Why do I get all these pop-up advertisements?

Most pop-ups are actually caused by programs that have been installed on your computer - usually without your knowledge. These programs are classified as adware, spyware, or malware and can be very damaging to a computer and your Internet connection. Not only do they invade your privacy by tracking your web usage and displaying advertisements based on your usage but many of them can act as gateways to allow hackers or malicious users access to your computer. Many times they are included with 'free' software such as file sharing utilities, weather and time updating programs, or browser tool bars. Also these can be installed through websites that take advantage of known security holes in Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser. There are many good programs available to remove these off your computer. The best two that we have found are Lavasoft's Ad-Aware and SpyBot - Search & Destroy. Both programs are free of charge and can be found in the Downloads section of this website. We recommend downloading and running both programs. These will scan your computer and system for any adware/malware and will give you a list of everything that is known to cause pop-ups. These programs are like virus scans, to be effective they must be updated. Each of these has a self-updating feature in them. It is recommended that you get the updates before running the first scan with each program. It is a good idea to run these scans on a regular basis to catch any new adware or spyware that may get on your system after the first scan. A good rule is around once a month for both programs. And remember to update them before each scan. If after running these programs you are still getting many pop-ups we recommend that you have all of the updates for Microsoft Windows and Internet Explorer. You can get these from Windows Update. If still after all of these steps you are still getting pop-ups when viewing web pages you may want to consider switching to a web browser that has a built-in pop-up blocker. Many websites are coded to produce pop-up windows when you go to them. Internet Explorer does not have any included pop-up blocking features. There are several good alternative web browser that include pop-up blocking and are free of charge, most notably Mozilla and Firefox. These browsers are free of charge and are easily downloadable. Here are the direct links to these browsers: Mozilla Firefox Hopefully by following these steps you eliminate your problems with pop-ups and get back to surfing the web without worry of being bombarded with advertisements.