Public service announcement

[plonq]

This applies to Windows users only - Mac and *nix users will find their browser karma in different ways.

I can count on one finger the number of unwanted pop-ups (or pop-unders) that I've encountered in the last 2-3 years of browsing.  I certainly don't feel like I've been missing out for not getting those popups, and I have yet to encounter a site whose legitimate pop-ups haven't worked.  I don't know why people insist on letting runaway pop-ups ruin their browsing experience when the fix is very easy.

Solution 1: Duh.



Solution 2: If you insist on using IE, upgrade your damn browser.

http://download.microsoft.com/download/1/6/5/165b076b-aaa9-443d-84f0-73cf11fdcdf8/WindowsXP-KB835935-SP2-ENU.exe

Solution 3: Get a decent popup blocker

http://www.bayden.com/popper/

If you are too paranoid (or sane) to upgrade to SP2, or you're running an older version of Windows, then get Popup Popper - the best pop-up blocker out there -- and it's free.  Trust me, you'll wonder how you ever surfed without it.

Anyway, that's all for today.  I'm off to a training course for the rest of the day.

Comments

[unciaa.livejournal.com]

I use Opera, but am forced on occasion to fire up IE due to site suckiness. Is there a Win2k version of that update? Linking to the file kinda prevents me from knowing what to search for. :p

[plonq.livejournal.com]

I'm in the same boat, only I use Firefox and only fire up IE for broken web sites.

The update link I posted here just links to the SP2 upgrade for Windows XP. The built-in popup blocking in the browser is part of the SP2 update pack. I may have read it wrong, but my understanding is that Microsoft has no plans for a stand-alone browser update.

Do yourself a favour and either install the Google bar, or Popup Popper in IE for the next time you use it. They both work under Win2K, and they both do basically the same thing as the MS upgrade (actually better, IMO).