Disabling IE

I have two workstations that I use as point-of-sale machines and I've noticed when Im not around that people are surfing the net and just recently I noticed that someone downloaded AIM and installed it on one of the machines.

Is there a way that I can diasable IE so that the only communication that these machines are doing is transferring information to the server (upstairs) through ethernet. At the end of the night I Z out the machines and it transfers totals to a server upstairs through an XML interface.

There is no other reason that these machines need to access the net unless someone does a credit card transaction or I am updating the machines with the latest patches.

Go into the IE Internet Properties, and set it to use a Proxy Server, but put in the address 127.0.0.1. This will trick IE to make it look to your local PC for internet, and will bring up a page cannot be displayed error. If the people have a good amount of knowlege, they may be able to bypass this, but at least it is something to slow them down.

You could also use firewall software and block IE access.

Change the permissions on the MSHTML.DLL file, located in the %systemroot%\SYSTEM32 directory. Make sure to disable Simple File Sharing, so you'll have access to the "Security" tab.

you should be able to set policies that prevent themfrom doing much of anything, including installing software; that is if you are using xp pro or w2k. i'm not sure if policies work with home.