How do I disable my browser's pop-up blocker?

Answer: In most situations, blocking pop-ups is a good thing. It prevents annoying advertisements from popping up in new windows as you are browsing the Web. However, some websites provide useful information in pop-up windows. Others may even require pop-up functionality to work in order to process information entered into Web forms. In these cases, you will need to disable your browser's pop-up blocker.

Each Web browser has a different way of disabling the pop-up blocker. Here are instructions for some of the most popular browsers:

Internet Explorer (works with IE8)

Click the "Tools" button, then select the "Pop-up Blocker" option.
Click "Turn Off Pop-up Blocker".

Firefox (works with Firefox 3)

Select "Options..." from the Tools menu (Windows) or "Preferences..." from the Firefox menu (Mac).
Select the "Content" tab.
Click the "Block pop-up windows" checkbox.

Safari (works with Safari 4)

Click the Settings icon in the upper-right corner of the browser window (Windows) or click the "Safari" menu (Mac).
Deselect the "Block Pop-Up Windows" option from the drop-down menu (Windows: Ctrl+Shift+K; Mac: Cmd+Shift+K).

Disabling the pop-up blocker will allow pop-up windows to appear correctly. Of course, that means annoying pop-up ads may also start appearing. To disable pop-ups again, just follow the steps above, but make sure to check the "block pop-up windows" checkbox or select the "block pop-up windows" option.

How do I disable my browser's pop-up blocker?

Published: January 15, 2010 — by Per Christensson