Website of the Day: Thursday July 8th
There are two kinds of pop-up adverts ... Those which appear only when you visit a certain webpage, and those which pop up all the time, even when you’re not connected to the internet. BBC Webwise has a useful feature about popup blocking software here.
Be aware that some pop-up blockers can also close legitimate pop-up pages (like photo galleries, webcam windows and the BBC Radio Player for example) Having said that, I find that the pop-up blocker which is built into the Google Toolbar is pretty flexible, so that it can be taught to only block the pop-ups you don't want.
If you find that ads popup even when you're not already online, this means that a site you have visited, or some software that you have downloaded has installed a piece of so-called spyware or "scumware" which is causing these particular pop-ups.
If that's the case you'll need to download and run a free "spyware remover" which scans your machine for any rogue programmes and helps you remove them. The best established spyware remover is called Ad-Aware - it comes in several different versions but the free version should be adequate for most home users
If Ad Aware doesn't work for you, the other leading (free) spyware removal software is called Spybot Search and Destroy
Like anti-virus software, it's important to keep spyware removal software up-to-date for it to work properly. So do be sure to download the latest reference file for Ad Aware or Spybot before you scan your system, to make sure it picks up all the most recent rogue programmes.
For more information on spyware in general, there's another useful feature on the BBC Webwise site.
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