Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with popups

Hell is Facebook popups.

triggerfinger — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 15:51:29 -0800

Please help me with popups on my computer. I have suddenly started to have a problem with popups on my computer. Except it only happens with Facebook. When I try to close Facebook (by clicking the "x" in the upper right hand corner), I suddenly am bombarded with dozens of new windows popping up with the Facebook home page. They come so quickly that I have to shut down my computer to make it stop (I've tried to go to Task Manager but they come too fast).

I generally do not have problems with popups otherwise. I've now downloaded Stopzilla and I have run a logfile with HijackThis. You've probably guessed by now that I know absolutely nothing about computers and have tried to fix the problem myself from using tips on websites, but I am totally bogged down in jargon and have no idea what I'm doing. Can anyone help me?

If it helps, I use Windows Vista and Internet Explorer. If you need to know anything else, ask me and hopefully I'll be able to answer. Also, should I post my logfile from HijackThis here? Would it help? Sorry but I'm totally clueless.

Fixing FF3

allkindsoftime — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 09:40:14 -0800

FireFox3-filter: New pop-up windows open but don't display anything. Help? I've had a number of probs with getting FF3 tweaked back to how I had my FF2 streamlined, however one that I still can't seem to get sorted is the pop-up windows. When I click on a link that needs to open a new window (i.e. a chat-window for customer service with my bank, etc.), the window opens, but there's no address in the address bar and no page loads. Here's a site I recently StumbleUpon'd that gives the same issue when I click on the "enter" link. Any ideas? TIA.

How to stop Firefox from blocking Google Reader "popups"?

bdk3clash — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 10:28:24 -0800

How can I get Firefox to stop blocking Google Reader "popups"? I'm running Firefox 3 and Firefox is blocking new tabs I open from Google Reader by pressing "v." I've disabled the popup blocking in Firefox, added Google.com (and www.google.com and reader.google.com) to the whitelist, and have done this (changing the maximum number of popups allowed by a domain in about:config), which seems to solve the problem for most people. Any ideas? Thanks.

Get rid of the NY Times dictionary popups!?

gramcracker — Wed, 23 May 2007 08:10:12 -0800

How do I turn off the dictionary lookup popup thing on nytimes.com? I'm one of those people that highlights words on a webpage while I'm reading it, and the NYTimes' javascript popup when a word is highlighted is driving me insane. Is there some cookie or something to disable it, or some user control panel config thing on Firefox I can use to turn off Javascript only for nytimes.com? Thanks!

I'm winning this goddamn iPhone

JamesJD — Sun, 18 Mar 2007 10:29:22 -0800

I'm trying to win a free iPhone from an annoying website. Is this possible? What precautions should I take. On numerous sites there are these annoying pop-ups (or built in ads with sound) that say that you have "won a free ____." Usually obtainment of the product depends upon completely a number of "offers," which require you to sign up for a free trial with a product, start using a new credit card, purchase some item, or perform some other onerous task.

My brother and I want the iPhone, and we're willing to go through Hell to wrestle it from the jaws of one of these nefarious companies.

We're taking a few precautions like starting up a new e-mail account and a new mailbox, printing and copying every receipt and every linked page, scrupulously attending to every offer, etc.

Is it possible to win from these sites? Are there any other precautions we should take? We want to minimize the number of offers that we take that involve purchasing something. How much should we realistically expect to have to spend?

Why can't I type login info in Firefox 2.0.0.1?

imjosh — Tue, 06 Feb 2007 08:42:16 -0800

Why can't I type login info in Firefox 2.0.0.1 First off I have disabled any add on in firefox and reinstalled a freshly downloaded copy. My Problem: Whenever I try to login to a site which pops up a login screen I can click in the text box but I cannot type anything. These pages work fine in IE and on another computer in firefox. Does anyone have a clue? Thanks

What makes web ads work?

Optimus Chyme — Fri, 14 Jul 2006 09:11:35 -0800

What data is there, academic or otherwise, on the effectiveness of various types of web advertisements? I've clicked maybe 20 banner ads in my life, 10 text ads, and zero pop-ups. I am a terrible data point and I don't understand what generates interest in web advertisements at all.* Is there a breakdown of this somewhere? I'm sure that a lot of marketing and media corporations guard this information like gold-pressed latinum, but surely there's an academic somewhere who has looked at the issue.

* For instance, PUNCH BRAD PITT TO GET A FREE IPOD! Who clicks this? Why?

Badges? We ain't got no badges. We don't need no badges. I don't have to show you any stinking badges!

Tuwa — Mon, 26 Jun 2006 21:49:15 -0800

How do I get my browser to ignore a certain site? Occasionally when I go to my yahoo mail, I'm prompted repeatedly, by popup, for a password for one of the sites serving ads.

It's happening again, at this page, returning each of these two popups six times:

I've added adserver.adtech.de to my HOSTS file and restarted the computer, according to these instructions (i.e. I added a line saying 127.0.0.1 adserver.adtech.de and saved the file again, with no extension). I thought that would solve the problem but it hasn't; revisiting that page after reboot shows that the site is still pestering me for a password.

I want my browser to ignore any and all requests from that site--to dump it in the bit bucket and continue loading the page without its input. I thought that was what HOSTS was for; but if it is, then why isn't it working?

Is Windows Media Player causing popups?

Brian James — Tue, 02 May 2006 21:06:42 -0800

How do I stop popups that appear when Windows Media Player is running? I do not in general have a popup problem. The only time I get popups is when Windows Media Player is playing a feed off the web, or if it is playing an embedded video in a web page. I do not get popups at any other time. (I have Quicktime set up to play, in Firefox, almost all video streams it can; I only use Windows Media for wmv and so forth)

In the Security tab, I see a setting that may be relevant called "Do not run script commands and rich media streams if the player is running inside a web page" that is checked. Windows XP automatic updates is enabled and up-to-date.

I use Firefox 1.5.0.3, I scan for spyware/popups regularly with Windows Defender, Ad-Aware, and Ewido. Running version 10 of Windows Media.

How'd they do that?

j.p. Hung — Tue, 24 Jan 2006 14:11:05 -0800

Curious as to how this effect is done? Note the post it note with the thumbtack. It's a neat effect and not nearly as annoying as the pop-ups that come up in a new window. I know it's javascript. I typically hate pop ups but I can see where this type of script would be helpful with some projects I'm involved in. I'm not looking to hack their script or anything, but it would be great if somone knew of some freeware similar.

Website visitor survey

Blue Buddha — Tue, 12 Jul 2005 07:38:15 -0800

I am in the process of creating a survey form for a website and wanted to know what would be the most effective method of gathering responses online? I'd like to have an exit popup, however most browsers nowadays block those. Is there another solution? Or some code I'm overlooking, that only porn sites are privy to for their exit popups? I only tested an exit popup with a session cookie found here, and my updated browsers blocked it.

One thing I do not want is a button on the homepage "Click here to do our survey" type of thing. Any and all other suggestions/javascript/etc. are welcome. The session cookie is a must too, so repeat visitors don't get bombarded by the survey. Thanks!

How to prevent Drudge from generating popups?

Manjusri — Mon, 20 Jun 2005 02:06:51 -0800

Drudge seems to have figured out a way around the Firefox popup blocker. I'm guessing it has to do with Java, but I'd rather not disable java or javascript, since that would reduce the functionality of the browser. Any less drastic way to prevent this?

How to stop Gmail popping forward upon loading or reloading Firefox?

interrobang — Sun, 02 Jan 2005 21:15:57 -0800

Gmail consistently pops forward upon loading or reloading on Firefox, and did so when I was using Mozilla. This really bugs me, and I don't like using tabs. Can anyone tell me how to make this stop? iMac 10.3.5, did this to me before on my "toilet seat" laptop.

What do you use to block ads when you browse the internet?

dabitch — Thu, 28 Oct 2004 12:41:53 -0800

What do you use to block ads when you browse the internet? Does it ever erroneously block sites? Does it cost much, does it have special features? I'm looking for something to scrub the web clean - any/all platforms - without blocking innocent third parties. I say any platform since many of my friends are asking me for advice on this, and probably a few in here are interested if you have found the perfect blocker. Personally I'm a panther gal, but lets spread the joy.

Stop Popups

jonah — Mon, 18 Oct 2004 10:17:46 -0800

I've been Drudged! How can the drudgereport launch a popup window when I am using Firefox? It is the only site that seems to be able to do that. Constructive answers only please, I'm sure that the first response will be "don't read drudge". I can't help it, I love sensationalism.

Firefox opening twice in two identical windows

nylon — Thu, 16 Sep 2004 11:24:44 -0800

Eudora + Firefox + XP: every time I launch a link from within an email, Firefox opens it twice in two identical windows, and I also get a blank IE window. Needless to say, I just want one version of the link. In Firefox.
Spybot, Adaware, Hijackthis and AVG show nothing untoward on my system. Anyone else get this?

Is Microsoft's service pack messing with Firefox pop-up blocker?

LairBob — Thu, 12 Aug 2004 16:08:41 -0800

MS Conspiracy Filter: Just installed XP SP2--which adds "pop-up blocking" to IE--and all of a sudden the pop-up blocking feature built into Firefox turns off every time I restart the app. Is anyone else seeing this? [little bit more inside] It's almost giving MS too much credit, so I'm not really thinking this was done on purpose, but it almost seems like too neat of a coincidence to just be chance. I wouldn't be surprised if they big-footed some kind of registry entry or something by making believe Firefox doesn't exist.

I'm certain of the timing...I use Firefox all day, every day, and I haven't seen pop-ups for months now. I installed SP2 two days ago, and all of a sudden, every time I start Firefox, the "Block Pop-ups" check box is off. This is really annoying, and I'm trying to figure out whether it's a weird bug with my specific system, or more widespread.

Pop up and filter

crunchland — Thu, 24 Jun 2004 07:35:12 -0800

re: popups/popunders ... those wiley webmasters have apparently come up with a new version of code that thwarts my popup filters. Anyone know of a more recent popup filter that works on this new form?

Pop-Up Blocking

moonbird — Tue, 18 May 2004 15:10:21 -0800

Hopefully this hasn't been asked yet... my Google toolbar is seemingly less able to block popups like it did before. This is happening at home and work. What's the reason and what's a more efficient blocker? Is this happening to anyone else?

Pop-Up Ads

ac — Fri, 07 May 2004 16:19:03 -0800

Infuriating popup ads I can't get rid of, help! {inside} Just about every time I open a new Internet Explorer window or click a link/visit a website, a popup ad comes up. I know it is my computer and not the sites, because visiting them on other PCs generates no popups. I have scanned absolutely EVERYTHING with Ad-Aware, Spybot and Norton, I have removed all start-up items from the Start Menu, Registry and msconfig, cleared all IE plugins, but still am unable to fix the problem... (IE6 SP1 on XP Pro, all updates). Thanks!

Hosting for created music in mp3 format.

n9 — Mon, 12 Apr 2004 09:56:22 -0800

I've got about 400 MB of my (as in I made it, I own it) music that I want to host somewhere. I'm willing to pay and I don't want my users seeing popups or anything like that. My html is hosted somewhere else already so I just need space for the mp3 files. Any help? I've been looking at hosting services for days and I can't find the kind of deal that I'm sure is out there.