Disabling Internet Explorer

[time]

What's a good (easy) way to disable IE5.5/6 in Win98?

A client wants to restrict web access but permit email access for a particular employee, as well as solitaire et al. Apparently the employee has been unable to surf and play in moderation, so her employer wants her to go cold turkey.

I initially suggested just deleting the shortcuts, but the client reckons the employee's cunning enough to look for the program files. So I'm thinking of deleting/renaming the program launch files.

Any better solutions?

 

[Buck]

Is there a Domain Controller of some sort that you could use to push a policy to that 98 machine?

 

[Mercutio]

www.litepc.com

 

[Groltz]

www.litepc.com

Years ago, when I was still running Win98, I purchased a user license for 98Lite (litepc.com used to be 98Lite.net) so I could download the Pro versions. Very good software for folks running Win98/ME. It was worth the price.

David, check you PM's.

--Steve

 

[P5-133XL]

If you place the appropiate permissions (no read, no write, no change, no execute) on the files involved (not the shortcuts) then there will be little that the employees can do to execute the programs.

Another solution is to place a firewall up that prevents all access of the web except through the SMTP and POP ports.

With the IE-Admin kit, one can set security functions to allow certain web sites and exclude all others. One can even lock down the options menu to prevent them from changing those settings.

You can run your web access through MS's proxy server and produce policies as to what sites(if any) people can have access to.

Also you create policies that limit what can and can not be executed. One can have policies without domain controllers and W98 does support them. I believe the resouce kit has the policy editor for W98.

As you can see there are actually plenty of options here of solving these problems.

 

[time]

If you place the appropiate permissions (no read, no write, no change, no execute) on the files involved (not the shortcuts) then there will be little that the employees can do to execute the programs.

I don't believe that kind of access restriction is available with FAT32/Win98?

Another solution is to place a firewall up that prevents all access of the web except through the SMTP and POP ports.

Cute!

Thanks for the creative ideas.

 

[Cliptin]

www.litepc.com

IEradicator
IEradicator is a tiny (~25k), free utility to strip IE4 and IE5 from unmodified Windows98 or Windows98SE installations without requiring any additional files.

From the same folks that brought you 98lite. Use only as directed.

 

[Mercutio]

Yeah. At one time, CNN.com (yup, CNN) had instructions to do it by hand. I have a printed copy in my files, and that's always how I've done it. It works beautifully. 98 is really stable and fast when there's no IE.

Of course, you can also set system policies (even on 98) to shut off IE, or just do something simple (if the guy isn't technical), like set his browser to use a proxy server that isn't there.
... or put in a little proxy, just for him, that'll only let him go to a couple of sites.

 

[time]

Well, thanks again for all the suggestions, but bonus points go to Mercutio for being the first to suggest IEradicator. I had to swallow the brave pills for this one, because the client is a fair distance away. In another country, actually.

But it worked beautifully. Neatly excised Exploder but left Outbreak intact, as advertised. I just talked them through Add/Remove Programs to exterminate the games.

The only fallout was that the main database application broke.

But it was only a loss of drive mappings. So it turned into a lovely opportunity for me to bolster my stocks by fixing it within seconds. If only every support problem was this trivial. :mrgrn:

Mind you, I think they may have overstated the employee's technical skills. When I asked her to start Windows Explorer, she didn't know how.

 

[Tea]

Actually, that was Cliptin, I think. But kudos just the same.

 

[time]

No, credit where's it due. Mercutio was the first with the link to www.litepc.com (the home of IEradicator). In fact, I had already downloaded IEradicator before anyone else posted.

But thanks to Groltz and Cliptin for giving me enough confidence to use it.