how harmful are pop ups to my computer?

Answer 1

Not very, just avoid clicking on them. Always click on the X in the corner and never click yes no or cancel if they give you those options.

You'll be just fine.

Answer 2

pop-ups themselves are not harmfull, but they are shown by some program. and that program is called adware and it might be malicious.

Adware is any computer program that displays advertisements while the application is running. Advertisements appear in a web browser, pop-up windows, special toolbars or within the host program. Adware also can gather information about user’s habits and interests and send it out through a background Internet connection. Such behavior allows adware vendors to deliver targeted advertisements to the end user and collect general statistics.

Adware is divided into parasitical and legitimate applications. Illegal advertising programs are very similar to spyware parasites and often have some of their functions. They can be installed without explicit user consent and work all the time a computer is on. However, they are less dangerous, because most of such parasites are primarily intended to collect user’s personal information for marketing and advertising, but not for criminal purposes.

Legitimate adware applications are harmless. They do not track user activity or record any vital information about the user and use an Internet connection only to receive advertisements. Lots of reputable advertising-supported products, such as Opera web browser or Eudora mail client, fall into this category. Vendors of these products use advertising as a legal revenue model that allows to distribute high-quality commercial software for free.

Answer 3

Popups from strange and illegal websites are the number one source of SPYWARES.

So its pretty important to have a popup blocker. You will find this in Opera, Firefox, Internet Explorer 6 ,7 , Mozilla and any other new web explorer. This is a major need if you are using the internet very much.

Popups can cause some javascript to run automatically , or cause a false click allowing downlaod or install, or running of spyware, malwares, addware and all even viruses.

Keep antivirus updated and use Firefox 2.0

Answer 4

From a scale to 1-10 pop-ups are a 7 in harmfull to your computer. They ca damage your documents and even ruin your internet completely. You will need a FireWall of some sort to stop them. If you don't have a FireWall you can buy one from this link,
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/web/sp2_popupblocker.mspx. Also, you can get multiple viruses from pop-ups, so be carefull.

Answer 5

You have received lots of good information. To get rid of the popup you need to run 2 programs and install a 3rd one.

Download, update and run Spybot---http://www.safer-networking.org/ . Don't forget to use the Immunize feature.

Download, update and run Adaware---http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware/products/select_your_product.php

Download SpywareBlaster---http://majorgeeks.com/download2859.html

SpywareBlaster doesn't scan and clean for spyware - it prevents it from ever being installed.

It's main features include:
- Prevent the installation of ActiveX-based spyware, adware, browser hijackers, dialers, and other potentially unwanted pests.
- Block spyware/tracking cookies in Internet Explorer and Mozilla/Firefox.
- Restrict the actions of potentially dangerous sites in Internet Explorer.

Answer 6

They are more of a nuiscance than anything else. You can get free pop-up blockers on Yahoo, MSN, google and AOL. I use Yahoo, and prefer theirs.

Some pop-ups (1 out of 50) will attempt to hijack your home page, or worse, not allow you to close them. They cycle to more and more pages, and are a big problem!

So, it is almost ALWAYS better to block all pop-up ads.

Answer 7

There only harmful to your sanity. If I could somhow reach into the computor and grab the Bast**Ds who sends them to me I would rip their throats out and S**t down their Necks. They are computor parasites and morons who are trying to push their wares onto us . I absolutly hate the Bast**ds. F**k them all ..

Answer 8

well it depends if the popups are spyware, which can leak information from your come computer to someone else

Answer 9

Zero harm
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Answer 10

they are not harmful but too much annoying