Security Pop-ups

We've all seen them, those popup ads that try to sell you everything from software to soap or point out that you can get a free computer, camera or car merely by clicking on the appropriate button.
Most of them are unwanted come-ons, designed primarily to get you to their website to try and sell you something.
Don't forget though not all popups are undesirable... there are exceptions including sites that use them for downloads or opening applications like some e-mail programmes and game sites like "Pogo". Others look for your input for a variety of reasons from customer satisfaction surveys to providing more information about the topic at hand.

How do we avoid pop-ups?
The first line of defense includes the popup stoppers that are part of modern browsers like Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari and others.

In Internet Explorer click on TOOLS, then on POPUP BLOCKER. You'll see an option to enable or disable it.
In Firefox choose OPTIONS, then CONTENT. The blocker is turned on by default when the programme is installed. Check your help files if you use another browser.

Meanwhile, there are alternatives such as the blockers built into the MSN, Google and Yahoo toolbars as well. Considering these are from established companies they are safe to use although some people don't like cluttering their browser with extra toolbars.
If that's the case for you and you don't think the internet browser protection is enough, you might consider a separate program like Popup Stopper Free.

http://www.panicware.com/product_psfree_download.html

Meanwhile, a word of caution if a popup does get through.
Avoid like the plague they are, products that use popups as a marketing ploy. A popup window tells you that your system is infected with about 98 issues and then suggests you "click here" to clean them up. Then they ask for your credit card number or other payment method. At best its an underhanded marketing method. At worst...some of them are actually self fulfilling prophesies. I.E. they actually install infected files to find, so they can charge you to remove them. You are much better off to use a recognized product like Spybot Search and Destroy, Malwarebyte's Anti Malware, Ad-Aware, McAfee or others to keep your system clean.

Finally, although not strictly a popup, Windows Messenger can be the source of similar headaches.
Notably, if its turned on you'll see almost instant messages warning of the dire consequences of not subscribing to the senders system clean up services or messages like them. The worst part is they look (because the window is a legitimate Windows application) exactly like a system message...but they aren't.
Not to be confused with the current "Windows "Live" Messenger", this is an almost never used leftover from earlier days when it was used for interoffice network messages.
It doesn't mean much anymore and can be safely turned off.
Here's how...

If you are using Windows XP, open CONTROL PANEL, then ADMINISTRATIVE TOOLS, then click on COMPONENT SERVICES.

Look for SERVICES (Local) and double click.
Search the right hand pane for MESSENGER, Double click on it.
When it opens look for "Startup Type" (see the illustration) and set to " Disabled".

Click on APPLY and OK and you are done. (The procedure for other operating systems is much the same...drop us a note if you can't find it).

That pretty much sums up the short version of popup control but if you want more information on the how and why's of popups you might try a site like "www.popupblocker.com" or "www.popupcheck.com"