Vista 64b IE web browsing history

I spend some time watching some episodes of some series and sometimes one or another pop-up shows up, can that be the cause? can they infect my pc in that way?
And no I'm pretty sure no-one has ever visited that sites with either one pc and i'm the only user of both!

Thanks in advance

Let's put it this way: Using Internet Explorer for any extended period of time is like walking around in a pitch black room, full of trigger happy maniacs with loaded guns, with a giant neon flashing bullseye on your back. In other words, you are a giant target.

It doesn't even matter if you only go to trusted sites, because there are so many different ways that you can be gotten at with IE. Someone may have hacked into a site's servers, and inserted only a very small bit of code that causes malware to load onto people's system. It might be days, weeks, months, even years before this is found by site admins since the person didn't advertise what they did. Or they might try and compromise the servers of the companies that provide the ads for sites. Boobytrap a few of the ad images to load malware onto someone's system. There are plenty of examples of security flaws in IE that don't require ANY user interaction to install. All you have to do is go to some website one time with IE, and you're infested.

And it's not always IE that's the root cause, though it does represent probably at least 85% of all malware infestations. There's also file sharing programs, pirated/illegal software, people have boobytrapped video files (because Microsoft decided it would be a good idea to let people embed scripts into video files, which ended up only ever being used to load malware), and Outlook/Outlook Express have been known to spread viruses and worms on a number of occasions as well.

If you're using Internet Explorer for any extended period of time, or any of the above things, then the odds of you having malware are about 100%.

Well, I agree to Jimmy. IE's bad, go grab another browser if possible. Stuck with IE? IE8 has a few settings you can tweak. Kill all pop-ups, prevent any file download *prioritize this*, and a maybe go InPrivate Browsing and download McAfee Site Advisor *important*

If you decided to go FF, you should search WoT, and other security extensions. (I'm not a FF user, but Opera user ;p)
Might also because the site run something like ActiveX or any scripts. Have you allowed anything from the site? (I really mean ANYTHING: ActiveX, JavaScript, File Download)
About Pop-up, I don't think they could do any harm if you simply ignore them, just close them. Except if you clicked them.
Again, try McAfee Site Advisor (works for FF and IE).
Not every site we assume as safe is really safe. At least it shows warning if bad sites try to stuff something in to your PC.