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Visual Basic

Posted: Mon Dec 29, 2003 2:22 pm
by Gen-ik
For a personal project I'm working I need to open up a web browser (ie/win) but restrict the options available to the user, in a similar way to some web-cafes where options such as the menu-bar etc are removed.

This isn't opening a new browser window from a webpage, but launching IE from an .EXE file created in Visual Basic.

I've already been doing a bit of research into this and have found out that Visual Basic 6 has built-in options for launching cutomised versions of Internet Explorer on Windows (basically striping out the options etc I don't what to the user to have access to)... which is exactly what I'm after.

What I need now is some sort of Visual Basic editor which I can use to create a very simple application to launch my cutomised Internet Explorer, and also a couple of small code examples just to get me going.

If anyone can help me out with this I would be really greatful.


Thanks in advanced.
G.

Posted: Tue Dec 30, 2003 3:40 am
by igoy
dunno about VB editor... but I guess you can try finding info about HTA (HTML application) on microsoft site.

I had done same thing VB (opening stripped version on IE), it's actually an activex control which kinda embeds IE in VB form, and you can define which browser controls to be shown or can even create your own controls. I used Micrsoft Visual Basic 6 for that.

HTA is another alternative, basically it's all HTML code with some native tags of HTA application. you can find it on Microsoft Developer network site.. I guess the URL is http://msdn.microsoft.com

Hope this helps !!!

Posted: Tue Dec 30, 2003 7:12 am
by Gen-ik
Ok cheers mate I'll check it out. Shame about the VB Editor think though... I know Microsoft has there own application (Visual Basic Studio or something I think) but there's no way I'm forking out $400 for it! No sir.

Looks like the HTA method will have to do the trick.

Posted: Tue Dec 30, 2003 10:05 am
by igoy
yeh... I frankly dunno anything about any other VB editor than Microsoft Visual Basic Studio. HTA should work but there is one thing, the Code of HTA file can be seen easily in notepad, & anyone who has knowledge about HTML can change it.

Posted: Tue Dec 30, 2003 12:23 pm
by Gen-ik
Yeah I noticed that but that shouldn't be too much of a problem because I'm using encoded JavaScript. Basically the HTA file just contains a few lines of code and includes the encoded JavaScript file, which then completely rewrites the page.

Just one more thing... do you know if it's possible to compile or convert the HTA file into a .EXE file? I know that by default the HTA file does run by itself but I want to give it a .exe extension so that people are more comfortable with it, and so I change the icon on it.

I've checked Google but haven't found anything yet.

Posted: Wed Dec 31, 2003 4:54 am
by igoy
hmmm.. I had stumbled upon same point, converting HTA files to EXE. But everything was in vain. I think you can still add icon to it, I have completely forgot about How and it's Limitations.