Ad pop-ups are extremely annoying. They waste your time, clutter up your screen, and cause your computer to run slowly. Want to know what causes them and how to stop them? Read on!

What are they?

There are two types of ad popups that you might see on your computer. The first are from on-site advertising, and the second are from something far worse, called adware. I'm going to cover the latter, the ones that show up when you're doing something else (like using the word processor or playing a game) as those are even more irritating, but the solutions below work for both.

Adware is installed on your computer through a variety of ways, similar to a computer virus. Unlike viruses, however, they aren't detected by conventional antivirus software, and as such can be quite difficult to remove.

How do I get rid of them?

There are a number of adware removal programs available on the web. What adware removers do is track down where the malicious software has infected your computer and systematically remove them. Proper anti-adware programs also will actively protect your system from new infections, as well as preventing popups from website advertising from bothering you either.

Every system that is connected to the web is vulnerable to adware, and should be protected from its annoyances. Removing adware from your system has the added benefit of giving you an extra performance boost, since all your processor time isn't wasted coming up with ads to bother you with.