Disable Content Advisor Censorware in Microsoft Internet Explorer

Steps:

Follow these three easy steps to disable the Content Advisor Censorware in Microsoft Internet Explorer. After you complete these steps, Internet Explorer should let you visit all sites free of restrictions. You may wish to print these instructions so you can look at them after you've closed Internet Explorer.

1. Select either the No PICS or PICS Off package below, and save it to your desktop.
2. Close all Internet Explorer windows, so that only the Desktop is showing.
3. Double-Click the file you downloaded to open it. Select OK on the dialog box that appears.

Packages:

These packages were created at around noon time on Thursday, February 11, 1999, and represents about 5 minutes of work. Depending on your web browser, you may have to hold down shift while clicking on these links in order to save them to your desktop.

• No PICS - Completely disable Content Advisor Censorware, and change the password to '12345'. Use this if you forgot your Content Advisor password. If it's important for the person who set up Content Advisor not to find out that you've disabled it, use the PICS Off package below instead.
• Toggle PICS Off - Disable Content Advisor Censorware. Does not change the password.
• Toggle PICS On - Re-enable content Advisor Censorware. Use this package after using the PICS Off package if you want to cover your tracks.

Troubleshooting:

• After toggling PICS off, I get an annoying dialog box every time I open Internet Explorer
  Apparently the inner workings of Content Advisor have changed in recent versions of IE, and adjusting them directly via the picsoff.reg registry patch doesn't have the desired effect. Instead, use the nopics.reg file to set the password to 12345 and then use that password on the content advisor settings dialog to complete the disabling process.
• The changes don't seem to take effect
  Internet Explorer is used for many things, including browsing the hard drive and active desktop. If all Internet Explorer windows are not closed when you open the package, your changes may be overwritten. If you want to be sure all Internet Explorer windows are closed, you can use the Windows NT task manager or the Windows 95/98 control-alt-delete close programs dialog.
• I just realized I'm using Netscape Communicator...
  You'll need to use the Netscape PICS Censorware Disabler instead.

Related Sites:

• The Anti-Censorware Proxy
• Disable PICS Censorware in Netscape Communicator
• Brian Ristuccia's Home Page