Avoid harmful pop ups on your browser in Windows 8 | 7

Pop-ups have reached menacing proportions. Even with all our anti-popup features in place, you do see them slip through occasionally. They could be pop-ups or pop-unders. Pop ups open in front of your active browser window whereas aPop-under open under your browser, and it is only when you go on to close your browser, do you see the pop-under.

Avoid harmful, dangerous and scary pop ups

While there may some popups which are useful and important, most of them can be irritating advertisements, adware – or some could even be traps to lure or mislead novice computer users into revealing their email ID’s or sensitive personal or financial information. They could even be Scareware pop-ups wanting to make you pay for a fake anti-virus software, Drive-by download pop-ups or pop ups which install malware when you close them.

Even with secure browsers with essential security features, some pop-up or pop-unders do manage to slip by and get displayed on your computer screen. Most users simply close the pop-up box and continue with their work. However, “closing” the pop-up box, may just be an invitation to download some unknown variant of malware! Yes, this is actually possible!

Let us consider a simple example that will help us put my point across. Banking sites use pop-ups for special purposes like, login screens and providing warnings. So, they invariably use it for genuine purposes. Others can use the same with the intent of injecting malicious programs like rootkits, keyloggers, etc onto your computer. They may even use or employ original graphics and logos to make them look genuine.

The good part is that a little bit of caution can help you in the long run. Some steps when followed religiously will help in ensuring you safety while browsing the Web.

Here are a few suggestions that can stop, prevent and avoid harmful, dangerous or scary pop ups.

1. Manage pop up settings. While most browsers have pop-blocking settings enabled by default, reconfirm that it is indeed so.
2. If your antivirus or security software has an anti-popup feature, enable it.
3. Never visit a website that appears unfamiliar to you or website that is shared by an unfamiliar source. It serves as a huge red flag!
4. Do not click on any link or linked images from a source you do not trust.
5. If in doubt, never click any link.
6. If inadvertently, you do click a pop-up and it asks you for any personal information, close it immediately, even if it looks legitimate.
7. If you wish, you can install a pop up blocker browser extension. Poper Blocker, Better Pop Up Blocker are some of the better known one’s.
8. You could also consider installing a free pop up blocker software like Smart Popup Blocker or Popup Free.
9. The Google Toolbar is also quite effective in blocking toolbars, and you may consider that, in case you are not averse to using toolbars.

Stay safe!