Force XP to use only IE and disable start menu

  • Thread starter Thread starter Guest
  • Start date Start date
G

Guest

Is it possible to force XP to use only Internet Explorer and disable start
menu entirely for a user? I am looking to set up a free internet station and
don't want users mucking up the Windows setup.

Thanks!
 
Yes you can... pretty simple with the Group policy tbh..

You probably wanna create a new user account (with guest permissions).
Modify it's start menue appearance, and then log out of the account

From the Administrator account go into C:\Documents and Settings\<guest
account> and change the NTUSER.DAT to NTUSER.MAN (making it a mandotory
profile, meaning any chances they make to things like the desktop etc etc
will not be saved at shutdown.

In Group Policy (type gpedit.msc in the run box.) You can modify what the
computer can do.. Under user configuation, then Administrative templates, you
can do thing like "Remove My Documents" from start menu or Remove "All
programs"
And also user Windows Components you can modifiy what Internet Explorer can
do... have a look round it decide what you want to do with it, then text..

One thing to note would be (I think, someone correct me if I'm wrong) that
when you modify Group Policies on a standalone workstation it applies the
polices to all the system users. (probably wrong..). If this is part of a
domain enviroment thou (ie with server 2000+) get the system admin to set up
group policies for the guest account on that machine.. :)
 
So if the Group Policy on a standalone XP pro machine affects all the users
on the local machine, there isn't a way to make one user (guest) have a
pruned start menu and have the administrator have full access to the start
menu?

My concern is that once the policy is in place, there will be no way to
access "gpedit" to put the menu items back since the run command will be
disabled for all user accounts. Or can safe mode be used? Or does the
adminstrator account always have full access regardless of GP settings?

Thank you!
 
Jerry said:
Try the Group Policy Editor.
Click to expand...
Group Policy is a good place to start. While I doubt you can completely
disable the start menu, you CAN control what items appear on the menu.
Failing that (and depending on budget) you may consider Fortres 101 by
Fortres Grand (www.fortres.com) to help lock down your PC. I'm using on
older version to do something similar.
 
You could change the shell for that box to iexplore.
HKLM\SOFTWARE\MICROSOFT\WINDOWSNT\CURRENTVERSION\WINLOGON\SHELL
 
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