Firefox's popup blocker is designed to prevent sites from opening new windows without the user first taking a designated action such as clicking a button. Disabling that should be the end of the problem for that kind of pop-up, unless an extension also has a pop-up blocker. That's easy enough to check on the Add-ons page. Either:

• Ctrl+Shift+a
• orange Firefox button (or Tools menu) > Add-ons

In the left column, click Extensions.

As a test, you could disable all of them and see whether that makes a difference. Usually a link will appear above at least one disabled extension to restart Firefox. You can complete your work on the tab and click one of the links as the last step.

Any difference?

Some sites use alert dialogs — OK/Cancel message boxes — instead of pop-up windows. Firefox has a completely different set of settings relating to those.

If you have ever noticed a checkbox in the dialog to stop the site from showing more alerts, than this is what the page is showing.

Let me find an old thread on this to see what the solution was in that case...

I can confirm that these are indeed new windows. Alert dialogs come up fine. Personally, I think it's rather asinine for our database software to open almost everything in a new window, but unfortunately I have no control over these matters. I'll be leaving work soon but tomorrow I will attempt to get some proper screenshots to better prove that this is indeed the case.

Follow-ups:

Pop-up windows

There is a setting for the maximum number of non-click popups that a site can launch, which is 20 by default. Perhaps this is the problem? To avoid this limit you have two choices (at least in theory):

(1) Give the site explicit pop-up Allow permission. You can do this using the Page Info dialog's Permissions tab. Either:

• right-click and choose View Page Info > Permissions
• Tools menu > Page Info > Permissions
• Click the padlock or globe icon on the address bar > More Information > Permissions

Then scroll down to Open Pop-up Windows to make the change.

I'm not sure how to reset the count if you've already gone past the max. Possibly exiting and restarting Firefox?

(2) Increase the global maximum for dom.popup_maximum in about:config (however, this may be annoying if you happen to find an abusive site).

Alert dialogs

To prevent pages from trapping users with an endless sequence of dialogs, there is a limit of 10 closely spaced dialogs and then after that they are suppressed. To allow an infinite number, you can create a new preference in about:config. Unfortunately, it's a global preference, so if you happen into an abusive site you might be stuck.

1. Copy the preference name dom.successive_dialog_time_limit
2. In a new tab, type about:config in the address bar and press Enter. Click the button promising to be careful.
3. Right-click in the preferences area and choose New > Integer
4. Paste the preference name and click OK
5. Then enter 0 and click OK

Wow, thanks! That actually worked, I didn't expect it to since you explained that the limit is for "non-click" popups. All popups from the database software are initiated by a user click. The database software is written in JavaScript. Is it possible that new windows opened by clicking within a JS app are considered by Firefox to have been opened solely by JS?

Good question, I haven't studied exactly how the code works in determining how the popup window was triggered.

I deleted and installed a clean version of linux (linux mint 12) and the firefox that comes with it. I downloaded and installed all updates.

After all that, the d&d commercial came back. I do not what to try next.

Hi jkohler2, could you check your download history to see what exactly you installed and from where? Some unofficial installers may include unwanted extras.

To rule out extensions as a possible culprit, try Firefox's Safe Mode. That's a standard diagnostic tool to bypass interference by extensions (and some custom settings). More info: Diagnose Firefox issues using Troubleshoot Mode.

Hi jscher 2000, I forgot to mention in the original message that I am not using the Windows version firefox. I run linux, so cannot start the laptop in Safe Mode, though I realize that it is a great troubleshooting tool. Thanks for the suggestion, though. I'd like to locate the IP address of the pop up sites, also hope the "page source" of the HTML commands that may let me identify and block them.

Thanks, again

John

Hi jkohler2, Firefox's Safe Mode is just a reduced functionality version mode of Firefox. The support article describes how to access it.

As an aside, I experimented with Linux Mint 13 LTS today as a potential Windows XP replacement. So I'll start having a little more familiarity with Firefox on Linux if I get it approved.

Thanks for the description of Firefox's Safe Mode. I just thought that Safe Mode was a condition under which one could start Windows XP under a minimal operating system by starting a boot sequence holding down the F8 key and run troubleshooting and maintenance prrams for Windows effectively. It seems that the Windows XP version of Firefox could run unaffected by a virus, worm, or other malware, and ge fixed.

Thanks for trying this distribution of Linux. There are many, and I am a fan.