You then also have to add in the fact that in some cases popup windows uncommanded by the user are in fact what is desired.

As an example I write complex IE based Intranet apps, that are designed to look like and behave like "normal" Windows applications. Two of the features in the main app I have been involved in are Reminders and Messages.

Both these features need to be able to pop up a new window when a note worth even happens (i.e. a reminder occurs or a new message arrives).

The first thing you have to do when running the application in question is disable popup blocking for the web server it runs from.

P.S. admittedly we could implement the functionality slightly differently, by displaying a message in the main window when an event occured, for the user to then click on (though that wouldn't give quite the immediacy).

When we designed the app a few years ago however there were no such things as annoying popups and popup blockers