Before you install a PopUp blocker you should make sure your system is free
of spyware or adware. In itself, this will eliminate many problems with popups
and speed up your system. I would suggest running either
Ad-Aware 6 http://www.lavasoftusa.com (Free, regular updates)
Spybot Search & Destroy http://www.safer-networking.org/ (Free, updates)

Now for my reviews of free popup blockers.

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All-in-One Secretmaker 3.8.5
http://www.secretmaker.com
Avoid spam, banner ads, and popups, and protect your online privacy by managing history files.

My opinion: Interesting. Blocks banners, popups, cookies, spam. Free. Cleans your history too. You might need to disable script debugging in IE. Lots of great features considering that it's free.

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Google Toolbar.
http://toolbar.google.com

Take the power of Google with you anywhere on the web. The Google Toolbar enables you to search the web from any site, block unwanted popup ads, fill in forms with just one click, search within the pages of any site and highlight the words you searched for on a page. The Google Toolbar is free and installs in just seconds.

My opinion: Nice product from people you trust. Great if you do Google searches a lot or like to use a auto form filler.
Some friends say it's their favorite.

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CleanMyPC Popup Blocker
http://www.registry-cleaner.net/

Tired of annoying popup ads when surfing the Web? Stop them with CleanMyPC PopUp Blocker. The built-in artificial intelligence engine will automatically distinguish between popup ads and useful pop-up windows, stopping the unwanted windows while the useful popups from some Web sites will not be affected.

My opinion: Simple, basic. Free and blocks popups. Good.

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PopStopXP-Free v2.0.0
http://www.solutiondb.com

Popup Blocker - fully functional, and completely free. Works with Internet Explorer 5.5 or greater. Supports whitelists, exclusion list, and hotkey. Seemlessly blocks annoying popup ads enhancing your browsing experience. Version 2.0 added tons of features to help get rid of those popups.

My opinion: Seems to work pretty well. Tends to block useful clicks sometimes. You have to start it and tell it to run automatically on startup. There is a hotkey to use for good clicks and has a whitelist for good sites.

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Mozilla Browsers: Mozilla Suite and Firefox (stand-alone browser) #1 Choice!
http://www.mozilla.org

* For web browsing, email, HTML editing, IRC chat, and more
* Built with your privacy and security in mind
* Stop popups and junk mail
* Open multiple web pages in the same window with tabbed browsing
Mozilla is the best free alternative to Microsoft IE and it's faster to boot.
Firefox is the stand-alone browser that requires no configuration. Auto popup blocking.

My opinion: Opensource, fast, reliable, not vulnerable to exploits/spyware/bugs for IE and constantly being developed and updated. You may have to enable popup blocking in options. Has a whitelist for those rare popups that you want.
My #1 choice. Mozilla is the future. Get it! Never worry about popups and malware/spyware auto-installers again.

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A larger list of free popup blockers can be found here.

Snapfiles.com

Story By Mark Rubins.
Computer Dudes, Tallahassee

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Note by byarst
At this time The Computer Dudes, Inc.

Supports and Recommends the following anti-spyware and anti-popup software:

Ad-Aware 6 http://www.lavasoftusa.com (Free, regular updates)
Spybot Search & Destroy http://www.safer-networking.org/ (Free, updates)

Further Recomendation:
Google Toolbar.
http://toolbar.google.com

Good luck and check back for updated information.

Regards,
byarst