You could try various adblocker extensions, they are usually better at preventing popups than the regular Internet Explorer.
Adblock Plus for example :
https://adblockplus.org/releases/adblock-plus-11-for-internet-explorer-released
I haven't tested it on IE but it's a popular extension on other browsers.
A more involved solution might be to edit your hosts file, you can manually add any hostname that you want to block. It might seem a bit technical but it's actually rather easy. If you're not tech-savvy, some hosts files built by Internet users/communities already exist. They list the most well known ad networks (sometimes thousands+) and block them. The most popular is probably MVPS (
https://forums.malwarebytes.org/index.php?/topic/2823-mvps-hosts-updates/). Such files tend to be large though and can sometimes slow down performance so I think it best to build one yourself tailored to the sites you visit.
More info :
How to Block Unwanted Ads in All Applications and Speed Up Web Browsing with the Hosts File
Since popups rely on Javascript to work you can disable it on some sites which will also block most if not all ads. It can affect various features of most sites so it's a heavy handed solution (but it works beautifully if you don't mind missing fancy menus and such).
You can place the sites most affected by ads/popups in the Restricted Sites Zone (Internet Options > Security > Restricted Sites > Sites), then disable Javascript in this zone (Internet Options > Security > Restricted Sites > Custom Level > Scripting: Active Scripting > Disable).
If the site doesn't work properly anymore just delete it from the Restricted Zone.
There might be extensions that simplify the process of selectively disabling Javascript on IE (similar to NoScript on Firefox), so Google is your friend
For power users, there is yet another solution : using a proxy to filter everything. It is much more powerful than adblockers, and isn't limited to blocking ads. You can literally customize everything that comes from the net. It also works independently from the browser so it will work as well on IE than Chrome and FF. The disadvantage is that it's more complex and you need to learn how to set rules and how if works by yourself.
More info :
Proxomitron - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (no idea if it still works on Win 8)
Privoxy - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia