pests'; even if it is for no other reason than to just be able to browse the web without being 'popped' at every couple of minutes.
To protect ourselves from pop-ups we need a software tool (which can be installed on our computer) known as a pop-up stopper or a pop-up killer. Since the Internet has experienced more and more of these pop-up ads the amount of tools blocking them has also increased. As a result it is often hard for the average Internet user to discern between all these tools and pick the right one for the job.
With dozens of pop-up stoppers available today it is time to first take a look at a few of the features a pop-up stopper can have and what we should be looking for to help us block the flood of pop-ups:
Ad control
Browser support
Browser control
Not advertising supported
Ad control
Ad control is the basic concept of protection the program has to offer against pop-ups, pop-unders and anything else that goes *pop*. Many programs only support protection against pop-ups and pop-unders ignoring more devious types of ads like the pop-in.
The more ad control a program has the better it will be able to keep pesky news messages out of our monitor's screen.
Browser support
Not all pop-up blockers work for all browsers. Make sure your browser is in the list of the program's supported browsers or you will find yourself the proud owner of a piece of software that can do nothing for you.
Browser control
Features such as cache clearing and cookie deletion can be a handy addition to pop up blockers. This is generally known as browser control.
Some pop-up programs will allow you to change the security settings of your browser and will hopefully provide a few good default settings to do this the right way.
Care should be taken that the browser control provided by your pop up blocker doesn't overlap with similar features of your firewall or virus scanner. Having multiple programs do the same thing is rarely a good approach to security on your pc as one program may negate the other completely.
Not advertising supported
Pop-up blockers are often struggling with obtaining enough funds to continually upgrade themselves and as a result will often use ads to support themselves.
Pop-up blockers that need to reduce themselves to these methods are regularly not recommended. Not because the program isn't excellent, but mostly because there is no guarantee that in a few months when you are looking to upgrade your blocker to fight the newest form of ads you will no longer be able to obtain one because the company went out of business.
One excellent Free Pop-Up stopper can be found at:
Also available and with the basic features covered we will take a look at a short list of popular pop up blockers. All of the below (and more) can be freely downloaded at
www.download.com
and the ones listed here are free to use.
The pop-up stopper free edition provides excellent protection against unwanted pop-ups. Easy installation and usage allow this program by panicware to even deal with pesky windows messenger ads (or spim) that have become so dominant in the field of online ' chatting'.
Best of all, this simple pop-up stopper does not rely upon ads or the sale of your personal information to further itself financially.
PopupRemover for IE
Without a doubt this is a goal oriented program. Popupremover for Internet explorer is just that, a simple pop-up remover. Designed to run on most windows Operating systems this program acts as a simple switch. Flip the switch and you will not receive ads or pop-ups and flip the switch again and you will.
This is without a doubt intended for those who like to keep it simple and not be bothered with configuring tons of extra features.
As a result, the program is definitely worth a try.
The smart popup blocker by Smartsoft Tech allows for easy installation and does the job of blocking pop-ups and even messenger Spam admirably.
This simple but effective pop-up blocker also guards your homepage from being hijacked through a method called 'start page hijacking', a feature well worth considering if you do a lot of browsing to unknown web pages.
The start page hijack prevention is also rarely offered in any free products making the smart pop-up blocker a good choice for anyone looking to add a little protection to pop-up blocking.
