- ActiveX Controls
- An ActiveX control is one of several
types of program that web sites can invoke.
They serve many purposes, mostly benign.
Unlike scripts and applets
which are software delivered from web sites,
ActiveX controls are programs that are resident on your machine.
Examples are Adobe's Acrobat Reader, Macromedia's
Flash movie player,
and Google's search toolbar.
Some web sites use ActiveX to deliver irritating content.
And since there is, in theory, no limit to what these native
programs can do on your machine, they have the potential to
expose your machine to substantial security risks.
PopUpCop can be made to disable them,
but use this switch with caution;
turning ActiveX controls off may prevent
some web sites from working properly
and disables Flash movies.
- "Adware"
- Some software available for download on the Web is supported by advertising.
Software that is supported by advertising is often called "adware".
Click here for more information about adware and how to remove the software from your computer.
- Allow List
- See Block List and Allow List.
- Allow blocked annoyances for this session
- When you have asked PopUpCop to block a large number of annoyances, it is possible that the blocking interferes with the operation of
a Web site that you are visiting. If you visit the site only rarely, and do not wish to clutter your allow and block lists, you can choose this menu item
(or click on the button on the PopUpCop toolbar) to allow the behaviors that PopUpCop blocked at this site until you close all Internet Explorer windows.
- Animation
- Image animations are usually benign and
are occasionally exploited.
You may prefer to live without
this web feature at certain sites.
You can set PopUpCop to
filter out images in GIF format that
use its animation feature.
Doing so has no effect on Flash
movies.
- Annoyance
- An annoyance (or irritation) is a browser behavior
caused by a web site that is not intended or desired
by the user.
PopUpCop can suppress the following annoyances:
- Annoyance Levels
- PopUpCop implements several levels (six,
by default) of annoyance suppression.
At the lowest level, no annoyances are suppressed;
PopUpCop is, in effect, disabled.
At the next level up, only popups are suppressed;
other annoyances such as background music,
animated images, etc., remain permitted.
At the highest level, all annoyances are suppressed.
To select a level, simply slide PopUpCop's slider left
(lower) or right (higher).
You can modify the definition of a level, change the
order of the levels, and add and delete levels.
Most users don't bother; the defaults are fine.
- Applet
- Written in Java, these are small programs that
are delivered with web pages
in the same way as are images.
They occupy a rectangular area in the window and
perform some task such as interacting with the user
or displaying animations.
Web sites
use them for many purposes, most of which are benign.
However, a few truly irritating advertisements use
Java applets for animation.
PopUpCop can be made to disable them,
but use this switch with caution; turning Java applets off
may prevent some web sites from working properly.
- Background Sounds
- Using an HTML
extension invented by Microsoft
to "enhance" the web experience, web sites can
automatically play a sound or music when you arrive.
This can be a nuisance in an office setting.
PopUpCop solves that.
- Block List and Allow List
- A PopUpCop feature.
Users can, if they wish, create lists of web sites
for which popups are selectively enabled or disabled (blocked).
These lists override other settings currently in effect.
For example, a user may generally disallow popups except
those at his or her stockbroker's web site.
This mechanism operates independently of IE's
security zones.
Single servers as well as entire
web domains
can be blocked and allowed.
For example, to allow popups from
www.popupcop.com, enter
this server name into the Allow List.
To allow popups from all the web servers
(e.g. www.popcop.com,
secure.popupcop.com, etc.)
in the popupcop.com web domain,
enter *.popupcop.com into the
Allow List.
- Browser
- A type of program used for "surfing the web",
i.e. viewing the documents served by web sites on
the Internet. Most browsers can display graphics
as well as text, and have programming features.
By far the most widely-used browser today is Microsoft's
Internet Explorer.
- Bulk cookie deletion
- PopUpCop can delete many cookies when you choose to clear the Internet Explorer's cache,
either manually, or when you exit Internet Explorer. Since many cookies might be deleted,
we call this operation "bulk cookie deletion".
- Clear cache
- Your browser stores recently accessed web pages in a cache on your disk.
You can clear this cache by choosing this command.
- Cookie
- A small string of text that is stored on your
machine by the browser
at the request of a Web site.
Its purpose is to keep track of
who you are (profile information such as your name)
and what you do (your activities at
that site such as which products you
look at).
Cookies
are not usually nefarious in their purposes.
One site's cookies cannot be accessed
by another site.
Often, cookies are used by advertisers to record the fact that they have already shown you a popup advertisment, and
should wait a while before showing the ad to you again.
Nonetheless, some users consider cookies
invasive of privacy and disable them.
PopUpCop can prevent web sites from storing cookies.
However, it is no substitute for a robust cookie management system, like the privacy control system in Internet Explorer version 6.
Many web sites rely on cookies for managing complex interactions
and cannot function without them.
Hence, if you disable cookies,
you might choose to enable them
for sites you care about.
- Dialog
- A little box that appears when the web site
or the browser wants you to confirm something
or wants to alert you about something.
Some dialogs are caused by scripts
embedded in web pages.
Others are built-in to the
browser itself.
You can configure Internet Explorer
to refuse to run
applets and
ActiveX controls.
However, when a web site requests one of these
Internet Explorer displays a warning dialog.
Some web sites check your browser settings for features
they demand, such as
cookies, and
complain if you've disabled them.
Dialogs are rarely useful.
PopUpCop can prevent them all.
- Edit trusted sites list
- One of the methods that Internet Explorer uses to enforce security for Web sites is
the concept of Security zones.By default, most of PopUpCop's blocking
(with the exception of Global Internet Explorer Options is enforced only in
the Internet and Restricted sites security zones. If you often visit a site that requires popups
(or other web technologies that are blocked by PopUpCop),
and you trust that site to not abuse the privileges you are giving them, you can use this command to add that site
to the list of sites that you trust.
The types of sites that you might want to add to this list are sites like
your bank, your investment company, and your insurance company. Also, if you regularly visit the
site of a government entity, you might want to add that site to this list.
It has come to our attention that when you install either the AOL Instant Messenger (AIM)
or some of the new versions of Netscape browser that include AIM, the installation program
adds the domain free.aol.com to your trusted sites list. You can use this command to remove this domain from
your trusted sites list.
- Edit restricted sites list
- One of the methods that Internet Explorer uses to enforce security for Web sites is
the concept of Security zones. The default setting for the restricted sites zone disable all so-called active
content, including scripting, Java applets, and ActiveX controls. If you enjoy visiting a site, but do not trust the site not to abuse
active content, you can add the site to this zone. You should note, however, that many sites will "break" in unpredictable ways when added to
this zone.
- "Eyelets"
- This is new type of Java applet designed to deliver streaming audio and video to your computer.
Click here for more information about "eyelets".
- Favorites
- Sometimes called bookmarks,
your "favorites" list makes it easy to
return to sites you've found useful.
Naturally, every web site wants to be
on this list and some even attempt to
force their way onto it.
PopUpCop stops 'em cold.
- Flash Movies
- Web sites use Flash movies to deliver
complex interactive animation to web
browsers.
While many uses of this technology are benign,
some deliver advertisements that
are particularly intrusive.
"Flash AutoPlay" can be disabled by PopUpCop,
leaving intact the context menu
that enables you to play and stop the movie.
- Go to favorites directory
- Your browser stores your favorites in a directory
(sometimes called a folder) on your hard disk.
Press this button to navigate to that directory in the current browser window.
- Global Internet Explorer Options
- The "Internet Options" that you configure in
Internet Explorer affect the
behavior of more than just the
browser.
They affect every application that can
display HTML.
This includes e-mail readers such as
Microsoft Outlook, HTML help, and others.
Some of these options are modified by
PopUpCop:
those in the multimedia subsection of the
Advanced Options page in the
Internet Options dialog. The Options are:
- Play animations in web pages
- Play sounds in web pages
- Show pictures
- Always expand ALT text for images
(PopUpCop turns this option on when
a user turns images off.)
- Home Page
- Your home page is the web page that your browser displays
when you first start it. Your browser will also display this page when you
click on the home page button on your toolbar.
Some web pages will ask you if you
want to change your home page when you first arrive or try to
leave.
PopUpCop will suppress these requests.
- Hypertext Markup Language (HTML)
- The most commonly-used computer language for
building web pages.
It tells the browser where to place things on
the page, how to link to other web pages,
which images to use and where to get them,
colors, fonts, and so on.
- Images
- Images are generally useful and
improve the web experience, but some
users prefer not to see them.
Turning images off can improve download
speed for dial-up users, and
eliminates advertisements that don't
use scripting, movies, or Flash animation.
- Internet Explorer
- The product name for Microsoft's web
browser program.
- Interstitial pages
- Interstitial pages are Web pages that are placed between the page on which you click a link and and the page that you thought you were going to arrive at. These pages use
the Meta Refresh directive to take you to your destination after viewing an advertisment for a few seconds. If you tell PopUpCop to block this technique, it will
redirect immediately if it detects a Meta Refresh directive with a time between 2 and 12 seconds. This technique has been used by a number of mainstream sites,
including MSNBC's Web site.
- Layers
- "Layers" is a general term that EdenSoft uses to describe a set of technologies that Web developers use to force content "in front" of other content on a Web page.
These techniques are used to implement "pseudo popups", "curtain ads" and other annoying content. The specific technologies covered by this term are
named sections of a Web page that use either a positive z-index style or absolute positioning to force the content "in front" of other content.
- Text Marquee
- A marquee is text that moves.
Web sites use text marquees to deliver
messages that are too large
to fit in a specific area.
Since text marquees are animated,
the technique is most often used
to deliver advertising that catches your eye.
- Menubar
- See toolbar.
- Messenger Service
- See Windows Messenger Service.
- Meta Refresh
- A technique used to force a fresh copy
of a web page to be
loaded into your browser
after a specified period of time
(usually a few seconds.)
It is often used for legitimate purposes
such as web cameras and
other information that changes.
The technique is abused by some web sites
to increase advertising revenue.
In Internet Explorer version 6 and later,
PopUpCop can prevent this.
- Mouse Trick
- Web sites use "mouse tricks"
for purposes such as menus, most of which are benign.
If you disable them, do so with
with caution: turning mouse tricks off
will cause many web sites to display incorrectly.
If you're interested in the details, study Javascript.
The Javascript mouse trick programming mechanisms
are called "event handlers".
The events related to the mouse are
mouseOver, mouseOut, mouseMove, mouseDown, and mouseUp.
- Play all flash movies on this page
- If you have chosen to block Flash movie autoplay or you have
used the Stop all animations button to stop all animations on this page,
choose this command from PopUpCop's annoyance suppression menu to start Flash movies playing again. Most flash
movies will being to play immediately after you choose this command. However, a few movies will not
play until you move your mouse over them.
- Popup
- A new browser window that appears unrequested
(by you) on your screen. A gratuitous,
easily-programmed visual effect exploited by many
web sites often to the consternation of the hapless
user. Commonly used for advertisements.
Particularly annoying are those termed
exit popups: browser windows that spring
to life when you leave a site or when you close
a browser window.
(Scripting languages call these
"onUnload" and "onClose" events.)
We have never encountered one of these
that was useful.
- PopUpCop
- An extraordinary piece of software from
EdenSoft™ .
PopUpCop suppresses popups
and a variety of other annoyances
that, unchecked, degrade the quality of your web experience.
- Registration
- The procedure by means of which you pay
for a license to use the PopUpCop software.
A variety of payment methods are available;
you can enter your credit card information
at our secure site, or send a check, or call
an 800 number. Once you have paid for PopUpCop,
you receive, by return e-mail, a registration
code. Choose "Register PopUpCop..."
in PopUpCop's menu
and enter your name and the code.
This will prevent the
program from expiring and disabling itself,
which it would otherwise do forty days after
initial installation.
- Resize
- Some web sites cause your browser window
to fill your screen. How rude of them!
PopUpCop prevents this behavior yet
does not interfere with your ability
to resize your browser windows.
Nor does it attempt to control
the initial size of new browser windows.
- Script
- Many if not most Web sites use scripts
(little programs embedded in the web page data)
for many purposes, usually benign and often helpful.
Various browsers implement a variety of
scripting languages.
The most popular is Javascript, but
there is also Jscript, ECMAscript, and VBscript.
PopUpCop regulates these with
Internet Explorer's
Security Zone facility.
PopUpCop, too, can disable scripting.
However, it's unusual to need to disable scripting.
Doing so often causes web sites to fail.
- Security Zone
- A Microsoft-invented term. A security zone
is a user-definable set of web sites and user-definable
security settings (in IE) for those sites.
For example, a user may wish to disable
ActiveX controls for certain sites
he or she does not trust.
This mechanism operates independently of PopUpCop's
"block" and "enable" lists.
Internet Explorer suppports five security zones:
- My Computer zone -- Your own machine -- implicitly trusted.
Security is not enforced.
By default, Internet Explorer does not allow users
to change settings for this zone.
- Local intranet zone -- Machines on your local area network
-- implicitly trusted. Security is set to "Medium Low" by default.
- Trusted zone -- A list (initially empty) to which
you can add web sites. Security is set to "Low" by default.
- Restricted sites zone -- A list (initially empty) to which
you can add web sites. Security set to "High" by default. PopUpCop operates on sites in this zone.
- Internet zone -- All web sites not in the other
zones. Security is set to "Medium" by default. PopUpCop operates on sites in this zone.
For all functions other than
Global Internet Explorer Options,
PopUpCop blocks annoying behaviors only
in the Internet and Restricted sites zones.
That is, it assumes that you do not wish to
disable popups or other
web site
features from your own computer
(if you run a web site), from web
sites on your local area network, and from
web sites you've explicitly marked as trusted.
If you wish to review or change the settings for a specific Security Zone, you can perform the following steps:
- From the Internet Explorer's main menu choose Tools then choose Internet Options.
- Click on the tab labelled Security.
- Find the zone that you wish to change in the list of zones.
- Click on that zone to select the zone.
- To set the default (Mircosoft recommended) settings for a zone, click on Default.
- To set custom settings for a zone, click on Custom
- When you have finished changing your settings, click on OK to accept your changes and close the dialog.
- Stop all animations
- Many web pages include some sort of animation. This animation can range from a simple animated
image to a complex set of ActiveX conrols. If you find these animations
annoying or distracting, you can disable all of them choosing the correct annoyance level. However,
if you prefer to surf the web without these technologies turned off, but arrive at a page where the animations are annoying or distracting you,
just choose this command from PopUpCop's annoyance suppression menu to stop all animations on the current
page.
When you choose this command, PopUpCop will stop all animated images, background sounds,
Flash movies, ActiveX controls, Java Applets, script timers, and text marquees on the current web page.
You can now view the content of that page without being bothered by the animations.
If you wish the animations to play again, just refresh the page.
- Timer
- Web sites use script timers
(Javascript's "setTimer" and "setInterval" features)
for many purposes.
The most common is to scroll your title bar text
or status line message.
Particularly nefarious are those that,
after a programmed delay,
pop up a new browser window
or cause some other annoyance.
However, some web sites use timers for legitimate purposes,
so be judicious in deciding whether to
turn script timers off.
- Third-party content
- Many Web sites contain content from other web domains. Any content on a Web page that comes from a domain other than that of the main page
is called Third-party content.
For example, say that you are viewing a page at www.yahoo.com. If the page that you are viewing contains an advertisement from doubleclick.com, the advertisment is third-party content.
- Toolbar
- Near the top of the browser
window is a row of words
which, when clicked, display menus. This is called the
menubar. Immediately below that is a row -- or perhaps
several rows -- of buttons that do frequently-invoked tasks.
Often, the buttons do the same things as some of the most
often-used items in the menubar menus. Common examples are
Back, Forward, Stop, Refresh, and Home. Some users prefer
to hide the toolbar(s) to save screen real estate. Others
prefer the convenience of clicking a toolbar button to the
less convenient method of selecting an item from a menu.
PopUpCop and some other browser extension programs make
their features easily accessible by adding buttons and
other controls (e.g. PopUpCop's slider) to the toolbar.
The toolbar is a user interface feature that can be
arranged according to each user's unique taste.
To determine which toolbar buttons you want displayed
in IE, pull down the View menu,
choose Toolbars, and in the sub-menu choose which
sets of buttons you want displayed in the toolbar,
and which ones you want hidden. You can always
change your mind later.
- Trusted Web site
- A Trusted Web site is a site that you have added to Internet Explorer's Trusted site
Security zone.
Security for sites in this zone is set to "Low" by default.
The types of sites that you might want to add to this zone are sites like
your bank, your investment company, and your insurance company. Also, if you regularly visit the
site of a government entity, you might want to add that site to this zone.
- Useless Warning Dialogs
- You can configure Internet Explorer
to refuse to run
Java applets and
ActiveX controls.
However, when a web site requests one of these features,
Internet Explorer displays a warning dialog.
PopUpCop allows you to supress these warning dialogs.
- View Source for all frames
- This handy little button is extremely powerful. Press it, and you can see HTML source,
external javascript files, and external style sheets for all frames
in the current web page.
PopUpCop will display the each source page in a Notepad window.
- Web Domain
- One or more web servers that share a domain name.
For example, www.popupcop.com and
secure.popupcop.com both belong to the
web domain popupcop.com.
In the Allow List and Block List
you'd specify this web domain as *.popupcop.com.
- Web Page
- A document, usually written in HTML,
on a web site.
- Web Site
- A collection of web pages
stored upon and delivered by a particular web server.
A web server is a computer (or set of computers)
connected to the Internet that runs software
that awaits and responds to requests from
browsers.
- Windows Messenger Service
- The Windows Messenger Service is a facility that allows systems administrators on a corporate network to send simple text broadcast messages to computers in the
corporation. In a home or small office environment, it is completely useless, and can and should be disabled.
Please do not confuse this service with a program called MSN Messenger. MSN Messenger is a program that lets you send and receive instant messages to and from
your "buddies". Other than the similar name, the program has nothing in common with the Windows Messenger Service.
Disabling the Windows Messenger Service will have no effect on MSN Messenger. It will also have no effect on other
instant messaging programs like ICQ, AIM, or Yahoo! Messenger.