OT Is there a safe way to close pop-up windows (which may be malicious)?

May 02, 2006 4 Replies

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John S. 20 years ago

My aplogies for an off topic question, but I know most of the people who frequent this newsgroup are security savvy and may be able to help.

I have read that malicious intrusions can often enter computers when a user clicks a button on a pop - up window, and that these buttons often have misleading names.

So, how do you safely close a pop - up window just to make it go away?

Is it safe to click the large X button at its top right corner, or might this symbol be programmed to do something other than just close the window?

On one occasion I tried using the keyboard Alt + F4, but this closed the browser down also.

Thanks to anyone with the patience to put me on the right track.

Cheers,

John S

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Volker Birk 20 years ago

Just don't use Internet Explorer, but some alternative. Then you don't have such problems.

Yours, VB.

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J C 20 years ago

Yes CTRL ALT DELETE click on the task manager, then the applications tab then highlight the instance of Internet Explorer which has the pop up window open (which is usually at the top of the list) and click on the 'END TASK' button.

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