Popup blocker built into IE (Windows XP SP2)

[Joe Blo]

About a month ago, I upgraded my machine to Windows XP SP2 and
starting
using the built in popup blocker. Over time, the blocker is becoming
less and less effective. I have removed quite a bit of spyware since
then and I wonder if some of the spyware was disabling popup blocking
the registry (even though it is still enabled in the browser), or is
it just that web page developers are catching on and working around
the SP2 popup blocker. Thanks

[PA Bear]

Was your anti-virus application running when you installed SP2? Were any
other applications open at the time?
--
~Robear Dyer (PA Bear)
MS MVP-Windows (IE/OE)

Joe Blo wrote:
> About a month ago, I upgraded my machine to Windows XP SP2 and
> starting
> using the built in popup blocker. Over time, the blocker is becoming
> less and less effective. I have removed quite a bit of spyware since
> then and I wonder if some of the spyware was disabling popup blocking
> the registry (even though it is still enabled in the browser), or is
> it just that web page developers are catching on and working around
> the SP2 popup blocker. Thanks

[Conor]

In article >, Joe Blo
says...
> About a month ago, I upgraded my machine to Windows XP SP2 and
> starting
> using the built in popup blocker. Over time, the blocker is becoming
> less and less effective. I have removed quite a bit of spyware since
> then and I wonder if some of the spyware was disabling popup blocking
> the registry (even though it is still enabled in the browser), or is
> it just that web page developers are catching on and working around
> the SP2 popup blocker. Thanks
>
Popup blockers do not stop spyware, they stop websites from opening
windows.

--
Conor

Opinions personal, facts suspect.

[doug]

This is a "blocked-related" question, too --

When I try to read a site, it tells me that my brower does not allow it
(Explorer). It's not a secure site or anything -

Somehow I had stopped allowing ads to pop up and now the red x's just show
up, and what I want to do now is find out how to turn that function on and
off...

"Joe Blo" wrote:

> About a month ago, I upgraded my machine to Windows XP SP2 and
> starting
> using the built in popup blocker. Over time, the blocker is becoming
> less and less effective. I have removed quite a bit of spyware since
> then and I wonder if some of the spyware was disabling popup blocking
> the registry (even though it is still enabled in the browser), or is
> it just that web page developers are catching on and working around
> the SP2 popup blocker. Thanks
>

[doug]

well - let me amend that: when I open mozilla and then open this search
tool, it says "the browser you want (IE) isn't reading the page/site."

So I'm confused. I know IE is built into my PC as the default, but you CAN
go online thru another brower like Mozilla. So when I tried that why do I
get the error message that IE browser could not read the page, as if it were
still reading thru IE and not MOZ

"doug" wrote:

> This is a "blocked-related" question, too --
>
> When I try to read a site, it tells me that my brower does not allow it
> (Explorer). It's not a secure site or anything -
>
> Somehow I had stopped allowing ads to pop up and now the red x's just show
> up, and what I want to do now is find out how to turn that function on and
> off...
>
> "Joe Blo" wrote:
>
> > About a month ago, I upgraded my machine to Windows XP SP2 and
> > starting
> > using the built in popup blocker. Over time, the blocker is becoming
> > less and less effective. I have removed quite a bit of spyware since
> > then and I wonder if some of the spyware was disabling popup blocking
> > the registry (even though it is still enabled in the browser), or is
> > it just that web page developers are catching on and working around
> > the SP2 popup blocker. Thanks
> >

[Alex Nichol]

doug wrote:

>This is a "blocked-related" question, too --
>
>When I try to read a site, it tells me that my brower does not allow it
>(Explorer). It's not a secure site or anything -
>
>Somehow I had stopped allowing ads to pop up and now the red x's just show
>up, and what I want to do now is find out how to turn that function on and
>off...

Aside from any third party popup blocker of firewall (eg the Privacy
section of Zone Alarm), look in Internet Options, Privacy, and uncheck
Block Popups (also a Settings button for the strength of the Filter)

But this may be a matter of the tightened security settings in SP2 - in
Internet Options - Security select Internet Zone, and Custom. Medium
level should be OK for most sites. If there are specific ones that you
trust but which need things more relaxed, I would highlight Trusted
sites, click Sites and Add the URL - eg http://*.ebay.com


--
Alex Nichol MS MVP (Windows Technologies)
Bournemouth, U.K. (remove the D8 bit)

[Tim Slattery]

"doug" > wrote:

>well - let me amend that: when I open mozilla and then open this search
>tool, it says "the browser you want (IE) isn't reading the page/site."
>
>So I'm confused. I know IE is built into my PC as the default, but you CAN
>go online thru another brower like Mozilla. So when I tried that why do I
>get the error message that IE browser could not read the page, as if it were
>still reading thru IE and not MOZ

I can't be sure without knowing exactly what site you're trying to
access (and may not be able to prove my hypothesis even then) but this
may be something that the web site is doing.

A web page can detect - with a fair degree of accuracy - what browser
is trying to access it. It's possible that the site you're visiting
delivers this message when any non-IE browser tries to access it.

Unfriendly, but possible.

--
Tim Slattery
MS MVP(DTS)