If you’re a Firefox junky like me, you probably take the built in pop-up blocker for granted. It’s a dandy little feature that helps make browsing bearable. However, you may have noticed that over the past few months, the blocker seems to be letting stuff through. This is due to scumbag pop-up spammers taking a new tactic by using Flash to trigger the new windows. The honeymoon is looking to be at an end.

But, before you hang yourself from the shower curtain rod, there’s a way around this issue. Pour a stiff drink, sit down, tear up the suicide notes (you really aren’t sorry for all the trouble you’ve caused anyway, c’mon) and prepare to do some fixing!

How to stop pop-ups from Flash in Firefox

1. Open a window in Firefox (…duh) and type about:config in the address bar.
2. Right-click (CTRL + click for Mac users) on the page and select New and then Integer.
3. Name it privacy.popups.disable_from_plugins
   
4. Set the value to 2.

That’s it motherfucker! You’re a man now. Have a cigar or something. Buck the fuck up, you did it yourself. Stop slouching. It’s okay to smile, but ain’t a damn thing funny…yadda, yadda, yadda.

To take it further, you can adjust the value of the integer (we’d set it at 2) to customize how strong the pop-up spanking should be:

• 0: Allow all popups from plugins.
• 1: Allow popups, but limit them to dom.popup_maximum.
• 2: Block popups from plugins.
• 3: Block popups from plugins, even on whitelisted sites.

Just thought I’d spread the word. Thanks Pete Bevin for figuring it out and thanks StumbleUpon for bringing it to my attention.