Prevent installation of IE toolbars?

security windows internet-explorer toolbar

If there is one thing I would like to see become a standard feature in Internet Explorer it would be the ability to prevent installation of damn toolbars and for those preventative measures to be enforced by default. It would then be an option (a hard-to-find one, preferably) to enable installation. Disallowing toolbars in IE would make Windows suck so much less for the average user, and it wouldn't be a problem for the advanced users, because we tend to use alternative browsers anyway.

IE toolbars really are the scourge of the default Windows experience.

I can't count the times I've been tending to someone's broken computer and they have a mass of stinking toolbars populating half of the whole damn IE window:

enter image description here

However given disallowing toolbar installation isn't the default behaviour of IE: is it possible to disable installation of toolbars in IE through a setting somewhere? When I am setting up a new comptuer for someone, I'd love to be able to set something like this.

Update: has anyone got a way of disabling toolbar installation without access to Group Policy Editor?


There is this setting in IE8 and IE9 Beta (which works perfectly for me).

IE9 Advanced Settings

I cannot tell if it is in earlier versions as well, as I have only got my laptop here with me.

It does not stop Flash player from working, so should work fine for you.


Using the Group Policy Editor Click Start, Run and type GPEDIT.MSC Navigate to this path:

 Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Windows Components -> Internet Explorer

There are a lot of settings in there to change the behavior of Internet Explorer, including the ability to enable or disable add-ons.

Related

Generate a PDF from a CHM
Looking for freeware or opensource CAD that can read and edit .dwg [closed]
Let $G$ be a group and $a$ belongs to $G$. Prove that $\langle a^{-1}\rangle = \langle a\rangle$.
Integral remainder converges to 0
How to prove if $n$ is prime and $n | a^2$ then $n | a$?
Show $\{0^m1^n | m \neq n\}$ is not regular
Rotation of Matrices and their interpretation
Mathematical induction proof problem: $\sum_{i=1}^{n-1} i(i+1) = \frac{n(n+1)(n-1)}3$
Agreed upon domain of inverse trig functions
$\operatorname{lcm}(a,b) = c$ and $\gcd(a,b) = d$ => $\operatorname{lcm}(\frac{a}{d},\frac{b}{d}) = \frac{c}{d}$ in a Euclidean domain or PID
How to prove $\sum_{k=1}^{n}F_k = F_{n+2}-1$ by induction when $F_n$ is the Fibonacci sequence
Showing $\Phi(x)=\int_0^x (x-t)f(t)\,dt$ is twice differentiable and finding $\Phi''(x)$