diff --git a/wp-admin/upgrade-functions.php b/wp-admin/upgrade-functions.php
index 49ffc79e84..e45775de56 100644
--- a/wp-admin/upgrade-functions.php
+++ b/wp-admin/upgrade-functions.php
@@ -554,12 +554,8 @@ function make_site_theme_from_oldschool($theme_name, $template) {
 			$f = fopen("$site_dir/$newfile", 'w');
 			
 			foreach ($lines as $line) {
-				if (preg_match('/require.*wp-blog-header/', $line)) {
-					if ($newfile == 'comments-popup.php')
-						$line = "require('../../../wp-blog-header.php');";
-					else
-						$line = '//' . $line;
-				}
+				if (preg_match('/require.*wp-blog-header/', $line))
+					$line = '//' . $line;
 
 				// Update stylesheet references.
 				$line = str_replace("<?php echo get_settings('siteurl'); ?>/wp-layout.css", "<?php bloginfo('stylesheet_url'); ?>", $line);
diff --git a/wp-blog-header.php b/wp-blog-header.php
index 4595c6a52f..54993ca609 100644
--- a/wp-blog-header.php
+++ b/wp-blog-header.php
@@ -85,7 +85,7 @@ if ((isset($_GET['error']) && $_GET['error'] == '404') ||
 	}
  }
 
-$wpvarstoreset = array('m','p','posts','w', 'cat','withcomments','s','search','exact', 'sentence','preview','debug', 'calendar','page','paged','more','tb', 'pb','author','order','orderby', 'year', 'monthnum', 'day', 'hour', 'minute', 'second', 'name', 'category_name', 'feed', 'author_name', 'static', 'pagename', 'page_id', 'error');
+$wpvarstoreset = array('m','p','posts','w', 'cat','withcomments','s','search','exact', 'sentence','preview','debug', 'calendar','page','paged','more','tb', 'pb','author','order','orderby', 'year', 'monthnum', 'day', 'hour', 'minute', 'second', 'name', 'category_name', 'feed', 'author_name', 'static', 'pagename', 'page_id', 'error', 'comments_popup');
 
 $wpvarstoreset = apply_filters('query_vars', $wpvarstoreset);
 
@@ -227,6 +227,9 @@ if ( defined('WP_USE_THEMES') && constant('WP_USE_THEMES') ) {
 	} else if ( is_archive() && get_archive_template() ) {
 		include(get_archive_template());
 		exit;
+	} else if ( is_comments_popup() && get_comments_popup_template() ) {
+		include(get_comments_popup_template());
+		exit;
 	} else if ( is_paged() && get_paged_template() ) {
 		include(get_paged_template());
 		exit;
diff --git a/wp-content/themes/classic/comments-popup.php b/wp-content/themes/classic/comments-popup.php
index 6ca50f2a35..4d22c93c7e 100644
--- a/wp-content/themes/classic/comments-popup.php
+++ b/wp-content/themes/classic/comments-popup.php
@@ -1,7 +1,5 @@
 <?php 
 /* Don't remove these lines. */
-$blog = 1;
-require ('../../../wp-blog-header.php');
 add_filter('comment_text', 'popuplinks');
 foreach ($posts as $post) { start_wp();
 ?>
diff --git a/wp-content/themes/default/comments-popup.php b/wp-content/themes/default/comments-popup.php
index 6ca50f2a35..4d22c93c7e 100644
--- a/wp-content/themes/default/comments-popup.php
+++ b/wp-content/themes/default/comments-popup.php
@@ -1,7 +1,5 @@
 <?php 
 /* Don't remove these lines. */
-$blog = 1;
-require ('../../../wp-blog-header.php');
 add_filter('comment_text', 'popuplinks');
 foreach ($posts as $post) { start_wp();
 ?>
diff --git a/wp-includes/classes.php b/wp-includes/classes.php
index f3de3f3fc9..5bda602bdd 100644
--- a/wp-includes/classes.php
+++ b/wp-includes/classes.php
@@ -26,6 +26,7 @@ class WP_Query {
 	var $is_trackback = false;
 	var $is_home = false;
 	var $is_404 = false;
+	var $is_comments_popup = false;
 	var $is_admin = false;
 
 	function init () {
@@ -187,11 +188,15 @@ class WP_Query {
 			$this->is_paged = true;
 		}
 
+		if ('' != $qv['comments_popup']) {
+			$this->is_comments_popup = true;
+		}
+
 		if (strstr($_SERVER['PHP_SELF'], 'wp-admin/')) {
 			$this->is_admin = true;
 		}
 
-		if ( ! ($this->is_archive || $this->is_single || $this->is_page || $this->is_search || $this->is_feed || $this->is_trackback || $this->is_404 || $this->is_admin)) {
+		if ( ! ($this->is_archive || $this->is_single || $this->is_page || $this->is_search || $this->is_feed || $this->is_trackback || $this->is_404 || $this->is_admin || $this->is_comments_popup)) {
 			$this->is_home = true;
 		}
 
@@ -312,6 +317,9 @@ class WP_Query {
 			$where .= " AND WEEK(post_date, 1)='" . $q['w'] . "'";
 		}
 
+		if ( intval($q['comments_popup']) )
+			$q['p'] = intval($q['comments_popup']);
+
 		// If a post number is specified, load that post
 		if (($q['p'] != '') && intval($q['p']) != 0) {
 			$q['p'] =  (int) $q['p'];
diff --git a/wp-includes/comment-functions.php b/wp-includes/comment-functions.php
index 07f3b0dfd2..c0db08d73e 100644
--- a/wp-includes/comment-functions.php
+++ b/wp-includes/comment-functions.php
@@ -77,10 +77,7 @@ function comments_popup_script($width=400, $height=400, $file='') {
     global $wpcommentspopupfile, $wptrackbackpopupfile, $wppingbackpopupfile, $wpcommentsjavascript;
 
 		if (empty ($file)) {
-			if ( file_exists( TEMPLATEPATH . '/comments-popup.php') )
-				$wpcommentspopupfile = str_replace(ABSPATH, '', TEMPLATEPATH . '/comments-popup.php');
-			else
-				$wpcommentspopupfile = 'wp-content/themes/default/comments-popup.php';
+			$wpcommentspopupfile = '';  // Use the index.
 		} else {
 			$wpcommentspopupfile = $file;
 		}
@@ -112,9 +109,12 @@ function comments_popup_link($zero='No Comments', $one='1 Comment', $more='% Com
         }
         echo '<a href="';
         if ($wpcommentsjavascript) {
-            echo get_settings('siteurl') . '/' . $wpcommentspopupfile.'?p='.$id.'amp;c=1';
-            //echo get_permalink();
-            echo '" onclick="wpopen(this.href); return false"';
+					if ( empty($wpcommentspopupfile) )
+						$home = get_settings('home');
+					else
+						$home = get_settings('siteurl');
+					echo $home . '/' . $wpcommentspopupfile.'?comments_popup='.$id;
+					echo '" onclick="wpopen(this.href); return false"';
         } else {
             // if comments_popup_script() is not in the template, display simple comment link
             comments_link();
diff --git a/wp-includes/functions.php b/wp-includes/functions.php
index a448e0eb4a..b4c2c53a34 100644
--- a/wp-includes/functions.php
+++ b/wp-includes/functions.php
@@ -1244,6 +1244,12 @@ function is_404 () {
     return $wp_query->is_404;
 }
 
+function is_comments_popup () {
+    global $wp_query;
+
+    return $wp_query->is_comments_popup;
+}
+
 function is_paged () {
     global $wp_query;
 
@@ -1576,6 +1582,15 @@ function get_single_template() {
 	return get_query_template('single');
 }
 
+function get_comments_popup_template() {
+	if ( file_exists( TEMPLATEPATH . '/comments-popup.php') )
+		$template = TEMPLATEPATH . '/comments-popup.php';
+	else
+		$template = get_theme_base() . '/default/comments-popup.php';
+
+	return apply_filters('comments_popup_template', $template);
+}
+
 // Borrowed from the PHP Manual user notes. Convert entities, while
 // preserving already-encoded entities:
 function htmlentities2($myHTML) {