Dell in collaboration with the recently acquired KACE network just released a free browser for safer Internet browsing. Dell’s free browser, unintuitively named Secure Browser, is essentially Firefox running in a virtualized container with built addons, Adobe Flash and Adobe Reader.
The download size of Secure Browser is a massive 76 MegaBytes. That’s because you are downloading a small operating system along with it. When you start the browser, you are actually booting into an invisible OS with the browser on top of it. The OS is mostly invisible but obvious from the thin gray border and top bar encircling the browser.
All activities within the browser is contained in the virtual environment. If a website wants to access a program, like Windows Media Player, it will ask for the user’s permission. Downloads however are not contained, so the user will still have to exercise caution when downloading stuff off the Internet. But any programs that get executed by self, triggers a prompt for user action.
A cool feature offered by the Secure Browser is the reset button. If something causes Firefox to break or takes over your browser, you can press reset which will restore everything back to the way it was when you initially installed the browser. There is also a feature that allows you to save the current setup with all of your updates and add-ons so that when you press the reset button you will be taken back to the point you set.
Users will be able to install updates and add-ons for Firefox, Adobe Flash, and Adobe Reader in the virtual instance. Dell KACE will also be releasing a new download for each new version of Firefox.
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