How to block popups on Windows PC : A popup is an important feature in alerting a user about various notifications that can range from system notifications to subscription-based notifications. Popups can be of various types, but the two most important forms of popups are system popups and browser popups. System popups are generated by the operating system (Windows) and displays all system-specific information or actions required to be taken. For example, the User Account Control popup is a system popup. On the other hand, browser popups are generated when you are within a browser and give permissions to a webpage to notify you about advertisements or the website’s updates. There are also full-page popups in browser that are generated involuntarily as soon as the page loads. They seldom require your voluntary permission and operate as per the settings of the visited webpage.
In this tutorial, we will guide you on how to disable or block popups on the system or the browser. Both are different in the operational perspective and hence, both are blocked or disabled in different ways.
How to block system popups
Blocking User Access Control popup
The User Access Control (UAC) popup is important for beginners because it can block the execution or processing of certain functions that can directly impact the system functions. To do that, the User Access Control in Windows asks for permission from the user. If the user grants the permission, then the function or process is executed. Otherwise, the function is blocked, and it is not allowed to change the system core functions or it prevents the function from accessing the system processes. Disabling the UAC may remove these occasional popups, but it also leaves the user at a risk of potential system attack from unauthorized applications. Therefore, please disable UAC at your own risk.
- On the search bar at the bottom of the screen, type UAC or User Access Control. Then select the relevant option.
- From the new screen, select Change User Access Control Settings. This may be listed in the first step itself. The ordering varies in different versions of Windows.
- In the new window that appears, select Never Notify.
- Click OK and exit the window. The User Access Control will now stop displaying any popup in future. All functions that can affect the operation of system functions will automatically execute in future.
Blocking sidebar notifications
- Click on the notification or message icon in the bottom-right of the screen to open the sidebar.
- From the list of notifications that appear, select the appropriate notification and click on the Settings icon to the right of the notification.
- The respective application will open. You may disable the notification from the application’s settings. If it is a browser notification, then you may head to the browser settings panel and disable future notifications from that server.
How to block browser popups
Browser popups have minimal direct influence over the system functions and hence, they may be safely disabled or bypassed. To block browser popups, please follow the steps below.
Blocking browser advertisements and popups
Modern browsers have ad blockers installed out-of-the-box. But aggressive popups may bypass their rules and still display on the browser. Please follow the steps below to install Adblock and disable the popups entirely.
- Open the browser and visit this link: https://getadblock.com/block-ads-and-popups/
- Click on the button Get Adblock.
- Depending on your browser, the respective ad blocker extension will display. Install the AdBlock extension and restart your browser.
- Enable the AdBlock’s active popup and ad-blocking feature from the extensions panel in the browser.
- That’s it! You can now browse the Internet without any hassle of popups or advertisements.
This is a single bulletproof solution to blocking all forms of advertisements and popups. Beware though that certain websites may still request you to disable AdBlock. If it appears to be an untrusted website, you should never disable AdBlock on that website. If the site can be trusted, then you may exclude AdBlock for that particular site. This can be done from the Settings page in AdBlock.