POP in and read this opinion (Pop-Up Stopper)

Member Name: Del_Boy

Product:	Pop-Up Stopper
Date:	16/01/02 (1956 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Works well, Requires minimal memory to run, Easy to use and install

Disadvantages: Revunue for websites could be affected, Doesn't stop every type of Pop Up

Pop goes the World
~~~~~~~~~~~~

First things first in this review, there isn't an awful lot to describe about this product. In essence the name of the product gives its function away. Nevertheless I shall explain its function and its modes.

Function of Pop Up Stopper
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Go on guess? Ok, well the purpose of this utility is to? Stop Pop Ups! Many apologies if you fell off your chair with shock at that revelation, I should have broken it to you with a little more subtlety. Once again many apologies, anyway let's describe more about this little wonder.

Why do you need this utility?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You're using the Internet now aren't you? Well this stops pop ups ? and pop ups are generally very annoying. As such this should be indispensable.

How does it work?
~~~~~~~~~~~~

After installation you simply double click on the pop up stopper icon, it then loads itself into your Systray (bottom right of your screen). Now whenever you are surfing the net this little beauty will stop all pop ups from running (apart from certain embedded ones using DHTML I believe).

However how it achieves this is simply by not allowing Windows to open anymore Internet Explorer/Netscape windows.

When a pop up window is successfully stopped from opening the icon will do a little flash of celebration (no not that kind of flash you dirty minded person).

However, if you are a little sadistic you can choose to have a user designated sound play instead to warn you that a pop up has been successfully vanquished. The problem with the above mentioned option is that within only a few minutes you will be ready to be sectioned. As I am sure you are aware it would get very annoying very quickly. Still its there if you so wish to use it.

General Options
~~~~~~~~~~

Here follows a complete list of options for Pop Up Stopper.


Do not enable browser pop-up windows ? simply click the pop up stopper icon to enable this option (the icon will have a red cross once enabled) or right click and select the option from the menu. This is the main feature of Pop Up Stopper and as such should be enabled.

Start pop up stopper when Windows starts
Display welcome screen when Pop Up Stopper starts

Play sound when pop up prevented
Flash systray icon when pop up prevented

Set these options how you prefer, just make sure you don't enable sound when pop up is prevented, as warned earlier it could drive you insane.

Tips for using this utility
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

If you wish to open a new Internet Explorer when this is enabled, then you will sometimes need to hold Ctrl or Shift in order to tell Pop Up Stopper that you want this window to open. Otherwise it will steadfastly refuse to open up.

Also if there are certain pop ups that you know about and wish to see, perhaps the ones on Dooyoo's web page then simply hold Ctrl or Shift down and the windows will be allowed to open.

Warning
~~~~~~

I felt it would be wise to include this warning. If people continue to use Pop Up Stoppers all of the time on web pages this could mean many sites going out of business from loss of revenue. As I am sure you will agree this is wrong.

Even if for example Dooyoo were paid for serving up the advert even though it was blocked it would still be bad, why? Because that would just be passing the buck in effect from web site to web site advertiser.

Some websites are getting around this though, for example the advert pertaining to BTs new Answer Service that appears on the front page of Dooyoo when you first go to the site will not be stopped by this pop up stopper.

So what am I saying?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

By all means use pop up stopper, however do try to use it sparingly. Having it constantly ena
bled is detrimental to the whole health of the Internet industry. Or will force the usage of some of the more annoying or difficult to stop style adverts ~ think of ones that follow the screen about when trying to read something (sound familiar?)

Installation and compatibility of this program
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Simply run the setup program and follow the onscreen prompts, installation went smoothly on both Windows 98 and Windows XP.

Thus I can state that this program will work on any version of Windows from 95 upward.

Where can I download this program?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Pop Up Stopper is a utility that can be downloaded free of charge from, http://www.panicware.com the actual download of this program is less than 500k in size, so it won't take more than a couple of minutes at most to download.

Other info
~~~~~~~

Online help is available via the website, also it is stated that this is a freeware product, however if you use it a lot and wish to acknowledge the authors of it, then a donation option is available. Note as I said this is optional and by no means enforced, so pop up stopper will never stop working.

Conclusion
~~~~~~~~

If you want a basic program, that can stop basic pop ups, then this is the program for you. It's easily configured due to the lack of many options, because of this it also means that it takes up hardly any memory or resources when running on your computer

By all means this isn't the best pop up stopper out there, but it is the most user friendly and the easiest to use. Some other types of pop up stopper such as POW enable you to configure exactly which pop ups are stopped via an exclusion menu.

So for advanced users the above could end up being the better option, me I will just stick with this little beauty (used sparingly of course).

So if you want to know anything more regarding t
his utility, then by all means please ask,

Kev

Summary: