FYI: Popup blocker for IE on Windows

I wonder how many among us still use IE as our main browser. I don't say that in a negative way regarding your post BTW. It's just that your message raised the question in my mind.

I'll make a Blakerwry of myself for a moment. Let's start a poll :D
 
At work, after watching a single page open 11 popups, I pushed a 1000-line-long hosts file out to all the machines. Now you have to work pretty hard to get a popup or banner ad. :)
 
CougTek said:
I wonder how many among us still use IE as our main browser. I don't say that in a negative way regarding your post BTW. It's just that your message raised the question in my mind.
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IE is our corporate standard. Some of our web apps will not run properly on non-IE browsers despite compatibility settings. So while I can use whatever browser I prefer, I wind up using IE for most things while at work. And this has basically carried over to home use as well. IE is definitely easier for my wife to use.

My webmail works with IE but not with Opera and the rest. That was the final straw. I don't have the patience to fuss with multiple browsers and if they can't function for my email site, forget 'em.

Opera and the like may be faster, and are generally better at adhering to standards. But IE is better at real-world compatibility for what I do.

Mercutio said:
At work, after watching a single page open 11 popups, I pushed a 1000-line-long hosts file out to all the machines. Now you have to work pretty hard to get a popup or banner ad. :)
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So, does that mean they still get pop-up windows but they're 'page cannot be displayed'?

- Fushigi
 
The lack of pop-up control is one of the reasons I avoid IE.

Besides a tweaked host file, another good defense is the freeware program CloseIex. This program, once installed, simply gives you two more commands under the IE "Tools" menu. One of them closes all IE windows except the active one, the other closes all IE windows, period.
Additionally, you can put CloseIex buttons on the toolbar.

The program is freeware for personal use but does insist on having you send in registration info for the author's data. (This info can be bogus)
Also, this program does not run in the background, take up resources, self-load, induce spyware, etc.

http://geocities.com/closeiex/
 
Groltz said:
The lack of pop-up control is one of the reasons I avoid IE.

Besides a tweaked host file, another good defense is the freeware program CloseIex. This program, once installed, simply gives you two more commands under the IE "Tools" menu. One of them closes all IE windows except the active one, the other closes all IE windows, period.
Additionally, you can put CloseIex buttons on the toolbar.

The program is freeware for personal use but does insist on having you send in registration info for the author's data. (This info can be bogus)
Also, this program does not run in the background, take up resources, self-load, induce spyware, etc.

http://geocities.com/closeiex/
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I can quite easily understand avoiding IE .. for several reasons. ActiveX, pop-up control, etc. That's why I specifically said "for what I do". I know that Opera, Moz, etc. are fine for what most others do, but IE works while the others don't for sites that I need to access regularly.

I have no particular opinion on what browser other people should use beyond the obvious .. that the browser must be compatible with the sites commonly visited.

Regarding CloseIex, it sounds fine but I'd rather prevent pop-ups from opening in the first place. Especially when I'm at home where I'm stuck with dial-up and don't want to waste the limited bandwidth. For non-pop-ups, I just use Ctrl-W or Alt-F4 to close windows if I'm too lazy to reach for the mouse.

- Fushigi
 
Fushigi, have you tried Crazy Browser? It's based on IE, so it will display any page that IE does just fine. Plus it blocks 98% of pop-ups and uses tabbed browsing.
 
I use IE 6, 95% of the time. I can't really say why, I'm just stuck in my ways. The popups don't really bother me as much as they should. I dislike them but it doesn't make me change browsers.

If I were to change it would be to mozilla. I don't care for Opera that much anymore, and I think it's because of the html formatting issues it gave me while trying to design the new site.
 
Fushigi said:
Mercutio said:
At work, after watching a single page open 11 popups, I pushed a 1000-line-long hosts file out to all the machines. Now you have to work pretty hard to get a popup or banner ad. :)
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So, does that mean they still get pop-up windows but they're 'page cannot be displayed'?

- Fushigi
Click to expand...

Very rarely. Mostly they just don't happen. There are "Page cannot be displayed" messages where there would be banners and ads in IE, but once someone explains why, everyone thinks that's just fine.
Moz user that I am, I really hadn't realized how bad the the web has gotten under IE.
 
timwhit said:
Fushigi, have you tried Crazy Browser? It's based on IE, so it will display any page that IE does just fine. Plus it blocks 98% of pop-ups and uses tabbed browsing.
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I can't try anything else here at the office. Guaranteed compatibility with IE is a must for my web security work. And, as Doug said, I think I'm becoming stuck in my ways. I just don't have the desire to keep trying different apps looking for one that is 5% better when what I have is sufficient.

Merc - Where can I find your hosts file listing? I'd like to add that, at least, to my home machine. I already have a few advertisers redirected to 127.0.0.1 but your list is much more exhaustive than mine.

- Fushigi
 
i managed to make it go berserk when i made a post on the nullsoft nsis forums - it was on a page that was going to redirect me to the next post. it made infinite windows and i had to reboot.

upon uninstallation, it reset the location of my links/google toolbars and set my 'always show' text for icons off.
 
fushigi, i believe kazaa lite's 'supertrick' is just a huge host file. look for that.
 
honold said:
i managed to make it go berserk when i made a post on the nullsoft nsis forums - it was on a page that was going to redirect me to the next post. it made infinite windows and i had to reboot.

upon uninstallation, it reset the location of my links/google toolbars and set my 'always show' text for icons off.
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Wierd. I haven't tried uninstalling it yet. If you have the time and feel like it, email the author; he seemed interested in whatever feedback he could get.

Groltz said:
Direct Link

Might want to edit it from its pro-kazaa content before use.

.
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Thanks. Unfortunately it gives me a "Forbidden
You don't have permission to access /hosts.zip on this server." error.

- Fushigi
 
Fushigi said:
Wierd. I haven't tried uninstalling it yet. If you have the time and feel like it, email the author; he seemed interested in whatever feedback he could get.
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i did as soon as i made the post here - will report relevant feedback to this thread if i get any
 
ZoneAlarm Pro has a built-in privacy module that the user can configure to block cookies, banner ads, pop-ups, animated gifs, javascript, vbs scripts, and other things.

I can report that it works with both IE and Opera.
 
Fushigi said:
timwhit said:
Fushigi, have you tried Crazy Browser? It's based on IE, so it will display any page that IE does just fine. Plus it blocks 98% of pop-ups and uses tabbed browsing.
Click to expand...
I can't try anything else here at the office. Guaranteed compatibility with IE is a must for my web security work. And, as Doug said, I think I'm becoming stuck in my ways. I just don't have the desire to keep trying different apps looking for one that is 5% better when what I have is sufficient.

- Fushigi
Click to expand...

Fushigi, CrazyBrowser is 100% compatible with secure web apps that only work on IE. That is also why I don't use Opera, for example, which is my 2nd favourite browser -- lack of compatibility with banking sites, for example. But CrazyBrowser is 100% IE at the core, so whatever works on IE will work with CB. (if, however, your apps require pop-ups, then you will have to turn off CrazyBrowser's pop-up blocking function).

IMO, anybody who uses IE for whatever reason owes it to themselves to try CrazyBrowser. It is a small download and transforms IE from a good browser to a great browser that can compete with Opera and Mozilla, yet it has no competition when it comes to that real-world compatibility that you mentioned.

http://crazybrowser.com

You know you want it :)
 
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