The Truly Chromeless Popup
windows and alerts 2000 deadInternet Explorer had a popup with no title bar, no border and no frame at all, a bare rectangle a script could draw anywhere on screen.
In 2026: Dead. window.createPopup gave a window with zero chrome, which made it perfect for real menus and equally perfect for faking a Windows dialog or a browser warning over any site. No other browser implemented it, and it died with Internet Explorer. The demo reports that createPopup is not a function.
Where it came from: Microsoft window.createPopup, Internet Explorer 5.5, 2000. Implemented by no other browser. MDN ↗
<button onclick="show()">Open a chromeless popup</button>
<p id="out"></p>
<script language="JavaScript">
function show() {
try {
// A popup with NO title bar and NO border. Draw it anywhere.
var pop = window.createPopup();
var body = pop.document.body;
body.style.border = "1px solid black";
body.style.background = "#ffffe1";
body.innerHTML = "A borderless box. Could be a menu. Could be a fake alert.";
pop.show(100, 100, 260, 40, document.body);
} catch (e) {
document.getElementById("out").innerHTML = "createPopup is gone: " + e;
}
}
</script>