This week’s Cool Tools print column had a quick review of IHatePopUps, the latest anti-pop-up software that blocks those sometimes annoying (I know, we have them on this site as well) advertisements when you’re browsing.
A loyal Cool Tools reader, Andy, sent me along a list of some other programs that do the same thing.
The free Pop-Up Stopper, which provides basic but very solid pop-up blocking.
For spyware there's the excellent, free Spybot Search and Destroy, which not only finds spyware but can immunize against certain cookies and exploits. The other nice feature is the ability to have it check for updates, install updates, immunize the machine, clean the machine, and exit automatically at Windows startup. It can even clean difficult items by rebooting and cleaning before Windows loads drivers. Running minimized, it does more than the popular commercial Ad-Aware. on startup, automatically look for "definition" updates on startup.
Another set of free tools are Spyware Blaster and Spyware Guard. One runs in the background and blocks a *lot* of exploits. The other immunizes against a number of exploits. Unfortunately, there's no auto-update ability.
Finally, there's a really slick free program called Proxomitron (also here). The software acts as a proxy server on your machine and works with any browser. There's a lot of customization and the ability to block pop-ups, banner ads, animated images, cookies, flash animation, disable certain javascripts, deframe web pages, block html headers, and a lot more.
Thanks Andy!
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