Block Downloading of Files in Internet Explorer

March 14, 2008 – 3:16 PM

For security reasons one might want to disable or block downloading through Internet Explorer. There could be several other reasons for this including building a secure Internet kiosk, protecting your PC from malicious files, etc.

So far as I know, this should work with IE 6 or 7. I tested it on IE 7 running Windows Vista Ultimate (please don’t flame me ;)).

Copy and paste the following into notepad and save it as disabledownloadsie.reg:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\Zones\3]
“1803″=dword:00000003

Run the disabledownloadsie.reg to enable blocking of downloads in Internet Explorer.

The settings are:
3 = disabled
0 = enabled

After applying this setting trying to download anything will present you with this message:

If you wish to change the setting back repeat the process above with this value:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\Zones\3]
“1803″=dword:00000000

There you are. I hope this comes in handy while trying to secure an Internet kiosk or other sensitive equipment.

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