One of my recent reviews was based around advertising on Ciao (sorry for the self-plug, guys and girls), especially the annoying pop-ups that seem to rear their ugly head every couple of minutes. This review resulted in a number of comments, but one that stuck out mentioned using Opera as a browser as opposed to Internet Explorer. "WHY SHOULD THIS MATTER?" I hear you all say half-heartedly (I know, I know, we?re all bored of panto by now). Well, apparently, Opera allows you to disable pop-ups. How cool is that?!! Armed with this nugget of information, I headed off to Opera.com, where I'd heard the streets were paved with gold.

Opera describes itself as such: "Opera is user-friendly, secure, and exceptionally fast. The browser is small, yet full-featured and functions well on systems with limited resources. Opera supports all common Web standards and implements them according to the official recommendations."

Once you've completed the download, it's just a case of the normal "Yes, yes, agree" etc. I find that the necessary answers are normally highlighted, so pressing Enter a few times gets you through the screens without too much of a worry (though you need to agree to certain terms etc before installation, so you may want a read at that) You should see the self-installation kick into action and, following a couple more prompts, you will now have Opera installed on your PC (or Mac, or whatever)

If you've used Internet Explorer, then this is pretty much the same layout, as I would imagine just about any browser software is. A quick flick through the buttons at the top shows that almost all the short-cut keys are the same as most Microsoft products (Choosing Help, then Keyboard gives you a list) In fact, the Opera website lists the Keyboard Shortcuts as a main feature of the software: "Only Opera makes it possible to navigate entirely with the keyboard, enabling even more speed. Press F8 to give focus to the address field or Z and X to move backward and forward in history. Press Alt+P to edit your preferences, or G to turn graphics off." The software also boasts of a "Mouse gesture" option, which isn't when the user twitches their nose or gets a sudden craving for cheese!: "Opera puts more power at your fingertips with smart and fast mouse gesture recognition. Press (and hold) the right button and then press the left button to go backward. Do it the other way around to go forward."

A right-click on the Navigation toolbar (that's the one with the buttons you use to scroll back and forth on the internet) allows you to de-activate the "Large images", and thus makes the Navigation toolbar that little bit smaller and more user-friendly.

A further look down the File list will see an option called "Quick Preferences", and here you have my favourite option - You can choose to have Pop-ups off altogether, on as normal, or have them open in the background (Altogether now - IT'S BEHIND YOU!), which means that although you will see the pop-up open up, via a tab at the top of the page (similar to the tabs used at the bottom of a Excel spreadsheet), it won't open up in front of your existing window. You can also choose to open up "Requested Pop-Up Windows only" In other words, you won't get pop-ups loading at all, unless you've specifically clicked on a link that opens in a pop-up, such as an info screen! Personally, I like to know what my PC has been asked to load, so I always have them on in the background. That way I can choose to see them as and when I like, I can right-click and delete the ones that I know are of no interest (Damn German Amazon advert that keeps rearing its ugly head! In fact, we can refer to that as the Evil Baron of the Panto!) I can also choose to click the pop-ups and support sites as and when I see fit.

The best thing about this piece of software? The hands-down answer is that it can move you one step further away from Bill Gates! The other plus points that immediately stand out are the control you have over pop-ups (handy for Ciao and Dooyoo users, or for those users who tend to peruse porn and warez sites. Apparently.)