How to Stop Pop-Ups and Unwanted Notifications in Chrome and Edge
Learning how to stop pop-ups is one of the quickest wins for a calmer time online. A pop-up that appears over the page you are reading, or a notification that slides in from the corner of your screen while you are working, is more than a minor annoyance. It breaks your concentration, and on some websites it is a deliberate trick to get you to click something you did not want. The good news is that both Chrome and Edge have built-in tools to block pop-ups and silence notifications, and they take only a few minutes to set up. This guide shows you how to use them, how to deal with the sites that ignore them, and how to keep your browser quiet in the long term.
Why Pop-Ups and Notifications Keep Appearing
Pop-ups come in two kinds, and it helps to know which one you are dealing with. The first kind is the pop-up a website opens on purpose, usually to ask you to sign up for a newsletter, accept cookies, or download an app. These are annoying but mostly harmless, and your browser can block most of them. The second kind appears even when you are not on a suspicious site, and it often comes from a notification permission you granted by accident, or from an extension or program that is showing ads. These are the ones that follow you from site to site, and they need a different fix.
Notifications are a separate problem. When a website asks, “Show notifications?” and you click Allow, that site can send messages to your desktop at any time, even when the browser is closed. One careless click on a misleading button can turn into a stream of fake virus warnings, prize offers, and urgent messages designed to scare you into clicking. None of those messages come from Windows or from your antivirus software. They come from the website you allowed, and the fix is to take that permission away. Once you understand the two causes, the fixes in this guide are straightforward.
Block Pop-Ups in Chrome
Chrome blocks most pop-ups by default, but it is worth checking that the setting is actually on. Click the three dots at the top right, open Settings, then go to Privacy and security, Site settings, and Pop-ups and redirects. Make sure the option is set to “Don’t allow sites to send pop-ups or use redirects.” While you are there, look at the lists below it. The “Not allowed to send pop-ups” list should be the default, and the “Allowed” list should be empty unless there is a specific site you trust that needs pop-ups, such as your bank’s website opening a document.
If a particular site keeps showing pop-ups even with the block turned on, you can block it specifically. Open the site, click the padlock or tune icon to the left of the address bar, open Site settings, and set Pop-ups and redirects to Block. Chrome will remember that choice for that site alone. If pop-ups appear on every site, including ones that never had them before, the cause is probably not Chrome at all. It is usually an extension or a program showing ads, and you will find the fix for that later in this guide.
Block Pop-Ups in Microsoft Edge
Edge has the same protection, and it is just as easy to check. Click the three dots at the top right, open Settings, then go to Cookies and site permissions, and choose Pop-ups and redirects. Make sure the Block option is turned on. Edge also has a separate setting for notifications on the same page, which you should review while you are there. Like Chrome, Edge lets you block pop-ups for one specific site by clicking the padlock icon in the address bar and changing the site’s permissions.
Edge has one extra feature that Chrome does not: a built-in tracking prevention setting, which you will find under Privacy, search, and services. Setting it to Balanced or Strict reduces the amount of tracking that advertisers can do, and it can cut down on some of the more aggressive advertising. It will not block every pop-up, because pop-ups and tracking are different things, but it makes the web a little quieter overall. If you use both browsers, check the settings in each one, because changing Chrome does not change Edge, and the two browsers keep their permissions separately.
Stop Websites From Sending You Notifications
Notifications are controlled separately from pop-ups, and they are the source of most of the fake warnings people see on their desktops. In Chrome, go to Settings, Privacy and security, Site settings, Notifications, and make sure the default is “Don’t allow sites to send notifications.” Then scroll down to the “Allowed to send notifications” list and remove any site you do not recognise or no longer want to hear from. In Edge, the same list is under Settings, Cookies and site permissions, Notifications.
Be ruthless with this list. A news site, a shopping site, or a video site does not need to send you desktop notifications, and if you allowed one by accident, removing it costs nothing. The only sites worth keeping are the ones where a notification genuinely helps you, such as a calendar or a messaging app you use for work. If you are unsure about a site, remove it. You can always allow it again later if you miss it, and you almost certainly will not. After you clean up the list, the stream of fake virus warnings and prize offers should stop immediately, because those messages only exist while the permission exists.
Remove the Extensions and Programs Behind the Pop-Ups
If pop-ups keep appearing even though your browser is set to block them, something else is showing them. The most common cause is a browser extension. Open Chrome’s Extensions page or Edge’s Extensions page and look at what is installed. Remove anything you do not recognise or no longer use, and be suspicious of extensions that promise free movies, free games, or shopping discounts, because those are the ones most often bundled with adware. A single bad extension can show pop-ups on every site you visit, and removing it fixes the problem instantly. If you want a refresher on telling good extensions from bad ones, read our guide on how to use Chrome extensions safely on Windows.
The second cause is a program installed on your computer. Some free programs bundle extra software that shows ads, and it can be hard to spot during installation. Open Settings, go to Apps, then Installed apps, and sort by install date. Look for anything you do not remember installing, especially toolbars, optimisers, or programs with vague names, and uninstall them. Then run a scan with Windows Security to check for anything the uninstall missed. If the pop-ups only started after you installed a particular free program, that program is the most likely cause, and removing it is the fix.
What to Do to Stop Pop-Ups That Appear on Every Site
When pop-ups appear everywhere, work through the causes in order. First, check that pop-ups are blocked in your browser settings, as described above. Second, remove suspicious extensions. Third, uninstall unfamiliar programs and run a Windows Security scan. Fourth, clear your browser’s stored data, because a site can store settings that keep triggering pop-ups, and clearing them gives you a clean start. Our guide on how to clear cache in Chrome, Edge, and Firefox safely explains how to do that without losing your saved passwords or bookmarks.
If the pop-ups still appear after all of that, try a different browser for a few minutes. If the other browser is quiet, the problem is in the first browser’s settings or extensions, and resetting that browser to its defaults will fix it. Both Chrome and Edge have a reset option in Settings that restores the original settings without deleting your bookmarks or passwords. If the pop-ups appear in both browsers, the cause is a program on your computer, and a full scan with Windows Security, or a second-opinion scan with a free tool such as Malwarebytes, is the next step. Do not click on any pop-up that claims your computer is infected and offers to fix it, because that message is the scam itself.
Keep Your Browser Clean Going Forward
Once your browser is quiet, a few habits will keep it that way. When a site asks to send notifications, the default answer should be Block, unless you have a specific reason to allow it. When you install a new program, read each screen of the installer and decline any extra software it offers. When you install an extension, check its reviews and its permissions, and remove it if you stop using it. And once a month, take two minutes to look at your extensions and your notification permissions and remove anything you do not need.
It is also worth turning on your browser’s protection against misleading sites. In Chrome, this is under Privacy and security, Security, and it is called Enhanced protection. In Edge, it is under Privacy, search, and services, and it is called Microsoft Defender SmartScreen. These features warn you before you open a site that is known to show deceptive pop-ups or downloads, which stops many problems before they start. They are not perfect, and they do not replace good judgement, but they are a useful safety net that costs you nothing.
Conclusion
Learning how to stop pop-ups is mostly a matter of using the tools your browser already gives you. Turn on the pop-up block in Chrome or Edge, set notifications to Block by default, and remove the sites you allowed by accident. If pop-ups keep appearing, remove suspicious extensions and unfamiliar programs, and run a security scan. Then keep your browser clean by saying no to notification requests and reading installers carefully. Do those things once, and the web becomes noticeably quieter. Your browser should show you the pages you asked for, and nothing else, and now you know how to make it do exactly that.
