How to restrict downloading programs with Opera browser:
If you don't want other users of your computer to download and install unauthorized software from the Internet, you can set up such a restriction with Folder Guard.
The following instructions assume that your web browser is Opera 6, installed into the folder C:\Program Files\Opera. (See also similar instructions for
Internet Explorer).
The idea of the protection of the Opera downloads is similar to that of Internet Explorer, however, it requires a few extra steps, because of the fact that if the user of Opera selects the destination folder for the file before the download is completed, the Opera browser may download the file into the destination folder directly, bypassing its cache folder. This requires a few extra steps in configuring Opera, and also protecting its configuration file.
Step 1. Configuring Opera browser
Run Opera, choose File - Preferences from its menu, and select the File types set of settings. In the list of the file types, find an entry for the exe files, select it, and click on Edit to display the File type dialog box:
Select the options as shown above and click OK (but do not close the File types list yet!). Repeat the same procedure for other downloadable file types, such as zip, rar, arc, cab, and others. In the following example we will set up the protection for the exe and zip files only. However, you should add other file extensions to this list, depending on what kind of program packages your users are likely to download). Keep in mind, that there may be several entries for each file extension: for example, the zip extension has two entries. You should configure all such entries in the same as shown above for the exe extension.
Step 2. Creating the filter
Close Opera when finished the previous step, then run Folder Guard, switch to its Filters view, and use the Filters - New command to create a new filter. (For more information about the filters, see Folder Guard Help.) Fill out the Properties window for the new filter as follows:
(Note the quotes around the names of the folders, they are important!) Note also that we have entered the masks of only two most popular file formats for the programs, *.exe and *.zip. There are, however, other formats for distributing programs via the Internet, for example, *.rar, *.arc, *.cab, and so on. If you are concerned that other users may download and use such software packages, you should add the appropriate masks to the Apply to files area. If you do, don't forget to change the configuration of Opera for each such file type as described above!
Step 3. Activating the filter
Rename the new filter to "Opera downloads" (or to any other name you like), and activate it by assigning the no access attribute to it:
Step 4. Protecting the Opera configuration file (optional)
Opera keeps its configuration settings in the file Opera6.ini, located in its installation folder (usually it is C:\Program Files\Opera ). You may wish to protect this file with the "read-only" attribute of Folder Guard, to prevent users from permanently changing its settings. (On the other hand, you may not want to do that, if you want other users to be able to change the preferences of Opera. ) If you do want to protect this file, switch to the Folder View of Folder Guard (by choosing View - Folders from its menu), then use the Edit - Add file command to add the Opera6.ini file to the list of objects that you want to be protected with Folder Guard (See How to hide a file for the details about protecting files with Folder Guard). Finally, assign the read-only attribute to the Opera6.ini file:
Step 5. Enabling the protection
Now save the changes and enable the protection, as usual (For details, see How to hide a folder). The filter you have set up above should prevent Opera from downloading the exe and zip files from the Internet, and thus prevent users from installing unauthorized software on your computer. Note that even if a user changes the preferences of Opera to require it to prompt for a destination folder, the downloads still should not be possible (an attempt to download may cause Opera to simply hang). The best way to avoid such problems would be for the makers of Opera to implement password protection of its preferences. (Please contact Opera technical support about this and other suggestions you may have regarding the Opera browser.)
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