Unfortunately, one of the execs at work wants a popup blocker for his daughter. She currently lives in Florida, so anything I provide, she'll have to use on her own. Based on his descriptions, she has a lot of spyware on her computer, but she doesn't know enough about a PC for me to risk letting her run Spybot or AdAware on her own.
So my question is, do any of you know of a popup blocking program that works well against assorted popups, is free (or has a free trial period and is cheap to buy afterwards), runs independently of the browser, is easy to use and configure, and will run automatically when the computer starts?
Delid: I tried that at home about a month ago. About 90% of the stuff that wanted to pop up, succeeded at popping up, despite the Google Toolbar. I was disappointed. Thanks for the thought, though. [ 01-06-2004: Message edited by: Ford Prefect ]
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Pvednes wrote this stupid crap:
Kicks the shit out of Mozilla
That, sir, is a matter of opinion.
Anyway, if the computer is entrenched in spyware, then no popup blocker will stop them. Usually spyware that is already present is to blame for anything that slips through the google toolbar... [ 01-06-2004: Message edited by: Kegwen ]
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This insanity brought to you by Kegwen:
That, sir, is a matter of opinion.Anyway, if the computer is entrenched in spyware, then no popup blocker will stop them. Usually spyware that is already present is to blame for anything that slips through the google toolbar...
Well, I was actually giving my opinion there, so... Anyway if spyware is the problem, latest version of AdAware.
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Peanut butter ass Shaq Ford Prefect booooze lime pole over bench lick:
Delid: I tried that at home about a month ago. About 90% of the stuff that wanted to pop up, succeeded at popping up, despite the Google Toolbar. I was disappointed. Thanks for the thought, though.
That's weird, I've never had a single popup under google toolbar and I surf warez/porn sites 
(my blocked count is at 8143 after about six months. that's 45 popups a day!)
Mozilla isn't bad if you don't mind 50% of the sites you look at being poorly formatted and ugly. [ 01-07-2004: Message edited by: Maradon! ]
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What the Ford Prefect??
Delid: I tried that at home about a month ago. About 90% of the stuff that wanted to pop up, succeeded at popping up, despite the Google Toolbar. I was disappointed. Thanks for the thought, though.
You sure you used the Google toolbar? I haven't seen one unwanted popup get past it.
And I have gotten 1 or 2 popups with Google Toolbar. Far better than it used to be.
Adaware/spybot advocates: Read my original post. I do not trust this person to run adaware or spybot, because those programs bring up registry keys, as well as the banner ads inside free-with-a-banner-ad programs. If she runs it and it breaks something, I'm over a thousand miles away, and yet still responsible for damage. This is not an option.
I downloaded the better-rated ones from Download.com, and looked at the site Trent linked to. Now I need to test them all to see if any of them actually do what she needs. Oh well.
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x--Ford PrefectO-('-'Q) :
Google toolbar advocates: Yes, I'm sure. Maybe it just didn't like my home PC. Either way, it only works in the browser, so that's not a big help. (I already found a less obtrusive program that works only in the browser.) Plus it only works if it's showing (a reasonable design), and that may lead to unpleasantness.Adaware/spybot advocates: Read my original post. I do not trust this person to run adaware or spybot, because those programs bring up registry keys, as well as the banner ads inside free-with-a-banner-ad programs. If she runs it and it breaks something, I'm over a thousand miles away, and yet still responsible for damage. This is not an option.
You just elminated all possible solutions.
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Ford Prefect scribbled:
If she runs it and it breaks something, I'm over a thousand miles away, and yet still responsible for damage. This is not an option.
Sounds like you should just leave her to figure it out on her own then. Anything you do to her system now will be blamed as the cause of however she manages to screw it up in the future, regardless of whether what you did was actually related or not.
You could always just disable scripting and use of Active X controls in IE and that'd take care of pretty much all security problems with it -- but it'd suck hosewater the first time she tried to go to a site that uses those features.
Drysart: If I could, I would. Think of the single most obstinate person you've ever met (myself included if appropriate). Picture that person as your boss's boss at work. Now think of them telling you, "My daughter is having a problem with her computer. She's in Florida. Fix it." What would happen if you told that person, "No, I won't help you."?
So far I've found one candidate out of 8 programs tested. It's a bit over-aggressive (blocks open in new window), but works well beyond that. I have about half a dozen left to try.
[ 01-07-2004: Message edited by: Shazorx / Modrakien ]
"If history is to change, let it change. If the world is to be destroyed, so be it. If my fate is to die, I must simply laugh." ~ Magus
I'm using this set of tests to determine the effectiveness of the programs I downloaded. It's the test site for the program I use (but can no longer purchase or install), and their program passes all the tests. Essentially, I'm trying to find something as close as possible to what I already have.
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Peanut butter ass Shaq Ford Prefect booooze lime pole over bench lick:
I'm using this set of tests to determine the effectiveness of the programs I downloaded.
And google toolbar passed all of them 
[ 01-07-2004: Message edited by: Tarquinn ]
*Edit: Whoa, I obviously downloaded it before they started demanding money for it. Still works just fine for me, despite being over one and a half years old.*
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Over the mountain, in between the ups and downs, I ran into Tarquinn who doth quote:
I'm using the pop-up stopper from panicware. Works like a charm, for over... well like almost forever.
I used that before google and it worked well.
But Ford is looking for something that will block (but not uninstall!) downloaded spyware, and even something that passes all the tests on that site won't do that.
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Maradon! had this to say about Optimus Prime:
I used that before google and it worked well.But Ford is looking for something that will block (but not uninstall!) downloaded spyware, and even something that passes all the tests on that site won't do that.
Well, true.
Tarquinn: Is that the free, basic, or professional version, or does it not say? Also, do you have the installer so that I could test it?
quote:Google toolbar failed the non-navigation click test, and the popup-on-close test. It also failed all the tests on the second test page (for final version of popnot only). Passed the stress test, the popup-on-open test, and the mouse-over test.
Ninety-nine bottles of Maradon! on the wall, ninety-nine bottles of Maradon!...
And google toolbar passed all of them
[ 01-07-2004: Message edited by: Ford Prefect ]
Panicware's popup stopper is a candidate, though the professional edition (the one that is supposed to do what I'm looking for) apparently has a lot of problems. Plus it isn't free. I have now reviewed over a dozen different programs, some in different versions (and under different names). My review list has 17 entries, excluding PopNot (which is on there for comparison).
Maybe it's time to start trying the ones that didn't rate so well. Maybe I'll get lucky.
Anyways, I've never had one pop up that I didnt want to pop up with google toolbar. Also, the newest version of adaware has not, in my many times of running it on mine and clients computers, deleted a single registry file that was needed. They have fine tuned that program to a tee. But maybe thats just me 
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Drysart had this to say about Pirotess:
You sure you used the Google toolbar? I haven't seen one unwanted popup get past it.
