# What's up with Firefox and "pop up windows" **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 11, 2011, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-firefox-and-pop-up-windows/567229 "2011-01-11T16:47:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![keno](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f9ae1b/32.png) [@keno](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/keno)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2011, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-firefox-and-pop-up-windows/567229/1 "2011-01-11T16:47:47Z")
I’m a long-time user of Firefox and really appreciate it’s ability to block pop-ups. But I notice that recently it is creating new instances(?) with pages/sites I did not select. It’s as though I right-clicked on a link and selected Open in New Window – except the window is stripped down, doesn’t include the menu bar, toolbar, any of the other stuff that’s normally at the top of the screen. Is there something else that needs to be turned on to stop this annoying behavior? ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2011, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-firefox-and-pop-up-windows/567229/2 "2011-01-11T17:55:05Z")
Sounds like malware to me. Get Malwarebytes and clean your computer. ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2011, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-firefox-and-pop-up-windows/567229/3 "2011-01-11T18:28:31Z")
One thing to check is to make sure it’s actually a firefox window that is coming up. If it really is coming from firefox it will have the little firefox logo at the top of the window, even if the rest of the stuff (menu bar, etc) isn’t there. Malware, as **Leaffan** suggested, is also a definite possibility. Another possibility is that a pop-up window was spawned when you clicked on something or pressed a key for something. Firefox intentionally doesn’t block these types of pop-ups because that would prevent a lot of websites from working. I don’t have a lot of experience with them, but there are add-ons for firefox that you can use to block these (adblock plus pop-up addon, for example). If the pop-up windows are all coming from a particular site, you can block that site with an add-on called BlockSite. ---
**Author:** ![Myglaren](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f1d935/32.png) [@Myglaren](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Myglaren)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2011, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-firefox-and-pop-up-windows/567229/4 "2011-01-11T19:20:07Z")
Could be legit. The site I use to check [TV times](http://www.tvguide.co.uk/?thistime=19&thisDay=2/15/2009&systemid=3&gridspan=03:00&catColor=) opens a 'stripped down) page if you click on any TV program listing for further details. ---
**Author:** ![Al\_Bundy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e79b87/32.png) [@Al\_Bundy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Al_Bundy)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2011, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-firefox-and-pop-up-windows/567229/5 "2011-01-11T19:22:54Z")
I’m running the latest version, 3.6.13. and have no such problem. Of course I also run “no script” that eliminates some things. Maybe you should try that. It seems every new version of Firefox comes with some bugs. The current one will stop the scroll function sometimes or develop a jumpy page. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2011, 6:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-firefox-and-pop-up-windows/567229/6 "2011-01-13T06:04:41Z")
> [@keno](#): > > I’m a long-time user of Firefox and really appreciate it’s ability to block pop-ups. But I notice that recently it is creating new instances(?) with pages/sites I did not select. It’s as though I right-clicked on a link and selected Open in New Window – except the window is stripped down, doesn’t include the menu bar, toolbar, any of the other stuff that’s normally at the top of the screen. > > Is there something else that needs to be turned on to stop this annoying behavior? You aren’t running the beta, are you? Firefox 4.0b7 will do this on some sites. It has to do with the new Javascript engine, and certain scripts that load a page within a frame. Firefox misses the frame. Malware is more likely to take you to some random site, so if you are running Firefox 3.6.13, I’d just [create a new profile](http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/managing%20profiles).