Remove “Save target as…” from IE

Question

Is there any way to remove “save target as” from internet explorer’s right-click menu by using group policies or registry hacks? Failing that is there a simple programmatic way?

Answer 1

If you are trying to implement some kind of DRM scheme for websites - just dont. They never work and just annoy your users.

Answer 2

Nope.

(this part is just because of the answer minimum size limit)

Answer 3

Update: Aside from all my preachings below, here's the answer you are looking for:

There is a Group Policy to turn off the "Save As..." menu item from the File menu in Internet Explorer (IE5+), which can be deployed per-machine or per-user. However, that group policy does not control the "Save Target As..." from the context menu.

Unless you are part of the IT department of the company the user is working for, attempting to limit the user actions in the HTTP agent is never a good idea for multiple reasons:

1. You should not mess with the user's computer
2. You might be breaking other applications
3. You don't know what HTTP agent the user is using
4. Relying on limiting the user actions is at best futile, as any sofisticated user will probably find a way to circumvent your limitation
5. It's the quickest way to alienate your users

And even if you are part of the IT department, you should try to limit your control over the user's actions as much as possible.

Answer 4

A better description of why you're trying to do this would be helpful. Disabling the menu item won't keep people from downloading documents, for example. Any file links they click are still going to end up in Temporary Internet Files.

On a page-by-page basis, you can use Javascript to trap the right-click event, and refuse to shoe the menu, but that's easily worked around by even moderately-sophisticated users.

Answer 5

@1800 INFORMATION

Maybe we could give Stan the benefit of the doubt? Maybe he's working for some corporate IT department that's trying to prevent end-users from downloading virus-laden apps? I mean there are non-evil reasons why someone might try to implement this sort of functionality.

If this is the case (you're working for some Corporate IT department and you've been tasked with preventing people from downloading files from the internet) as others have pointed out there may be better approaches to what you're trying to achieve.

Assuming he has been tasked with this chore by his bosses, it's a relevant question.

One option (but one that would probably not be palatable in most IT environments) would be to dump IE and use an open source browser where you could simply modify the source to remove the "Save As..." option. But, as I said, unless things have changed dramatically, most corporate IT departments would never consider dropping IE in favor of another browser.

Answer 6

Why dont you try removing the right click altogether. Or if you need your own menu, you can create your own popup easily using div's.

There is no way to modify the default menu and to disable a part of the menu as such.

See how I disabled right click context menu here :

http://www.codeproject.com/tips/42554/Javascript-hack-to-disable-Right-Click-and-Text-Se.aspx

I hope this will help you.