How to Stop Pop-Ups on Chrome

Pop-ups can be irritating, invasive, and potentially harmful. They can affect your security, privacy, and user experience. You can block them natively in your browser and customize your ad blocking preferences according to your needs. To stop them on Chrome, open the browser, click the three dots in the top right corner, go to “Settings”, then select “Privacy and security” followed by “Site Settings”.

And choose “Pop-ups and redirects” where you can toggle the setting to block them. This will prevent most websites from displaying them on your browser. By default, Google Chrome blocks them from automatically showing up on your screen. When a popup is blocked, the address bar will be marked blocked. You can also decide to allow them. If you still get them after disabling them, you may have previously subscribed to receive notifications from a site.

You can block notifications if you do not want any communications from a site to show up on your screen. Google Chrome is set to block popups by default, but you can double check that this feature is activated in the browser’s advanced settings. If it is and you are still getting them, you can install an ad-blocking extension into the browser to block additional popups from the browser’s built-in extension library.

Pop-ups are annoying, intrusive, and sometimes even malicious.

If the problem still persists it is possible that your computer has been infected with malware and should be scanned and cleaned. They can interrupt your browsing experience, distract you from the content you want to see, and expose you to unwanted ads, scams, or malware. That is why it is important to know how to stop them on Chrome, whether you are using a desktop or a mobile device.

Popups can contain malicious code that can infect your device with malware, spyware, ransomware, or phishing schemes. Some can even disguise themselves as legitimate alerts or warnings from your system or browser, tricking you into clicking on them or downloading something harmful. They can track your online activity, collect your personal information, or access your camera or microphone without your consent.

Some can even use your device’s resources to mine cryptocurrency or perform other tasks in the background. They can disrupt your browsing experience by covering the content you want to see, redirecting you to unwanted pages, or playing loud sounds or videos. Some can even prevent you from closing them or leaving the page, forcing you to interact with them.

But not all pop-ups are bad.

Some of them serve a legitimate purpose, such as informing you about the privacy policies of a website, asking for your consent to use cookies, or offering you a discount or a free trial. These popups are intended to enhance your user experience, not to ruin it. However, the way they are implemented is often not ideal. They may be too intrusive, frequent, hard to close, or irrelevant to your interests.

Chrome has a built-in feature that allows you to block them from most websites. On your Chrome desktop browser, click on the three-dot menu icon at the top right corner and select Settings. Select Privacy and security, and then click on Site Settings. Under Content, click on Pop-ups and redirects. Under Default behavior, select Don’t allow sites to send pop-ups or use redirects.

As it stands, Google does a pretty good job of keeping them under control in its Chrome browser. A sea of popup windows invading your traditional browsing experience usually indicates your default settings are in disarray. The easiest way to start is by making sure you have the latest version of Chrome, since newer builds have better blocking capabilities.

If you are getting pop-up windows when browsing on Google Chrome it either means the blocker is not properly configured or other software is circumventing the browser’s blocker.

Popup windows are intended to open a new web page within a different window to leave the original page unaffected: the new window may include some special customization features. Blocker programs are designed to stop those that are used in a way that is disruptive to the user. You may be getting them in Chrome because the blocker program has not been properly configured.

Chrome features only two blocker settings: “Allow all sites to show pop-ups” and “Do not allow any site to show pop-ups (recommended).” The latter option must be selected to block them. Chrome takes an all-or-nothing approach and does not try to guess which ones are desired and which ones are not. To stop them on Chrome, the blocker can be enabled by clicking the three-lines “Menu” icon, selecting “Settings”, clicking “Show advanced settings”, choosing “Content settings” under the Privacy section, clicking the radio button next to the “Do not allow” option and clicking “Done”.

If you have added a particular page to the exceptions list in Chrome, any popup launched from that page will get through the blocker. Chrome uses a regular expression pattern to enable them for related pages within the same tree, which can unintentionally allow them on other pages on the same site with similar names. You may have to make exceptions to allow them on certain websites to use specific features and access services.

For example, a site may use a pop-up window for login functions.

Allowing the popup on that page to use the login service will also allow others, like advertisements, to appear. Malware is able to work around Chrome’s blocker and launch them, even if they are disabled and the site is not included in the exceptions list. It is a sign that the computer has a malware infection if they are showing up on sites when the blocker should be stopping them.

The popups will go away if the transgressing malware is removed from the system. Anti-virus programs can identify and remove malware infections as well. Similar to malware, adware can get around blockers and launch them. Adware is different from malware in that it legitimately installs itself with the user’s permission, even though the user might not actually recognize what they are approving.

Anti-virus and anti-malware programs may be able to remove adware. However, adware may function like any legitimate program on the computer and have a built-in uninstaller program that can be accessed on the Start Screen or through the “Programs and Features” menu in the Control Panel.