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I am wondering if it is possible in both Windows Vista & Windows 7 to block everything but Internet Explorer, as well as block downloading? I am trying to set up a computer in a kiosk terminal for people waiting for the Greyhound buses, so that they may browse the internet whilst they wait.

Is this possible? I know how to block downloading, via parental safety options - but that only works on Internet Explorer, so I'm assuming that is what my customers will have to browse with.

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With respect, if 'parental safety options' are how you manage web browsers then I fear this may be a little out of your league. For system admin purposes controlling a browser via the 'parental safety options' is a bit like taking a knife to a gunfight. And the knife's blunt. And you forgot it and actually don't have anything.

I'd personally question the wisdom of using IE for this kind of thing - even though my personal desktop OS preferences are windows and mac OS X, this would be a great project for a locked down browser on Linux imho.

But in any case, as you mention using IE on windows - you'll probably want to create a guest-level account to run this browser under, create a customised install of IE using the Internet Explorer Administration Kit (aka IEAK) and use group (if in a domain) or local system (if in a workgroup) policies to further refine both computer and browser settings.

You'll then want to consider how to have it both run on login and re-start if it crashes or the user stops it somehow (possibly replacing the shell with IE).

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  • Well, I'm merely limited as to what I can accomplish. I was given a task to set up the Vista computer to merely block downloads and only allow browsing on the computer (one of which is running Vista while the other runs 7). I agree completely with the linux statement - and that is what I'd normally use in such a situation, but the person who needs the job done refuses to allow it. So I'm stuck in a foreign environment, really. Never even knew one could block downloads, though searching for an answer got me the parental safety options, which didn't block Opera or Chrome... So I'm stuck. Commented Jul 24, 2011 at 12:34
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You can create a Non-Administrators local group policy to control whatever settings you need to control for Non-Administrator users of the computer.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc766291(WS.10).aspx

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