Disabling IE?

[arnisador]

We want to get the kids PCs/laptops for their rooms this year, but we don't want them web-browsing in private. (They can use the machine in the living room for that.) It's not just the inappropriate sites that concerns us--they'd go to Yahoo! games and never leave their rooms except for meals and using the bathroom (and the second one is just a 'maybe').

We could simply not install networking, but we'd like to set up a basic mail client like Agent and let them check their e-mail and reply to it there. In my experience, though, Windows won't let IE be removed. I've tried deleting it before as I use FireFox and at one point needed the disk space--it kept coming back.

Is there a way to remove or disable the browser? My kids are not compter-savvy enough to re-enable it, nor am I concerned that they'd try. But I don't want it available, or opening from a URL in an e-mail, etc. I suppose I could always try to force it to use a non-existent proxy or something like that--in other words, intentionally misconfigure it--but I was hoping for a 'cleaner' solution. Of course disabling it is best since some day I may want to download a patch or something onto their machines. Can I set up an account that lacks that privelege (what is it, port 80)?

 

[shesulsa]

Hmmm ... you could go ahead and network them and install a net nanny program or simple security program that will deny them access to all browsers.

 

[arnisador]

Oh, can you do that? I didn't know they had a 100% blocking option!

 

[OnlyAnEgg]

The difficulty here is that IE is integrated with the OS at almost every level. You can open up any directory and type in a net address in the address bar and off you go.

Net Nanny can do wonders, though.

 

[shesulsa]

Oh, can you do that? I didn't know they had a 100% blocking option!

I don't have one, but I have friends who do and swear by them!

 

[Kreth]

For XP: Setup accounts for the kids, and password the default admin account. Then disable their access to the file mshtml.dll in windows\system32. IE will act like it can't find the website.

 

[arnisador]

Ah, sounds like just what I was looking for! Thanks!

 

[Andrew Green]

Block everything but port 110 (POP3) and 25 (SMTP) all they will be able to do is send and recieve e-mails. nothing else will get through

 

[arnisador]

That's the way I was thinking originally (block port 80)...maybe I'll try that first.

 

[Andrew Green]

You should be able to do it with your wireless router. It's firewall functions can block out whatever you want.

 

[arnisador]

We'd have four machines hooked up to it, two of which would need to have full access...I can do this machine-by-machine?

 

[bignick]

We'd have four machines hooked up to it, two of which would need to have full access...I can do this machine-by-machine?

You should be able to, what type of router do you have?

 

[BlueDragon1981]

Kreth, with answers like that you should be jumping onto BuffaloIT. http://www.buffaloit.com

If you did what Kreth and Andrew said I think they would have a hard time getting the browser to work. You may run into some problems however shutting off ports and not compromising other areas of windows. Not saying that will be a problem but it could happen.

I think it would be secure enough doing what Kreth said, then installing a net nanny in case by some ingenious idea they get in their head they get it working, you could still have net nanny on their for a backup....never to much security when it comes to kids and teens....they tend to find ways around things....lol.

 

[Kreth]

Kreth, with answers like that you should be jumping onto BuffaloIT.

I've been thinking of signing up over there. Due to RL, I've been pretty scarce here lately, so I wanted to make sure I could cover my responsibilities here before jumping into anything new.