Internet Annoyances: How to Fix the Most Annoying Things about Going Online

POP AWAY POP-UPS

The Annoyance:

Browsing the Web these days feels like cruising a carnival midway, with pop-up ads screaming their messages at me everywhere I turn. If I wanted bright, flashing lights, I'd visit Las Vegas. How can I kill these digital carnival barkers?

The Fix:

The Web's all-time great search tool, the Google Toolbar, kills pop-ups from directly within Internet Explorer. Get it at http://toolbar.google.com. Another good free pop-up killer is EMS Free Surfer mk II, available from http://www.kolumbus.fi/eero.muhonen/FS/fs.htm. Also popular (and, I think, superior) is iHatePopups, available for $9.95 from http://www.sunbelt-software.com/product.cfm?id=935. It can distinguish between "good" and "bad" pop-ups, and it lets you add specific pages to a "whitelist" so that it knows which pop-ups you want to let through. (What's "good" and what's "bad"? Any window that opens without your instruction is considered a "bad" pop-up window. A window that opens after you click a link or press Enter is considered a legitimate new window. Pop-up ads typically aren't triggered by clicking a link, but editorial pop-ups generally are.)

If you have Windows XP's Service Pack 2 (SP2), your updated version of Internet Explorer already includes a built-in pop-up killer. To make sure it's working, choose Tools Pop-up Blocker, and make sure that "Turn off Pop-up Blocker is unchecked. Both Opera and Netscape Navigator have built-in pop-up killers, too. In Opera, choose File Preferences Refuse pop-up windows. You can even tell Opera to allow pop-up windows but to open them in the background, instead of on top of your browser.

To enable Netscape's pop-up killer, choose Edit Preferences Privacy & Security Popup Windows and check the "Block unrequested popup windows box.

I WANT MY POP-UPS! (WELL, SOME OF THEM)

The Annoyance:

I use the pop-up blocker in the SP2 version of Internet Explorer, and now I can't log into my favorite web site, because it uses a pop-up box for entering the password and username. I hate pop-ups, but this is one pop-up I need!

The Fix:

Whenever Internet Explorer blocks a pop-up, you hear a little "pop" sound, and the new Information Bar appears underneath the Address Bar, telling you a pop-up was blocked. To let the pop-up through, click the Information Bar and choose "Show Blocked Pop-up" (Figure 5-1). If you'd like all pop-ups from the site to be let through, choose "Allow Pop-ups from This Site."

You can also tell Internet Explorer to let through pop-ups from other sites, or, conversely, stop them cold in their tracks. To let 'em through, right-click the Information Bar, choose "Pop-up Blocker Settings," and type in the relevant URLs in the "Allowed sites" part of the dialog box (Figure 5-2). Want to stop accepting pop-ups? Select a listed site and click the Remove button.

MAKE THE INTERNET AN AD-FREE ZONE

The Annoyance:

In all my years of web surfing, I figure I've seen approximately 65,438 ads, and I have yet to click a single one. Isn't there some way I can turn off these annoying annoyances?

The Fix:

There are plenty of ad blockers out there. My favorite free one is WebWasher Classic (Figure 5-3), which is available for download from http://www.webwasher.com/client/download/private_use/windows/index.html?lang=de_EN. It lets you block ads on a site-by-site basis; will kill only from specific ad servers; and will kill pop-ups, animations, cookies, and other annoyances.

WebWasher Classic is not the easiest program in the world to use, so check out the tips at http://www.pacificnet.net/~bbruce/workshop.htm. An excellent paid ad blocker is AdSubtract, which kills ads, banners, pop-ups, cookies, JavaScripts, Java applets, animations, and background music. With AdSubtract you can create profiles for different sites, so that, for example, you allow only animations and background music through on one site, and only animations and Java applets on another. A free version is available at http://www.adsubtract.com/se/features.html, but it only blocks web banner ads. For the real deal, pony up the $30 for the full package (a free 30-day trial is available from http://www.adsubtract.com).

Figure 5-4 shows a typical web ad. Figure 5-5 shows what you'll see when you've successfully blocked the ad.

The Annoyance:

I like animations, movies, and sound as much as the next guy, but the overuse of Macromedia Flash and other "rich media" ads that include sound and animation is completely out of control. How can I turn off all this multimedia junk?

The Fix:

Your first impulse might be to uninstall the Flash player on your PC, but this is easier said than doneFlash isn't listed in the Add or Remove Programs control panel, and there's no uninstall program anywhere else on your hard drive. However, Macromedia has posted an uninstaller at http://www.macromedia.com/support/flash/ts/documents/remove_player.htm.

There's one problem with this solution, thoughsometimes you want to see Flash animations. A better solution is TurnFlash, available at http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/file_description/0,fid,22947,00.asp. When you visit a site with an annoying Flash animation, click the TurnFlash icon in the Windows System Tray, and the animation will be killed. (If you go to another page on the site and then return to the first page, you'll have to turn off the Flash animation again.)

That still may not quite solve your problem, though, because you may want to see Flash animations when they're part of the actual content of the page, but not see annoying Flash and animated GIF pop-up ads.

Most pop-up blockers don't block rich media ads, which are often built using Macromedia Flash and sometimes with animated GIFs. One that does is the free Pop-Up No-No!, available at http://www.popupnono.com. It runs in the System Tray and will block Macromedia Flash ads, background sounds, animated GIFs, normal pop-ups, and Windows Messenger Service spam. It works with Internet Explorer, Netscape, Mozilla, Firefox, and Opera, and it lets multiple people using the same computer customize their own settings. To change your settings, right-click its icon in the System Tray and make your choices (Figure 5-6).

For details on WebWasher Classic, AdSubtract, and Pop-Up No-No!, see Table 5-1.

FIND THAT FLASH FILE!

The Annoyance:

I sometimes come across Flash animations on web sites that I'd like to save, but there doesn't seem to be any way for me to do it. Are the files lurking somewhere on my PC?

The Fix:

You bet they are. Go to C:\Documents and Settings\<Your Name>\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files (where Your Name is your XP account name) and look for the most current files with a .swf extensionthe extension for Flash movies. Copy the SWF files to another location on your PC, and you can play them whenever you want. (Just double-click a file and it will load in your browser.) Another solution is to get Cool Flash Player, which lets you save Flash animations to your PC, turn SWFs into executable files, and convert Flash files to screensavers or Windows wallpaper. Download the program and the first 20 "executions" are free; after that, you'll have to $29.95 if you decide to keep it. Get it from http://www.siskinsoft.com/downloads.html.