Pop-Up Blocker

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The Internet Explorer Pop-Up Blocker

You're probably tired of those annoying pop-up windows that do suddenly appear while you're surfing the internet ... Some Websites automatically open new instances of Internet Explorer, which might open more new windows and so on and on ... When you try to close such windows manually, some of those pop-ups open new pop-ups - this way you're not able to get rid of those pop-ups at all.

The Tweak-XP Internet Explorer Pop-Up blocker will help you here: it can automatically stop Internet Explorer Pop-Ups. Once activated, Tweak-XP will scan new instances of Internet Explorer for known pop-up phrases or servers - if it finds a pop-up window of Internet Explorer, it will immediately close that instance of Internet Explorer.

How to use the Internet Explorer Pop-Up Blocker:

Tweak-XP uses a list of phrases and servers to identify pop-ups. You can remove phrases or add new ones if you've found a pop-up Tweak-XP did not identify. In that case, just enter the phrases or some words of the title bar of an pop-up window to the list. Next time Tweak-XP will identify that pop-up automatically.
>>> The Pop-Up Blocker was designed for the Microsoft Internet Explorer only - it will not work with any other browser.

Activate the Pop-Up Blocker by checking the 'Activate Pop-Up Blocker' check box. The Pop-Up Blocker is a separate application of Tweak-XP that will be loaded as soon as the Blocker was activated. A System Tray Icon will be displayed in the Windows XP taskbar to inform you whether the Pop-Up Blocker is activated or not.
Once activated, Tweak-XP will automatically scan your system for new instances of Internet Explorer and close an Internet Explorer Window, if it finds one of the terms or phrases in the titlebar or in the address field of Internet Explorer which are contained in the list of phrases Tweak-XP uses to identify Pop-Ups.
Tweak-XP will probably not identify every pop-up. In that case, click the 'Detect IE instances' button and this list box will be displayed:

Choose the pop-up window from the list that was not detected and click the 'Add selected instance...' button. The title or internet address of your pop-up window will be added to the list of known pop-up phrases or addresses.
You may also manually add specific phrases or internet addresses using the 'Add a new phrase or server...' text box.
Please remember that you'll have to reactivate the Pop-Up Blocker once you've modified the phrases list !
The Pop-Up Blocker remains active when you close Tweak-XP. To deactivate it, either start Tweak-XP and unckeck the activation check box, or right-click the Pop-Up Blockers Tray Icon and choose 'Exit'.
Check the 'Disable sound' check box if you do not want Tweak-XP to play a sound when it detects and closes a Pop-Up window.
To disable the Pop-Up Blocker just for a moment, right-click the System-Tray icon of the Pop-Up Blocker and check the 'Disable' option.
There's also a 'Hotkey' active to disable/enable the pop-up blocker: hit ALT + B to disable the Pop-Up Blocker.
How to backup your list of Pop-Up phrases / addresses: the list of pop-up phrases and addresses Tweak-XP uses to identify Pop-Ups is saved in one single file called 'popups.dat'. This file can be found in the Tweak-XP installation directory. You can create a backup of that file to ensue that you do not loose the pop-up phrases and addresses you've added to the list.

How to test the Pop-Up Blocker:

>>> We've found some very aggressive Pop-Up Sites on the internet you might surf to to check how Tweak-XPs Pop-Up Blocker is working.

!!! DO ENSURE that the Pop-Up Blocker is activated before running
these tests - otherwise your system might get overloaded with Pop-Ups !!!

Click on any of the two tests bellow to launch a page that will display lots of pop-ups, some of them designed specially to crash pop-up blockers. Have fun !

Test 1
Test 2 (very aggressive - sometimes down !)

If everything goes well, you should end with no new instances of Internet Explorer.