Disabling Windows Explorer

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Guest

I think the right question is: how do I disable the Windows Explorer window?

I'm trying to build a kiosk environment that will utilize IE in kiosk mode.
I'm using the Explorer shell as that seemed to be the best choice of the
various provided shells. But, I don't want the user to be able to do a
Windows-E or right-mouse click on the Start button and bring up the Windows
Explorer window.

Is there some settings I can set, or some registry entry, or should I
actually be using a different shell altogether?

Thanks,

Richard
 
Richard,

There are lots of Group Policies available for Windows Explorer component (run GPEdit.msc on your XP Pro machine and check under
Components\Windows Explorer) that will help you to lock down the shell. E.g., there is one that disables the Windows Keys (Win+E,
etc.). let us know if you want to know the corresponding registry entries.

However, why not make IE as a shell? At run time, try to replace the value of "Shell" registry string under
[HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon] key from launching Explorer.exe to iexplore.exe and see if you can work
with IE as your system specs require. At final, you probably want to launch your own little app there that will launch IE with
certain command line arguments to switch to kiosk mode.
 
Just to let you know, your suggestion of launching IE as the shell was great
and lead me to the solution. Specifying IE as the shell did eliminate the
ability of users to launch Windows Explorer either by doing a Windows-E or
via the Start button. But, the user would still be able to close IE using
Alt-F4.

To eliminate that option, I found the following article which describes the
necessary registry settings to prevent IE from closing, or from opening up
new windows:
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,1859871,00.asp

Richard


KM said:
Richard,

There are lots of Group Policies available for Windows Explorer component (run GPEdit.msc on your XP Pro machine and check under
Components\Windows Explorer) that will help you to lock down the shell. E.g., there is one that disables the Windows Keys (Win+E,
etc.). let us know if you want to know the corresponding registry entries.

However, why not make IE as a shell? At run time, try to replace the value of "Shell" registry string under
[HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon] key from launching Explorer.exe to iexplore.exe and see if you can work
with IE as your system specs require. At final, you probably want to launch your own little app there that will launch IE with
certain command line arguments to switch to kiosk mode.

--
=========
Regards,
KM
I think the right question is: how do I disable the Windows Explorer window?

I'm trying to build a kiosk environment that will utilize IE in kiosk mode.
I'm using the Explorer shell as that seemed to be the best choice of the
various provided shells. But, I don't want the user to be able to do a
Windows-E or right-mouse click on the Start button and bring up the Windows
Explorer window.

Is there some settings I can set, or some registry entry, or should I
actually be using a different shell altogether?

Thanks,

Richard
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