Browser Appliance

Overview
The Browser Appliance is a ready-to-use VMware/VirtualBox virtual machine, which allows to:
  • browse the World Wild Web without ever worrying of being 0wned by a malicious web page,
  • start experimenting with an Enterprise-class Linux distribution without rebooting or installing anything else than the vmplayer.
The Operating System and Browser are encapsulated in a disposable virtual machine.
If anything goes wrong, delete and start over again; your underlying Operating System will not be modified.

Download
Build Date Browser VersionLinux DistributionKernel VersionVM Tools
(Guest Additions)		 7-ZipSize MD5sum
Aug 11, 2020
(Revised Nov 22, 2020)		 Firefox ESR 68.11CentOS 8.24.18.0-193.14.2.el8_2 10.3.21-14772444
(5.2.44_139111)		 Download 870 MB a92eff5bcc7840d5bfa5f8306b2ecdd7
May 10, 2018
(Revised Aug 10, 2020)		 Firefox ESR 52.8CentOS 7.53.10.0-862.2.3.el7 10.1.10-3.el7
(5.2.12_122591)		 Download 790 MB 865fdc0fbbcebaa9ab4a9f0123bed080
Jul 31, 2016 Firefox ESR 45.2CentOS 7.13.10.0-229.14.1.el7 9.4.0-6.el7
(4.3.30_101610)		 Download 672 MB 97e204fc2a47792213bb64ccd05a3229
Mar 19, 2020 Firefox ESR 45.9CentOS 6.10 (32 bit)2.6.32-754.28.1.el6 8.3.19-1310361
(5.0.16_105871)		 Download 417 MB d2ba4df5b853c1b04ab89da32088d3a8
Sep 20, 2013 Firefox ESR 24.0CentOS 6.4 (32 bit)2.6.32-358.18.1.el6 8.3.19-1185545
(4.2.18_88780)		 Download 327 MB 1cf331117d7c274950d90e2d7d10541c
Feb 8, 2012 Firefox 10.0Scientific Linux 6.0 (32 bit)2.6.32-220.4.1.el6 8.3.12-559003
(4.1.8_75467)		 Download 317 MB 3e7a8cf2eb34e20bea1b4e8d28d01fc8
Jan 21, 2011 Firefox 4 beta 9CentOS 5.5 (32 bit)2.6.18-194.32.1.el58.4.5-324285 Download 280 MB b1f10865d5b3ef005c6003b441840cca
Jul 22, 2010 Firefox 3.6.7CentOS 5.5 (32 bit)2.6.18-194.8.1.el58.4.2-261024 Download 281 MB f552b378ddc75f2fbd5736184df1b683
The archives are compressed with 7-Zip.

VMware Configuration
Power Users may wish to review and adjust several parameters in the Browser-Appliance.vmx configuration file using a text editor. For security reasons, Shared Folders are disabled by default.

Using the Browser Appliance:
You can download the Browser Appliance from the Download section above. From the VMware website, you can also download VMware Player, a free application that you can use to run the Browser Appliance.

To run the Browser Appliance, simply uncompress the download file to your local hard drive (using 7-Zip). Then:
  • Launch VMware Player
  • In the dialog box, select "Open a Virtual Machine" and, browse to the directory where you installed the Browser Appliance, select the file Browser-Appliance.vmx, and click Open, then "Play Virtual Machine".
The Browser Appliance powers on automatically, and the Linux operating system, provided with the Browser Appliance, boots up. This may take several minutes. Then the Mozilla Firefox browser starts automatically. Enter a URL in the location field at the top of the browser and click Go.

Installing the Adobe Flash Player plugin:
Firefox is the default browser for this Browser Appliance. To install the Adobe Flash Player plugin for Firefox:
  1. Close Firefox
  2. Double-click the "Install Flash Player" icon on the Desktop.
  3. Wait until installation is complete
  4. Start Firefox from the Desktop icon
Changing the Browser Appliance password:
The Browser Appliance has password protection for administrative functions. The Browser Appliance user and password are both initially set to vmware. To change the Browser Appliance password:
  1. Double-click the Terminal icon on the Desktop
  2. At the prompt, enter passwd
  3. Enter your current password (vmware by default) and new password.
To obtain root privileges in the Browser Appliance:
  1. Double-click the Terminal icon on the Desktop
  2. At the prompt, enter sudo su
Set up "autoRevert on shutdown":
By default, the Browser Appliance is set to save your changes (such as proxy settings, passwords, bookmarks) when you shut down. If you want the Browser Appliance to revert to its original state on shutdown, you can edit the Browser Appliance configuration (.vmx) file so that the appliance reverts on shutdown:
  1. In a text editor, go to the folder containing your Browser Appliance files, and open the Browser Appliance configuration file: Browser-Appliance.vmx.
  2. To have the Browser Appliance revert on shutdown, add the following lines to the configuration file:
    • ide0:0.mode = "independent-nonpersistent"
    • snapshot.action = "autoRevert"
    • snapshot.disabled = "TRUE"
This protects your computer from any spyware or other malware that is transferred to the Browser Appliance while you are browsing. However, setting the Browser Appliance to revert on shutdown will cause the Browser Appliance to discard changes you have made in the current session.

To close the Browser Appliance:
  1. From the System menu in the virtual machine, select Shut Down
  2. Click Shut down.
To remove the Browser Appliance, simply delete the directory containing your Browser Appliance files. There is no uninstallation procedure to perform.

Screenshots