With Visial Basic I have experimented with making internet browsers. Not flashy all singing all dancing ones, but more specialised ones, intended to meet a specific need.

Silenced Portable App

Silenced was constructed to make internet browsing easier on monitored networks, ie schools. It targets monitoring programs such as Net Support School, which work by monitoring the open windows on a client and feeding their title and icon back to a server. Silenced has a window title of My Computer and the likewise icon. It works effectively on Windows XP, it does work on other operating systems with the .net 2.0 framework but you are more likely to be caught out. Because it does not show the website you are visiting it leaves you free to browse the net unmonitored. It does not need installing and can be run as is, by copying the files on to a USB flashdrive or other media and will work on any system running the Microsoft .net framework 2.0+

Download Silenced (4mb)

Surf CJB

Slightly different to silenced this browser is purely a window and is ideal for presentations or just people who need the maximum browsing space available on the screen. There is no toolboxes or url bars or anything, just one large browsing space. Options can be brought up using the small insignificant Toolbox button in the top left hand corner. See below for screenshots of it at work.

Download Surf CJB (0.6mb)