Pop-up Blocker

This straight-ahead pop-up blocker lacks a few features we like to see, but since it’s free and boasts fairly decent performance, we can still recommend it to users with simple needs. Just like its name, Pop-up Blocker has a main window that isn’t very inspired, but it is easy to use and places the whitelists and blacklists in easily accessible locations. You also can temporarily allow pop-ups for certain sites via a hot-key combination. Though the application tallies the number of ads it kills, it doesn’t keep detailed log files as many of its competitors do. The utility capably quashes most garden-variety pop-ups but can’t deal with Flash, banner, or floating ads. It’s nice that Pop-up Blocker notifies you with a sound effect, but we would prefer if the system tray icon also flashed when an ad was killed. This program is likely too simple for hard-core Web surfers, but casual and novice users might give it a try.