Pop-Up Zapper Lite (OS 9)

Version 1.10, September 12th, 2002

Pop-Up Zapper Lite is (c) Copyright 2002 Ricardo Batista. All Rights Reserved. 

Description: 

Pop-Up Zapper Lite is a shareware application for Mac OS 9 that helps you by "zapping" away
those annoying pop-up windows when you surf the web. 

Pop-Up Zapper Lite watches the work of your web browser and when it identifies a pop up window coming up (or pop-under), it makes it invisible and then closes it. You never see the popup window. You also have an option to have new windows be opened at the same size as the window in front. Normally popups mess up the preffered window size for IE.

If you set a preference for it, when you encounter a place where a click would produce a window, Pop-Up Zapper Lite will identify this recent click as a request for the window and leave it alone. See the Preferences for all the options.

When a popup window is let go untouched, it is later matched against an internal database of popup windows and zapped if deemed an ad popup. You can also tell Pop-Up Zapper Lite to leave the next popup alone by pressing control-command 'Z'. 

For the latest information please visit http://www.batista.org/zap

For the Mac OS X version of Pop-Up Zapper, please see http://www.batista.org/zap

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Pop-Up Zapper Lite is Shareware, 10 U.S. dollars. You can run Pop-Up Zapper Lite in evaluation mode for 5 days only, at which point it requires a license to continue working.

By purchasing Pop-Up Zapper Lite you are entitled to a free upgrade to Pop-Up Zapper when you move to OS X.

To order a Serial number (License) after you download the software, please visit http://www.batista.org/zap for a direct link to PayPal, eSellerate or DigitalCandle.

Please allow 24 hours for your serial number. Then make sure you enter the Name and Serial number exactly as provided to you in the confirmation email we sent you. Select "Register Serial Number..." under the Zap menu.

You can order with your Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Discover or Diner's Club credit card. Paypal, Mail/Fax, Money Orders, and Personal Checks also accepted via that site.

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Software Requirements:

Pop-Up Zapper Lite requires Mac OS  8.5 or higher (8.6, 9.x) and works with Internet Explorer. Netscape is not supported because of a problem in Netscape.

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Features:

*
Zaps away most popup ads. Fast. Without you ever seeing them since they are invisible.
* Prevent popup windows from messing with the size of your new windows.
*
Enable or disable it via a menu, or disable it just for one window via a control-command 'Z'.
*
Play a sound when a popup is zapped.
*
Ignore one popup if you just clicked the mouse or used the return key if the preference is set.

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Changes:

1.10
Option to prevent popup windows from messing with the size of your new windows.
Made the quit Apple event work better.
Compatible now with Mac OS 8.5 and up.
Latest installer for better compatibility on installs.

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Installation:

After downloading the Stuffit archive, uncompress it (if your browser did not automatically do this) 
and then run the Pop-Up Zapper Lite Installer. The installer will take care of the rest. You need
to reboot for the software to work.

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How to use Pop-Up Zapper Lite:

Most people only need to run Pop-Up Zapper Lite to benefit from it, but it is a good idea to get an understanding of how Pop-Up Zapper works so that you can benefit the most.

Pop-Up Zapper Lite can tell when a new window is coming up in IE, if the window is a popup then it is made invisible and then destroyed a second later. If you set a specific preference, a popup window is allowed if you just clicked the mouse (like on a link). Popup windows that are allowed in the first pass are later checked against a list of ad popups and destroyed later if they belong to the list.

If you want to replace Pop-Up Zapper Lite's sound, simply save a copy of the file zap.aiff and 
replace it with your favorite sound.

Turning Pop-Up Zapper Lite on or off, or off temporarily:

The first thing that you should know is that you can always turn Pop-Up Zapper Lite off. From 
the Zap menu select the "Enabled" item. You can also tell Pop-Up Zapper Lite to ignore only the
next popup window that comes up by pressing control-command 'Z'. But most of the time a click of the mouse will tell Pop-Up Zapper Lite that you want the next window open if you have set the
preference for that.

The levels of zapping, there are 3 levels of "zapping" in Pop-Up Zapper Lite:

Level 1, always on.  If there has been no mouse click action and a window tries to open by itself,
it is zapped. If the click preference is off no popup window is allowed to come up.

Level 2, always on. The address of any new window is matched against a list of web pages that are known to be popups and should be zapped as soon as they are identified. This list of web pages was obtained by going through thousands of web sites with an automated program that finds the popups. This list needs to be updated every now and then as new popups come up all the time.

Level 3, always on. This is a list of domains that are known to serve popups. Basically anything
that comes from this sites is bad news and it gets zapped. Included in this list are sites that
serve porno popups. If a site is known to serve popups (specially porno) anything from it gets zapped. Addresses that start with an IP address (like 173.173.183.12) are usually zapped because they are ad servers most of the time, so don't use hard coded addresses, use names (www.apple.com), there are some exceptions.

About Popups:

You may have noticed that popups do not always come up in the same place at the same time. Web developers use a feature called "cookies" to keep track of their popups. They can issue a popup only the first day of a week, every time you visit a place, a different one in each visit or
every other day. It's all up to them. 

There are many ways of making popups, and Pop-Up Zapper Lite uses many methods to identify them. Still, web developers are likely to keep finding new ways in the future. It's like a mutating
virus. If you ever have been hijacked by popup windows, windows that keep coming up every second and show you things you never wanted to see in the first place you know what I mean. If you have never been hijacked you are safer with Pop-Up Zapper Lite. By closing windows before they get the chance to fully load you are avoiding one of this nasty incidents. Note that many of the
hijackings happen when you misspell a well known address. They count on you doing this.

Future changes:

I need your suggestions to make ths product better.

If you read this far...

Back a few years ago I made a utility called Extensions Manager. It became really popular and it
was free. Now I hope that you find this utility as useful as Extensions Manager was back then,
except this time it is not free. I made about 10 free utilities some of which you may have used
in the past. The development, research and support of this utility costs money. 

About the Icon...

The Pop-Up Zapper Lite icon was designed by Harvey Lubin of AGRAPHA Design. AGRAPHA is a professional Web site design and custom graphics design service, which creates high-quality icons and logos. Visit the AGRAPHA Web site (http://www.agrapha.com) to view a portfolio of their design work. 

The installer for this product was created using Installer VISE from MindVision Software. For more information on Installer VISE, contact: 

MindVision Software 
5901 North 58th Street 
Lincoln, NE 68507 

Voice: (402) 323-6600
Fax: (402) 323-6611
E-mail: mindvision@mindvision.com 
http://www.mindvision.com 

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Send us email at zap@batista.org, please specify which product and Mac OS you are using.

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Copyright 2002 Ricardo Batista. All Rights Reserved.