How do I completely disable Internet Explorer?

Question

I work for a company that uses a system of laptops mounted on forklifts- there is a wireless network setup for them to connect to our warehousing software... unfortunately, internet access is a necessity for our setup, but only the connection. I would like to set this up so only certain machines can use the internet access provided by us- the rest get the connection but no internet explorer.

I have already tried modifying the Program Access and Defaults menu, which removes the IE icons, but they can still go on line through various menus and with the run prompt.

How can I completely disable Internet Explorer so it cannot be used at all?

Answer 1

In some versions of windows, namely XP, you can go into the Add/Remove Programs Menu and select Windows Components on the side of the program list. There you can actually uninstall Internet Explorer. Unfortunately no option like that exists in Vista. This should still leave an internet connection, but no way to use browse the internet. If you want to completely kill the internet and networking features, you can do that as well from the windows components menu.

Answer 2

Option 1 : Go to Internet Options in the Control Panel. Go to the Connections tab and click LAN settings. Uncheck "Automatically detect settings" and then check "Use proxy server" and put settings in for a proxy server that doesn't exist. This will time out the Web browser each time a user tries to pull up an Internet site. Unfortunately, a savvy user could go into the settings and fix this.

Option 2 : you can set the Internet router to deny all port 80 traffic to the WAN from the IP address of the client PC you want to block.  To do this go to: TCP/IP Properties/Advanced/Options/TCP/IP filtering Properties/select Enable TCP/IP filtering (All adapters)/select Permit Only for all three selections (TCP, UDP, IP)/add only the allowed ports that are needed (leaving out port 80 for Web browser traffic)/click OK multiple times to close out the windows. This is something that the user is less likely to figure out, and it will effectively block that one PC from Web access, while still allowing all other LAN users full access to the Internet. Do this for all the pc's you want.

Option 3 : These settings could also be set in a Group Policy GPO so that the users can't change them. You would make a special group just for these users."

Answer 3

Follow these steps:

   1. In IE, go to Tools | Internet Options.

   2. On the Connections tab, click the LAN Settings button.

   3. In the resulting dialog box, select the following check box in the Proxy Server section: Use a Proxy Server For Your LAN (These Settings Will Not Apply To Dial-up Or VPN Connections).

   4. Enter 0.0.0.0 in the Address text box.

   5. Enter 80 in the Port text box, and click OK.

Please note that adding a bogus proxy server to your Internet settings won't affect Automatic Windows Update from connecting and updating your operating system.

You can also restrict Internet settings via Group Policy. Follow these steps:

   1. On your domain controller, right-click the organizational unit that contains your domain users, and select Properties.

   2. On the Group Policy tab, click Edit.

   3. Expand User Configuration to set restrictions on a per-user basis.

   4. Expand Windows Settings, and expand Internet Explorer Maintenance.

   5. Select Connection, and double-click Proxy Settings.

   6. Select the Enable Proxy Settings check box, add 0.0.0.0 to the HTTP entry, and click OK.

   7. Expand Administrative Templates, and expand Windows Components.

   8. Select Internet Explorer, and double-click Disable Changing Proxy Settings.

   9. Select Enabled, and click OK.