OK, this is really driving me batty now.  Some popup zapper software company has designed a pop-up ad that sets itself as your homepage, and when you open Internet Explorer, it also plays a sound and opens your CD drive.  Then it says, "If your CD drive just opened itself, your computer is vulnerable to spyware and other blah blah blah blah."  Then they go on to pitch their popup zapper software, which you have to pay for. Fuck that.  I want FREE software that gets rid of these things.  Anybody got suggestions as to the best FREE popup blocker programs?  
....and if you know the bastard who wrote this little program that's bugging me, please let me know. So I can drill little holes in his balls.

You can always turn off your javascript, that'll stop em' in a NY. miniute.

Use Spybot,it's FREE and it will clean your computer up real quick!

I use Panicware Pop-up Stopper its free and seem to do a good job.

Edited to add: For spy/adware you should get Lavasoft's Ad-aware. Its free and it cleans your computer of this crap real nice.

I feel your pain.. I finaly went to extreames and dumped windows completly and reloaded through my recovery discs..

basicaly, I started over.. but damn I feel so clean..

I also had a music virus that couldnt be extracted, so it was a no brainer..

Netscape 7.1.  Built-in popup stopper...and it WORKS, believe it or not!

The only gripe I have about Nutscrapings (including 7.1) is that it doesn't have a freaking CLUE what to do with some movie formats like .wmv movies.

And I have to admit, on some sites, not everything works just right.  I have to use IE in order to upload photos to my arfcom photo folder.

If it weren't for those two issues, I'd totally delete IE from my machine and use Netscape 100 percent of the time.


CJ

Quoted: I use Panicware Pop-up Stopper its free and seem to do a good job. Edited to add: For spy/adware you should get Lavasoft's Ad-aware. Its free and it cleans your computer of this crap real nice.

I second the Panicware!

The "free" one works great and they say the "pay for" one is even better!

BigDozer66

Get Netscape 7.1.   Download is free, CD is just a couple of bucks.   It has a built in setting that only allows user requested pop-ups (i.e. when you click on a link).   I've been using it for a month now and can't complain.

http://toolbar.google.com/

difficultly level = 0

edit: http://www.lavasoftusa.com/support/download/

toolbar.google.com/


Google toolbar.  It's the best i have used.

Quit looking at those porno sites.  





The "Opera" web browser has a built-in pop-up stopping feature, and is a great browser too.  Also has the "only user requested popups" (you cliked on a link, etc) feature.  There's a free version with their little banner ad, or you can buy it (iirc, its only $20 or so)

If you insist on using IE, get panicware's popup stopper.  Works great.

Ad-aware costs money, do a google-search for "spybot search & destroy" or "spybot s&d" -- its free, and does a better job than ad-aware.

Not affiliated with any of 'em, but those are the solutions I've had success with.

I avoid nutscrape because its an AOL product, pure and simple.

-FOTBR

Anyone using IE is a target for almost all the crap these assholes have written to infest and take over your PC.

1. STOP USING IE..  While you can't easily remove it from your system, you can stop using it for 99.9% of your surfing.  The ONLY time I use mine is for Windows Update and to access my Credit Union.  Many financial institutions write websites specifically to IE and won’t allow access with anything else.  Personally I feel that any PHB that insists that a website not be agnostic should be dragged into the street and beaten as a warning to others.

2. Alternatives are Opera (my choice) and Mozilla.  If all you need is a basic browser without all the bells and whistles, try MozillaFirebird.

opera.com and mozilla.org

3. Install Ad-aware and Spybot.  Make sure that you keep these programs updated and run them every couple of days.  What one misses, the other will get.  You’ll probably be shocked speechless as to how much crap has been installed on your system the first time you run them.

Ad-aware: www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware/

Spybot: www.safer-networking.org/

4. Make sure you have a good anti-virus program and keep it updated.

5. If you are on a high speed connection (cable or DSL) a firewall is an ABSOLUTE MUST!  For most people a hardware router/firewall is the best choice.  Install it, configure it and it will block almost everyone trying to infiltrate your system.  I’ve had ONE break in 18 months and that was my own damn fault for having an improperly configured webserver.

Gibson Research is a good place to test your system and find out how to remove Windows Messaging - another source of popups.

www.grc.com/default.htm

Another vote for Netscape 7.1. It works. So does the Google toolbar for IE.

A MAC with the Safari web browser  (has a box to check for stopping pop-ups).

As recommended by anaother poster, Spybot:  get all the hidden links (really Trojan horses).

On Windows.  Go into Control Panel, Admin. and disable Messenger - a lot of the more aggressive pop ups use that feature and truly take over the machine.

I could rant about how the idiots  took over computers.  The stupid kid (of all ages) customers who grew up in, and think this still is, a cartoon world.  So, you have all the cheezy but busy and crazy graphics which suck up bandwidth, overload and slow everything down, and are quite useless.  When Microsuck stopped supporting run-time Windows, that's when their insidious take over and control of the industry truly began.  Sure, there are needs for graphics - SOMETIMES AND WHEN NEEDED - and they started a common interface instead of the hodgepodge.  Then, they imposed their junk on everyone.  And, the computer manufacturers loved it - could sell more and more hardware which was now necessary  (I had a wonderful IBM -P70, I think it was, the one that was portable and an attache case, 386 processor, with DOS and Desqview386 it was just fine.  But, no, not for all the "great" new junk.).  So, this leads us to stuff like Java, great on paper, and apparently functional, but allowing every charlatan to take over our operating systems and machines.  HUMBUG.   <rant over>

A note for spybot and ad-aware. Make sure you check for updates routinely.

The downloaded spybot checks for 5,000 different spy programs. After you check for updates it scans for more than 10,000.

google toolbar works good for me!
and it even stops the pop ups on the porn sites.

Another vote for Spybot Search and Destroy.

Keep using IE.  Don't use Opera.  If enough people start using Opera those popup coders will find a way to get around the popup prevention, and we Opera users don't want that.

If you stay with that bloated virus magnet that digs its tentacles into the OS so tight it can't be pried loose, somebody may invent something someday that will make it useable.

I'll second this:
toolbar.google.com

once installed, select "Options" and check the "Popup Blocker" checkbox.... I haven't seen a popup since install!