Last night, I was on my mom’s laptop, browsing the web, when I went to a website that tried to install some toolbar crap on the laptop.
I was given a checkbox on the confirmation popup “Always trust software from [scum]”. I was NOT given the option “Never trust software from [scum]”. As a result, I had to click “no” over and over.
Tell me, Microsoft - how do you explain this oversight? When I say “no”, I mean it. Give me the option of saying “no” to a whole company if I choose. At least, let my “no” choice be permanent when I’m asked if I want ScumwareLord to install Wizzy Keen Fastsurf Popkill Gold Pro with 50K of useful code and a couple gigs of spyware.
Never — NEVER! — click the buttons inside those things. They can be labeled “No” or “Cancel” or “Forget It” while the code they call does whatever it damn well pleases. Use Alt+F4 to close the window.
The problem with that strategy is that once you’ve made your permanent “no” decision you’d never get asked that question again - and never even get a chance to install anything new from that company or change your mind in terms of one of the installations that you’d turned down in the past.
And in your particular case I noticed that you wanted to make that decision on your mom’s laptop. Maybe mom should get a chance to decide for herself on that particular piece of “toolbar crap” sometime in the future?
I’m with Libertarian, don’t touch them at all. I right click on them on the start bar and close them. If I want the stuff I will find it. Any response to that window does something you didn’t request.
Big ten-four on the alt-F4. Frequently, there are no buttons–merely a single graphic that looks like separate dialog buttons–designed to catch folks who aren’t paying attention.
Also, use Mozilla (the latest official Firefox build is a thing of beauty). Or Opera, if that does it better for you. Avoid IE except for emergencies, or when you have no choice.
Use a program called PopupCop. It’s very small, and integrates into IE. Using it, you are given the option to Never trust software from any company, as well as prevent the infinite loop of popups that often accompany them.
Oh yeah, like any sensible person is gonna want a dancing monkey on their desktop. Riiiiiiiiight.
Point taken, yet she shares my opinion on that crap too. Just FYI.
Revtim, I was indeed speaking of the MSIE popup that Microsoft gives. Libertarian, I know those can be faked, and your comment on Alt F4 is well taken.
What I’d like in that kind of case is that it appears in the status bar or something when it’d like to be downloaded, so if I do want it, I glance down, click and go. If I don’t I ignore it, and don’t have to read 2000 dialogs.
Or, alternatively, a button that says “go away for a day/week/month” - to be fair many people are catching on to this one.
While Im no great MS fan, I dont understand why this would bother you. You dont have an option to select ‘Never’, because that is the default state. You allready are in the state of Never Accepting, which is exactly why a popup appeared each and every time; to ask you if you wanted to install it because your prefs are set to Never Trust. Never Trust ~means~ ask me each and every time.
If there is a gripe here its with the site that didnt bother to make further install attempts contingent upon the acceptance of the first one.
I think the point was that it should give an option to never accept, then never ask again. If I still used IE, I’d agree with the OP that it should have that option. As a Mozilla user, I care somewhat less.
If you prefer using IE, I can recommend the Google toolbar for this same service as well. With the popup blocker enabled, you just hear a little click when it nabs one. And it is nice to always have the google search engine waiting there for you.
Maybe Im wrong, but it doesnt sound like he was talking about javascript popups, but the permission popups you get when some sites try to run some activex scripts on your computer (for installation of various gadgets or whatever).
Several people have suggested pop-up blockers, but this is not a pop-up in the traditional sense; this is a message from the browser regarding digital certificates. I doubt a popup blocker could or should block this.
If it pops up, it’s a popup. Javascript or permission dialog.
Okay, I see how a misunderstanding could happen. Yeah, I should have been more clear. But my original point still stands. Give me a “Never” option already.
There is, sort of. If you’re using IE, you can add websites to the Restricted Zone, which, by default, has all downloads and active scripting disabled. Alternatively, you can disable downloads on ALL sites in your security settings, but you might find this a bit too restrictive.
It would be nice to have the option to disable one particular download on a given site right from that dialog box, though.
Okay, 20 posts in and we’re slowly getting there; is it right to say this is an issue specific to Windows XP (cos I think most people here don’t use it and don’t have a clue about this certificate business) ?