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The best popup killer for IE is crazy browser at Here. It does smart popup filtering, tabbed browsing and some other nifty features, all with the IE engine. Small download too since it just wraps around the IE core. Best demonstration of object reuse I've seen =)

Well, I'll agree with you for the first part, "The web will continue to be filled with crappy HTML," but I don't buy the cause-and-effect that you are putting forth. Crappy HTML exists for a myriad of reasons, and my experience is that the user using IE is not a direct cause of an author writing bad markup.

As for IE on the desktop, I will certainly concede buchanmilne's point above aboutIE requiring a never-ending parade of security patches. That's just life in the Windows world.

The point I am more focused on is that there is a real management and maintainence cost that comes with making this choice, most of which will occur long after the enthusiastic Mozilla boosters have moved on. As a loyal Galeon (Linux) and Crazy Browser (Windows) user, I certainly don't need to be convinced that other browsers are better for a lot of people.

But you have to realize that 80% of the cost of software is in the ongoing maintainence, and there are a lot of people in organizations at all levels who are familiar with IE, have "dummies" books, etc. There is a real cost that an organization will incur when the initial enthusiastic boosters roll out their alternative browser, and eventually move on. Who will provide support then? Who will push out new releases and bug fixes? While we here in Slashdot Land turn our nose up at IE, the basic instability and constant fixes needed have resulted in some very useful tools for managing the long-term costs. Windows update comes to mind.

We have a hard time acknowledging reality here sometimes, and the reality is that the browser wars have been settled - IE, like it or not, is the default choice due to it being bundled with every copy of Windows, the default desktop environment. People know it, expect it, and have become accustomed to its behavior. It is the leader, and so if we expect IE users to adopt Moz-derived browsers, then we have to make it easy for the users.

We also have a very hard time here acknowledging what is most important in a browser. The geeks here will crow about how "standards compliant", and start dropping three-letter acronyms XML, XUL, W3C, and so on, and go on about this or that techno feature. I would propose that the most important thing is that it be as useful as possible to non-technical end users.

This is where Microsoft does a good job. They focus on usability (and not security, to be sure). IE was helped out in the battle for the desktop by it being bundled, but by the 4.0 generation, it was just a whole lot better experience for the end user.

That's why it grates me to hear the original comment about "properly coded" websites. HTML was never designed to have to pass through a compiler or verifier before being deployed, so the problem is designed-in. Improperly coded websites exist, get over it. Changing everyone to [insert client of choice here] will never change this fact.

Anyone interested in learning more about how IE can be extended (as closed source but semi-open APIs) may want to get in touch with the CB people, though I have no idea if they'd want to talk shop. *shrug*

(Annoyingly, you can't get to the CB home page without being forced to accept a popup for one of this company's other products, PowerIE. Some kind of toolbar thing, I dunno. It looks like it might be interesting but having to learn about it through a popup like this is rude -- but then I'm not typing this from a popup blocking browser, so I get what I deserve I guess. Amusingly, PowerIE -- nothing but an IE extension, not a whole browser like CB is -- has a download almost as big as CB itself, which I think nicely illustrates how much being able to use shared html rendering libraries can help things here...)

Anyone interested in learning more about how IE can be extended (as closed source but semi-open APIs) may want to get in touch with the CB people, though I have no idea if they'd want to talk shop. *shrug*

(Annoyingly, you can't get to the CB home page without being forced to accept a popup for one of this company's other products, PowerIE. Some kind of toolbar thing, I dunno. It looks like it might be interesting but having to learn about it through a popup like this is rude -- but then I'm not typing this from a popup blocking browser, so I get what I deserve I guess. Amusingly, PowerIE -- nothing but an IE extension, not a whole browser like CB is -- has a download almost as big as CB itself, which I think nicely illustrates how much being able to use shared html rendering libraries can help things here...)

Why wait? You can already get tabbed browsing and crude popup killing with an IE rendering engine. The program is called crazy browser and it can be obtained Here. It kills all popups so it is still more crude than Mozilla where you block only unsolicited popups but if you HAVE to use the IE engine for a site I find it to be about the only bearable way to do so.

For those who don't like Mozilla, but want tabbed browsing in Windows, try crazybrowser.

I like to use Crazy Browser. It has an option to open the page that you were viewing last session.

This is not a stand-alone browser; it uses IE's rendering engine.

(There is an effective pop-up filter built in, but it often blocks good pop-ups. I fall back on IE in these situations.)

I must agree, privoxy is an excellent program indeed. There's a thread in their Sourceforge bug tracker about ad-blocking software (a different company I think but the same idea) and the consensus is that it will eventually have to be addressed. At the current time, however, only a few sites are going to such extremes. A rather simple policy would be the ability for the ad-blocker to request the banner image but discard the results and send a 1x1 empty image to the browser.

However, this fails for sites that use Javascript to check on the client-side whether certain images are blocked or not. Disabling Javascript is one way, but they can probably check that server-side. Sadly, it's very hard for third-party software to deal with this -- they would have to implement a complete Javascript interpreter. In other words, simple regex text handling can only go so far when dealing with scripts, it's far easier to implement changes in the browser's script engine. However, as you can see from this discussion of Bugzilla #181035, doing this can be very non-trivila. [Note that bugzilla refuses referers from slashdot and that link may not work, so either enter the URL by hand or fake your Referer: header.]

Finally, I'd just like to remind everyone using IE that would like Mozilla-like features such as pop-up blocking, tabbed browsing, per-page Javascript/ActiveX disabling, etc. to try Crazy Browser which uses the IE engine with extra stuff on top.

However, I've heard that popup blockers and tabbed browsing are making their way into IE (and MS employees can already use these features), but we'll see if they're actually integrated.

Already exists. Crazy Browser uses the IE engine and adds tabs, popup blocking, easy toggling of images/videos/activex, "tab groups" that can be saved/opened together, etc. (it's freeware, too.)

All they have to do is rip off the code from CrazyBrowser. Since I switched to using it I've rarely had to go back to plain IE (Crazybrowser uses IE's rendering engine and settings and such but seems to just wrap around it nicely). Blocks pop-ups nicely and does tabbed browsing.

At the moment, I'm posting with Crazy Browser. It's free but not Open Source, and it's a small wrapper for the IE rendering engine that does tabbed browsing and popup killing all in one.

Hope you guys find it useful :). Otherwise, I also use Phoenix, similar with Mozilla.

Believe me, like the rest of you, I love Mozilla, and I live by the tabbed browsing

IE has tabbed browsing and pop up blocking - Its called Crazybrowser

You know, I see everybody complaining about pop-ups and stuff, but I haven't seen one in months. And I use IE. There are two ways of getting rid of them:
- Crazy Browser, which is a nice browser with tabs, for Windows, and
- Pop-up Stopper.
Personally I prefer Crazy Browser, 'cos I like tabbed browsing.
Don't get me wrong, I have much simpathy for the Mozilla project, and I think it's a great browser, but it's not the only way to get rid of pop-ups.

I use CrazyBrowser which is just the IE engine with tabbed browsing, pop up killer and a number of other useful things.

I actually prefer the way it does pop-ups too, they go into a new tab rather than actually popping up. Makes it much easier to kill them (as you can just double click on the tab). I don't think Moz does this (or if it does, I didn't find it).

My only complaint is that some (Microsoft) applications insist on firing up IE despite the fact that CrazyBrowser is my default browser.

Oh yes, and it's a silly name.

There is also a commercial version called Netcaptor too which has a few more features, but CB is free (as in beer).

There's always crazy browser in case you run windows :-)

I remember when M$ visual basic came with the stuff to create your own webbrowser, 75K compiled, and you had a basic html browser, no table support, but it did render basic formated text.
When I'm stuck using IE only sites, I use an IE enhancer, Crazy Browser, provides tabs, and other security features that I turn off (cookie/popups/etc), but its free and fills the missing functions.

It's nice, however I'd far rather than when a new window is opened, it is put in a new tab rather than firing up a new window. CrazyBrowser does this and it's great!

Finally, is there any way (a la CrazyBrowser again) that I can set up a "Group" of bookmarks, so with one click I can open 7 or 8 pages in tabs all at once?

These two features alone (including the pop-up blocker) keep me with CrazyBrowser. If Moz can't do them (and I'm sure it can) then it would be a shame because I'd end up probably sticking with what I have.

Is the article accurate? The settlement was just to "hide" the bundled software? There was no part indicating that the services offered to IE, Outlook, Media Player, etc by the OS have to be available to competitors, so that they can integrate and interoperate as seamlessly? No wonder 9 states dissented.

Many of the services you mention (perhaps all?) are available for third party developers. As an example, I am writing this using Crazy Browser a web browser that uses the IE engine but has a different UI (blocks pop-ups, browser panes etc.). I know there are APIs (e.g. this one) to the Media Player that allows third parties to integrate it into their applications. I'm not sure about Outlook.

Check out CrazyBrowser. Tabbed browsing, popup blocker, etc. Based off of IE, but has a lot of the nice features of Mozilla.

Crazy Browser is just the IE dll's wrapped around a suitably beefed up interface. There is tabbed browsing, groups and a pop up killer included to boot. It's very good.

There is also a commercial version called NetCaptor, which i'm told is slightly better, but it (obviously) costs more.

If you have to use IE (And cant bitch slap the webmaster) try Crazy Browser. It will give you tabs, and stop pop ups. Middle mouse button works also.. Then complete it with Proxomitron and you can do almost anything. Proxomitron is kinda like junkbusters for windows, more options, gui interface, proxy switcher, very nice.
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Open Letter To America from a Canadian

if you like ie6 but are missing features like tabbed browsing, a fully configurable pop-up blocker etc., try the crazybrowser (what a stupid name). it's basically an third-party upgrade for the ie. it's free too!

http://www.crazybrowser.com

i used to surf with opera, but since 6 it got unstable when viewing more than 7 tabs.

There are front-ends for Internet Explorer that have features that you want, one I know of is CrazyBrowser. Note that I still think Internet Explorer is bad in general however.

if you want a (freeware) Pop Up blocker (and Tabs) in IE, you could try Crazy Browser

FYI, Tabs in IE6.

Dunno if the google toolbar will work in it, as I only use IE6 for work related stuff (for some crazy reason 90% of our customers run IE, because of some retarded thing called a monopoly that I don't quite understand) , anyway I use mozilla for everything else. :)

It's got tabs, built-in popup suppression, uses the Gecko render engine, and has a bunch of other neato options.

Todd

I've tried various add-on pop-up stoppers, but none seemed to be both effective and unintrusive. I choose to use MSIE, and was delighted to find that CrazyBrowser, a free MSIE add-on whose primary purpose is to add a tabbed interface, is supremely effective at blocking pop-up ads without also suppressing useful popups. It has a number of other cool features as well. Did I mention it's free? It's not "spyware", either. I like it a lot.

On a related and truly ironic note, I was helping my mother set up her web site on 50megs.com, and was amused that the first time I brought up her new page (using stock MSIE, no popup stoppers), a popup appeared advertising a popup blocker! At least that didn't show up again!

Unless the security issues keep you awake at night (and they don't for me) then you could always just download CrazyBrowser.

It's 698k, has a tabbed interface, can kill most unrequested pop-ups and has a number of other nifty features included. It uses the IE rendering engine (hence the comment about security) but that does mean that you can access pretty much every site on the internet.

If you're on a modem, this has the advantage as well of being a lot more paletable than the 9.8 meg needed for Mozilla.

It's free (as in beer) too.

If you like tabs and pop-up blocking, check out Crazy Browser. It uses an embedded IE for rendering and also provides tabs and ad blocking and a bunch of other useful stuff.

IE renderer with tabs and a bunch of other cool features:

http://www.crazybrowser.com/

No, they do something worse. The window that spawned them steals the window focus.
And some pop-under ads are very poorly designed, such that when using IE (yes, I'm a poor sap that uses IE)

If you like the IE rendering engine and don't want to switch to Mozilla, another way to get nice tabbed browsing and stop unrequested pop-ups/unders is Crazybrowser. I didn't write it or have anything to do with it, just a satisfied user. Some sites I need to go to don't work with Mozilla so this works great as an alternative and I don't have to wade through pop-ups/pop-unders. Those have got to be the most annoying ad format anyone has ever come up with. Flash and Java ads follow a close second, and animated GIF banner ads follow after that. I can block images from ad servers, not install Flash, and block unrequested popups and I'm usually happy. I would like to see images on Slashdot once in awhile but they chose to serve their banner ads off the same server as their normal images so no luck there. Ah well, you don't miss much if you block all images on Slashdot. Just the little icons and such.

As I said before, use the Crazy browser and you have IE with tabs and a popup filter. IE is faster than Mozilla in certain areas, while Mozilla is faster in different areas. Don't be so biased.

Use the Crazy Browser, it's IE with tabs und PopUp filter.

BTW, I think it's cool that the only major browser without tabs after KDE3.1 is released will be IE. The Galeon folks should be proud.

Simple solution: Use Mozilla, and turn off unrequested popups. I haven't seen one in months.

Or if you want to keep using the IE engine for compatibility, you can try out Crazy Browser (http://www.crazybrowser.com/). It's a tabbed browser using the IE engine and it can easily disable popup ads.

Or you can install Proxomitron (http://www.proxomitron.org), it's a wonderful free http proxy that filters out most ads including the annoying pop ups.

I use both when I'm forced to use Windows (at work).

However, I have found Crazy Browser which is a replacement for IE using the IE rendering engine.

In fact thats what I'm using now and for a 690k download, it's lovely. Full support for websites (even those with iffy HTML), tabbed interface, Windows XP theme support, popup filter and a really nifty feature which indicates when pages have changed in your links list.

It's also free (as in beer). Having access to the source doesn't bother me (and 90% of the population) in the slightest since I wouldn't understand a word of it or really look at it.

I appreciate that this is a geek site and therefore most people won't touch IE with a barge pole but if you do like IE (and I do) but want tabbed browsing then check it out.

As far as I'm concerned, it does everything that I'd use in Opera, so therefore I don't really see the point in paying for Opera. Granted they've done a fine job - but it's just not for me.

It uses the IE dll's for rendering and it's what IE should have been. It's also free (as in beer).

Another one I've tried is Crazy Browser , which is very similar to Netcaptor but is free. I've also found that it's buggier than Netcaptor. Crazy Browser also offers ad and pop-up filtering.

Crazy Browser This is basically a frontend to the IE engine that gives you a tabbed interface and some other nice things.