When it comes to pop up ads, there is no good news. At best, they consume valuable computer resources, and in the worst case, they can drop spyware, adware, or even hijack your homepage or computer settings. Pop up ads are easy to avoid with a little research, time, and effort. The most effective way to avoid the problems that come with pop up ads is to install a pop up blocker. A free pop up blocker halts pop ups before they can even load on your computer. This provides peace of mind, security, and gives your computer back its resources. A good, free pop up blocker on you computer is as necessary as your virus scan software or your firewall.
There are hundreds of free pop up blockers available online, so how can you decide which one to install. When looking at free pop up block up blockers, I use the following criteria to evaluate them:
Ease of Use
Ease of Installation
User Features
Effectiveness
Now, to be fair, most modern web browsers such as Internet Explorer, Safari, and Firefox have basic pop up blocking tools. but I found these tools to be lacking in several areas. So, using my assessment criteria, I used and tested dozens of free pop up blockers. Needless to say, some worked better than others. Here are the results of my research.
Recommended Free Pop Up Blocker
Analog X POW!
Ease of Use – Analog X POW! does exactly what it says it will. It blocks pop up ads and windows. Once installed, this free pop up blocker sits idly in the background killing any and all pop ups that come your way. This program is great because its memory footprint is very small. If you are looking for a program to help conserve system resources, it better not use a large amount of RAM or CPU resources itself. It is completely free, so there is no nagging or advertising that comes with the software. It is simply a clean and quick pop up killer.
Ease of Installation – Analog X POW! is a very small install. It comes in at just 214k. That’s right, if you have high speed internet, it downloads almost instantly. The install is very simple. Download the file, run the install, and it will drop into your task bar.
User Features – This software is older, but it is still very good. It’s feature set is a bit limited, but it does do what it claims to do quickly and effectively. As far as features, you can exempt specific pop ups, alter the tolerance of the pop up blocking, or put it to sleep when not wanted or needed.
Effectiveness – It is an oldie but a goody. It has such a small size, and it is so efficient for your system, that you really cant lose with it.
DownloadAnalog X POW! here.
Runner-up Free Pop Up Blocker
Pop-Up Stopper Free Edition 3.1.14
Ease of Use – Pop-Up Stopper Free Edition 3.1.14 is a great free pop up blocker. Once installed, it allows a user to have a lot of control over your pop up blocking. You can set visual or audio clues for when pop up ads are blocked, and you can bypass the software (when you actually want a pop up) by holding down the control key and clicking. Unfortunately, many of the best features of Pop-Up Stopper are locked with the free version, but it still does its job very effectively and efficiently.
Ease of Installation – The download weighs in at 512k, and downloads very quickly. Once the install is started, it runs very smoothly. You will have the pop up blocker in your task bar when finished. Options are limited but effective. You can change the visual or audio clue for when pop ups are blocked, clean the caches, or update. After installation, the program runs smoothly.
User Features – If you are looking for a quality, free pop up blocker, then this will work. If you are looking for a more all-in one security set, then you might want to spring for the pay edition. As stated before, the free pop up blocker will block your ads, alert you when it does, and allow you to bypass it when needed. The feature set is simple but effective.
Effectiveness – Pop-Up Stopper Free Edition 3.1.14 killed all the pop ups I could think of, and it was generally kind to my system by not consuming a lot of system resources.
