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> They blocked execution of certain programs by some policy in Windows explorer in Windows XP. Funny thing was, if you knew the path to them, you could just point Firefox or Chrome at a file:// URI and run it out of your downloads directory. Oops.

Microsoft security baffles me. You could run Windows Update in the browser (and also antiviruses using ActiveX). Who would think of making it possible to alter the OS… from the browser?

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I think those restrictions were really for ATMs and kiosks, but school administrators see them and decide to turn them on. If the user is able to open more than one application there is no hope in locking down functionality. Windows Help Viewer lets you open a web browser for example.

My school disabled right click in Windows Explorer, I'm still not sure why.

sacrificing security for convenience

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