Content Advisor
It works, but it has a downside: it has a habit of making Internet Explorer reload every website that you visit (not on the to-block-list) 5 times within a second, and this can get your IP banned on certain websites, when they use a strict DDOS-attack-prevention policy. Maybe it does this because it has an inbuilt rating system designed to scan webpages on "wrong" content. It does not do that on websites (URLs) that you have marked as "always trusted".
For that reason it is important that you fill in the "Always Approved" list with trusted URLs.
Content Advisor is present in Windows Vista Starter, Home Premium, Ultimate, Enterprise
and in Windows 7 Ultimate, but not in Home Premium.
Assuming that you're doing this for yourself to get rid of some annoying webpages that open automatically whilst you're visiting for instance a download site. Those are not pop-ups anymore, but actual websites. Fortunately you don't need a third party tool; Windows has one inbuilt.
- Content Advisor is disabled by default. So, first enable it:
In the Search bar above the Start Orb, type
gpedit.msc
right-click on the shortcut that appears and select to run as administrator. - Navigate to: Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Internet Explorer > Internet Control Panel > Content Page > enable Show Content Advisor on Internet Options policy.
- Reboot the PC
- Control Panel > Internet Options > Content: you see that you now have a Content Advisor.
Click the button to Enable it.
Enabling it for the first time will automatically open it (to open it next time: hit button "Settings"). - Open its tab "Approved Sites" and
- paste the URL that you want to block, then hit the "Never" button, then click Apply.
- paste the URL that you want to allow, then hit the "Always" button, then click Apply.
- Click OK to close.
- You MUST create a password. (Hint: if you're the only user, just type the password as reminder in the description field).
Do NOT follow tips for removal of the password obligation (by deleting a Registry key), as the result will be that the sites in your blocked ("Allowed: Never") list will no longer be blocked! - Back at Internet Options > Content > Content Advisor, Click the button "Settings" {and type in password}:
- On the General tab enable "Users can see websites that have no rating" (Very important, otherwise every website will be blocked until you rate it).
- On the "Ratings" tab, for every ICRA3 category, move the slider to the right for "unrestricted", to not hinder yourself during your free internet browsing. Click OK.
Regedit -> HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Ratings
In the right-side panel delete the Binary Value Key and exit Regedit.