windows 7 - How to stop programs from opening my browser?
2014-04
Coldblackice
How do you stop or prevent programs from obnoxiously opening the browser on their own accord?
It drives me absolutely bat-crazy that programs feel so boldly empowered to nonchalantly take the liberty of opening another program on the computer and then browse to their own websites, on their own accord, and without any option or forewarning on the matter. This particularly happens with program installers.
How do I prevent this obnoxious behavior from happening? Good grief, it's like having a plumber come out to the house on a service call, and on his/her way out, decides to grab the TV remote, turn it on, and then flip to the company's channel to say "THANKS!!!" and "VS Revo Group -wz- HERE!!"
Because surely, an in-installer "thank you" and business card won't suffice.
Is there an Adblock Plus-Plus that stops programs from popping open the browser in the first place?
Zed
This is quite easy. Just rename firefox.exe to zfirefox.exe and it's done. (or any other browser that you might have) Obviously, you'll want to update any shortcuts and firewall rules.
Sam
Install an Internet Security like Avast or AVG or Avira and etc, define some policies on that.
Usually the advertisement works with JavaScript, so if you use the Firefox as your default browser you can use some add-on(like add-block or quickjava) to prevent this windows.
Good Luck
Bruce McLeod
In Europe, Windows 7E comes without a browser, it now has a chicken-and-a-egg problem where users don't have a browser to use to download and install a browser.
What is the simplest way that a user with only one internet connected machine, will be able to download and install a browser? FTP, WGET or something else?
8088
I think the EU will sanction a proposal Microsoft made some days ago. Microsoft would provide an easy way to install the major competitors' browers. Read this statement on the Microsoft press releases page.
I can image an installed (but not fully activated) version of Internet Explorer 8 and a sort of ballot screen where you can choose your default browser. If you chose IE, then it will be activated. If you choose another browser, it will be downloaded using the IE engine and installed.
The press release contains this screenshot:
Update 2010-02-23: Microsoft has announced that Windows Update will present the choice as of March 1st, for all existing installations of XP, Vista and Windows 7. An example can be seen at www.browserchoice.eu, but the announcement shows an additional introduction to that, and explains that even existing "pinned" Internet Explorer shortcuts will be removed (which luckily implies the browser itself won't be uninstalled)...
Bruce McLeod
Option one
Download and install your browser installer before you upgrade from one of the following sites:
KTC
Depending on where you live, you might remember the days when you see all those dial up internet CDs in stores. If Microsoft proposal that were posted by splattne isn't accepted, it is likely when 7 go on general sales in stores that there will be disk of IE people can take.
Of course, one can just download browser installers from another computer and save it onto a USB stick or something.
Arjan
It seems Microsoft has implemented a way to turn off Internet Explorer in Windows 7, while not removing it completely. According to Microsoft's How to turn Internet Explorer off:
Windows 7 also includes functionality that allows users to turn off Internet Explorer. If Internet Explorer is turned off, it is not available for use by any users on the computer and cannot be launched for any reason, even if no other browser is available on the system. The program files to launch and use Internet Explorer are removed to a separate storage location as a backup copy so that a user can turn Internet Explorer back on if the user wishes to do so later.
When Internet Explorer is turned off using this feature there is minimal impact on third-party programs (and other parts of Windows itself) that call upon Internet Explorer application services, because the Internet Explorer files that provide functionality to third parties and other parts of Windows are left intact.
So I guess that Internet Explorer will always be installed on the hard drive, and one can (temporarily) enable it to use it, or to download any other browser.
Case
Download a browser to a flash drive on a friend's computer. Wget is not installed on windows by default, and if there is no browser there would be no way to use FTP unless you installed an FTP client, which requires a browser.