I did the same as Liz and only upgdaded when I had too .... so far there has not been a problem

I have also avoided the pop-ups ... without having to pay :O)

I have netscape as a browser and apparently the pop-ups use Internet Explorer which I have on my computer but which is banned (by Zone Alarm .. firewall) from having access to the internet

The result is that the "pop-ups" can't pop up.