Pop-up and
pop-under ads are separate windows that appear uninvited above or beneath your browser window. When you visit a web page and the taskbar starts sprouting new buttons, you have pop-unders. Kill this pestilence with IE's Pop-Up Blocker, added in Service Pack 2 (finally). Pop-Up Blocker is on by default. You should need to turn it on only if someone has turned it off. You also can customize its settings to let certain pop-ups through. Pop-ups are useful in some circumstances, such as showing small help windows, seating diagrams for concert halls or airplanes, and larger versions of thumbnail images.
To block pop-up windows:
Choose Tools > Pop-Up Blocker > Turn on Pop-Up Blocker.
From now on, when IE blocks a pop-up, the
Information bar appears with a "Pop-up blocked" message (Figure 13.14 ).
To see a blocked pop-up:
1. | Click the Information Bar when it notifies you that a pop-up has been blocked (Figure 13.15 ). Figure 13.15. Click the Information bar to reveal a menu of pop-up customization options. |
2. | Click Temporarily Allow Pop-Ups. |
To see pop-ups from a specific web site:
1. | Choose Tools > Pop-Up Blocker > Pop-Up Blocker Settings (Figure 13.16 ). Figure 13.16. This dialog box lets you manage your list of approved sites. You also can turn off the "blocked pop-up" sound, suppress the Information bar, and adjust the aggressiveness of the pop-up filter. |
2. | In the Address of Web Site to Allow box, type the address (URL) of the web site that you want to see pop-ups from; then click Add. Use the Remove and Remove All buttons to delete previously added sites. |
Tips
| If you've installed the Google Toolbar (or other third-party utility) to block pop-ups, you can turn off the IE blocker: Choose Tools > Pop-Up Blocker > Turn off Pop-Up Blocker. Pop-Up Blocker doesn't block pop-ups that appear when you click a link...unless you've chosen the High filter level (refer to the bottom of Figure 13.16). To see pop-ups when you have this setting turned on, hold down the Ctrl key while the web page loads. |
Unblockable Pop-UpsSome reasons why you still may see pop-ups when Pop-Up Blocker is turned on: It's a window with animated content that Pop-Up Blocker doesn't block. It's a web site in the Local Intranet or Trusted Sites web content zone. Choose Tools > Internet Options > Security tab; click the zone that you want to block pop-ups from; click Sites; in the Web Sites box, click the web site for which you want to block pop-ups; then click Remove.
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