Not a lot of help | O'Reilly Media

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Book:		Windows XP Hacks
Subject:		Not a lot of help
Date:		2004-11-16 02:54:17
From:		Phantom J

Rating: I found this book very disappointing, certainly compared to the high standard set by other O'Reilly books. One example was a hack that I installed to stop popups. Not only did it not stop all popups (though granted, it got most) it made IE extrememly unstable (to the point of it being effectively unusable) and I was obliged to uninstall it. Having taken a look at the "PC hacks" table of contents I think that that would make a much better investment.

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Not a lot of help, November 18 2004
Submitted by Anonymous Reader [Respond | View]

Thanks for the note. I've used the software I recommended in that hack on several computers for several years with no problems. But given the nature of software, particularly Windows software, very flaky things can happen when you install anything new.

Since the book was published, a new revision of Windows, SP2, has come out, and it includes a popup blocker built into Internet Explorer. If you use Windows Explorer, you should install it --- it'll block popups and give you other kinds of security.

There's also a great new browser called Firefox that includes a popup blocker, and is better than Internet Explorer in a variety of ways. So you might want to try that one as well.

And if you want help troubleshooting the popup blocker you tried, let me know and I'll see if I can help troubleshoot them.

Also, the second edition of Windows XP Hacks will be coming out early next year, so you might want to give that a try.

-- Preston Gralla