Main Page
Blog
Search
FAQ
TOP 10
Links
Awards
Pad Files
Contact
About...
Donate

All Utilities
Password Tools
System Tools
Browser Tools
Programmer Tools
Network Tools
Outlook/Office
64-bit Download
Panel
Code Samples
Articles

  
 
MyPopupKiller v1.26
Copyright (c) 2003 - 2005 Nir Sofer

Description

The MyPopupKiller utility displays the list of all opened windows of your Web browser, and closes unwanted popup and advertising windows. In addition, it can automatically hide the internal ads of Kazaa Media Desktop, Download Accelerator (DAP), and Opera browser.

The MyPopupKiller utility can operate in 3 different modes:

  • Manual Mode: In this mode, MyPopupKiller displays the list of opened windows, and allows you to easily select and close the unwanted popup windows. The popup and ad windows are automatically selected, so you can close all of them in a press of a button.
  • Automatic Mode: In this mode, MyPopupKiller automatically closes popup and advertising windows, according to what you select in the configuration screen. You can temporarily enable the popups simply by holding Alt (the default), Ctrl, or Shift key (according to the configuration screen)
  • Aggressive Mode: In this mode, MyPopupKiller automatically closes all new browser windows, even if they are not recognized as popup or ad. In this mode, you cannot open new browser windows, unless you hold the Alt key.

This utility has 2 methods to recognize unwanted ads windows:

  1. It can distinguish between normal windows and popup windows. most popup windows contains advertising or other unwanted content. However, if choose to automatically close all popup windows, some "good" popup windows may also be closed. In such case, you can hold the Alt key in order to temporarily enable the popups. You can also avoid closing good popups by adding them to the "Allowed Windows" list. You can add a window by its Web address, or by the window title.
  2. It can recognize an advertising window if its title or Web address is found in the banned windows list. If you get an advertising window that MyPopupKiller doesn't recognize, you can add it to the ban list, and avoid that ad in the future.

MyPopupKiller supports the following Web browsers:

  • Internet Explorer: version 5.x and 6.x
  • Netscape: version 6.x and 7.x.
  • Mozilla
  • MSN Explorer (version 7.x)
  • Opera (partly support): version 7.x (although it not really needed because Opera browser has build-in support against popups)

System Requirements

  • Windows operating system: Windows 95/98/ME, Windows NT, Windows 2000 or Windows XP.

Versions History

Date Version Description
 1.26
  • Fixed problem with Firefox v1.5
03/03/20041.25
  • Automatically hide the internal ads of DAP: Added Support for DAP 7.x
07/10/20031.24
  • Automatically hide the internal ads of Opera: Now it also works on version 7.20
14/09/20031.23
  • New option in the config screen: the dialog popup windows are now closed only if the appropriate option is selected.
20/08/20031.22
  • Added support for dialog popup windows
  • The enable/disable flash menu added to the tray menu.
10/06/20031.21
  • You can change the position of a column by dragging the column header into a new location.
  • The settings of the main window (size, position, columns width) are automatically saved, and loaded in the next time that you run MyPopupKiller.
23/05/20031.20
  • Added support for MSN Explorer.
  • Added an option to disable the messenger service.
  • Added an option to disable and enable the Macromedia Flash component.
03/05/20031.11
  • New option in configuration screen: Automatically run this utility at startup.
  • Fixed bug from previous version: In some circumstances, the configuration was not saved correctly after reboot.
21/04/20031.10
  • Added icon in the system tray
  • Web address column in the main window (Not for Opera)
  • Add a window to the ban list by its Web address. (Not for Opera)
  • Save the information about the opened windows to file, or copy it to the clipboard.
  • Option to automatically hide the internal ads of the following applications: Kazaa Media Desktop, Download Accelerator (DAP), and Opera browser
  • Allowed Windows List (Only for IE)
12/04/20031.00First Release.

License

This utility is released as freeware. You can freely use and distribute it. If you distribute this utility, you must include all files in the distribution package including the readme.txt, without any modification !

Disclaimer

The software is provided "AS IS" without any warranty, either expressed or implied, including, but not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose. The author will not be liable for any special, incidental, consequential or indirect damages due to loss of data or any other reason.

Installing MyPopupKiller utility

This utility is a standalone executable. It doesn't require any installation process or additional DLLs. In order to start using it, just extract all files to a new folder, and run the executable (mpk.exe). If you want to automatically add shortcuts for MyPopupKiller in the Start Menu, you can install MyPopupKiller with ZipInstaller.

Removing the MyPopupKiller utility

  1. Before removing MyPopupKiller from your computer, you have to verify that it's not running in the background. If you see the icon of MyPopupKiller on the right side of the system tray, click on it with right mouse button, and then in the appeared menu, select "Exit". If you don't see the icon of MyPopupKiller in the system tray, it means that it's currently not running in the background, so you can continue to the next step.
  2. If you have installed MyPopupKiller with ZipInstaller , you can easily remove it by using the "Add/Remove Programs" module in Control Panel. Otherwise, you should manually remove it by deleting the files of MyPopupKiller: mpk.exe, mpk.chm, readme.txt, ban.txt and allow.txt.

Using the MyPopupKiller utility

The main screen of MyPopupKiller displays all opened windows of your browser. You can select one or more windows (by using the check-box near each line) and close them, or add them to the banned windows list or to the allowed windows list. The "Type" column indicates whether MyPopupKiller recognizes the window as popup, as advertisement window defined in the banned windows list, or as "good" window defined in the allowed windows list. If the hot key is enabled in the configuration screen, you can minimize and restore the main window simply by pressing ALT+CTRL+K or another key combination you select.

Working in manual mode

In manual mode, MyPopupKiller doesn't close automatically any browser window, but it allows you to easily kill multiple popups when you need. When multiple popup windows appears on your screen, press the hot-key combination (the default is Alt+Ctrl+K, you can change it to another key combination in the configuration screen), and the main window will appear. You can also activate the main window by double-clicking on the tray icon. The popups and ad windows will be automatically selected. You can select and deselect windows as you wish, and then press the 'Delete' key in order immediately close all selected windows. If you want to add the windows you delete to the banned windows list, press Ctrl+Delete (for adding the windows by their title) or Shift+Delete (For adding the windows by their Web address). After you finish to delete the windows you want, you can close the main window and continue surfing the Web.

Working in automatic mode

In automatic mode, MyPopupKiller automatically closes popup and ad windows, according to what you select in the configuration screen. You can temporarily disable the automatic windows closing simply by holding the Alt key (You can change the key to Alt or Shift in the configuration screen)

MyPopupKiller uses the following options to determine which windows will be closed:

  • Automatically close all popup windows.
    If you select this option, all popup windows will be automatically closed, even if they are not recognized as advertisement. You can temporarily allow popup windows by holding the Ctrl/Alt/Shift key. You can also allow specific popups by adding them to the Allowed Windows List. In order to easily add the Web address of a window to the Allowed Windows List, select the window in the main screen and press Ctrl+L.
  • Automatically close all advertising windows, according to the banned windows list.
    If you select this option, MyPopupKiller will automatically close only the popup windows that their title or address exists in the banned windows list. If you get an ad window that MyPopupKiller doesn't recognize, you can add it to the banned windows list, so in the next time MyPopupKiller will recognize it and close it immediately.
  • Close advertising windows even if they appear in regular window.
    (This options is available only if you select the previous one) If you select this option, MyPopupKiller will close all windows that their title exists in the banned windows list, even if they are appear in regular window. (not popup window)

Working in aggressive mode

in aggressive mode, all new browser windows are immediately closed by MyPopupKiller, even if they are not recognized as ad or popup. You cannot open new browser windows in this mode, unless you hold the Alt key.

The banned windows list

The banned windows list contains window titles and Web addresses of known advertising windows. MyPopupKiller uses this list to recognize advertising windows. When you see an advertisement that MyPopupKiller cannot recognize, you can easily add by selecting the problematic window and pressing Ctrl+Del (For adding the window title) or Shift+Del (For adding the Web address). You can also edit the list in the "Banned Windows List" dialog-box.

For each item, you should select the appropriate "match mode":

  • Window Title: Whole text - MyPopupKiller will recognize a window as ad only if its title matches completely to the title in the ban list.
  • Window Title: Start of text - MyPopupKiller will recognize a window as ad if its title string starts with the text you write in the ban list. For example: If you add to the ban list the string "Special Offer!", all the windows that their title starts with "Special Offer!" will be recognized as advertising windows.
  • Window Title: Any part of text - MyPopupKiller will recognize a window as ad if its title string contains the text you write in the ban list.
  • Web Address: Start of address - MyPopupKiller will recognize a window as ad if its Web address (http://) corresponds to the address you write in the ban list.

The banned windows list is saved in a simple text file, so you can edit it in simple text editor, like Notepad. This file - ban.txt is located in the same folder of the executable.

Be aware that the first character of each line represents the match mode:
$ for "Whole Text"
@ for "Start of text"
! for "Any part of text"
# for "Web Address"

The allowed windows list

The windows that you add to this list won't be closed by MyPopupKiller, even if they are recognized as popup or advertising windows. As in the banned windows list, you can add a window by its window title or by its Web address (http://...).

The allowed windows list is saved in a simple text file, so you can edit it in simple text editor, like Notepad. This file - allow.txt is located in the same folder of the executable. As in the banned windows list, the first character of each line represents the match mode.

Notice: This feature currently works properly only for Internet Explorer.

Hiding the ads of other applications

This utility allows you to automatically hide the internal ads of the following adware applications:
  • Kazaa Media Desktop (versions 1.x, 2.x)
  • Download Accelerator (version 5.x and 7.x)
  • Opera browser (version 7.x)
You can activate this feature from the configuration screen (there is one check-box for each application). Be aware that this feature is not affected by the closing mode, and the ads will be hidden even if you are in manual mode.

Messenger Service popups

The "Messenger Service" is a standard service in Windows NT, Windows 2000 and Windows XP that allows to administrators to send messages to users on a network. Unfortunately, some users and companies exploit this system service for sending annoying ads popups to innocent users.
If sometimes you receive popup windows with "Messenger Service" title, you can stop these unwanted popups by disabling the Messenger Service in your machine. It's possible to disable the "Messenger Service" directly from the "Services" module of your operating system. However, if you don't know how to disable a service in your operating system, you can simply disable it from this utility: From the 'Options' menu, select "Messenger Service Popups", and click the "Disable Messenger Service" button.

Disbale and enable the Macromedia Flash Player

Many Web sites today use the Macromedia Flash component for creating animated ads. These ads consumes additional bandwidth and sometimes even slow down your computer. Unfortunately, Internet Explorer and other Web browsers don't provide a simple way to disable and enable the Flash component.
This utility allows you to disable and enable the Flash component in the following browsers:
  • Internet Explorer (Version 5.x, and 6.x)
  • Netscape browser (Version 6.x and 7.x)
  • Mozilla browser
  • Opera browser (Version 7.x)
You can enable/disable the Flash component for a single browser, or enable/disable it in all browsers at once.
However, there are some limitations that you should be aware of:
  • In Internet Explorer: When you enable/disable the Flash component, the current opened windows are not affected by the change. you have to open a new browser window in order to see the effect of enabling/disabling the Flash component. Also, be aware that when you disable/enable Flash in Internet Explorer, other "IE based" browsers, like MyIE and MSN Explorer are also affected by this change.
  • In Netscape/Mozilla browsers: under Windows 98 and Windows ME, you have to close all browser windows before enabling/disabling the Flash component. Also, if more than one version of the browser is installed on your computer, only the latest installed version of the browser will be affected.
  • In Opera browser: You have to completely close the Opera browser and then open it again in order to see the effect of enabling/disabling the Flash component.

Feedback

If you have any problem, suggestion, comment, or you found a bug in my utility, you can send a message to nirsofer@yahoo.com

Download MyPopupKiller