How to use Microsoft Visual C++ Developer Studio to Make programs work the way they should.

Program vendors seem to think we want it all and riddle their programs with “features” that make some programs downright dangerous and a security risk to give to an end user.

This is the way I have found to correct this situation for every program that we need to give to our staff and patrons.

You need to obtain a copy of Microsoft Visual C++ Developer Studio or some other resource editor to perform this.

If you are too cheap to go out and by Visual C++ you can use this great FREE utility called Resource Hacker. It is not as graphical as Visual C++ but it is pretty easy to figure out.

I explain how to edit the file menus below but this can be done for all windows and features of just about any app.

Run developer studio and choose open from the file menu. In the popup under list files of type choose Executable Files (*.exe *.dll *.ocx). Navigate to the executable or DLL you want to edit.

Netscape menus are in the netscape directory in resdll.dll, IE is in the system32 directory as

Browselc.dll. (menus 266 and 267) You may have to open a few different executable files to find the menu or item you need to edit.

Once the file is open you will get a screen of folders that have Accelerators (the control codes used to run menu items), Dialogs (menu dialogs), Menu (the actual menu bars), String table (what the commands say), Bitmaps (The actual icon images), and Version which gives the program version information.

As you can see in the screen above we have opened up the IE browselc.dll file which has the menus for IE.  If you double click on any menu item a small popup box will come up that gives you several options.You can choose to disable or “gray” out the option simply by checking the box.

Once the option is grayed all you need do is save the file. I always make a point to save the original file I am editing in another directory so I am able to revert back to it. You can do this with virtually any program. You CAN also delete any of the menu picks but be careful NOT to delete the spaces as you could cripple the app.

I also found that browselc for IE 5.5 grayed and deactivated the print and print preview when I edited it. I had to go back into it and unchecked the grayed and then uncheck the inactive box to get the feature to work again. Weird glitch.

My feeling is that as long as you are just “graying” the feature out and not modifying the code or deleting things that you should not have to worry about copyright stuff but it depends on the manafacturer.If vendors would write programs actually thinking about who is really going to use them and who is going to have to support them they would think to add a policy file with themor an administrative utility to disable these features. Microsoft has gotten better with having .adm policy templates but you still can not totally lock a browser down even with the template. The import/export favorites menu item can be disabled but you can still go through the entire wizard before you get an error and while going through it you get a “browse” window. You can delete, run, rename etc. a file from any browse window so it is a big hole. (depending on how locked down your files are of course) Problem is if you lock your system down too much it reduces all functionality. There is no happy medium.This solution is at least a start.