What is ActiveX, is it good or bad?

Insistent Internet Explorer ActiveX warning

• After being struck by webbugs (and spyware!), and being naturally a little paranoid, I decided to treat my default web security in Internet Explorer more strictly. Among other things, I don't want to download or run ActiveX script controls. This has worked well.. I don't miss any fancy features like Flash ads or mysterious tools that are trying to "enhance my web experience" by doing mysterious things in the background. My question is a simple one that may have no answer. In IE 5.5 and 6.0, disabling ActiveX makes IE display an information-only warning dialog whenever you visit a page that has an ActiveX control. It states: "Your Security settings prohibit running ActiveX controls on this page. As a result, the page may not display correctly." This is a valid warning. But one that I don't want to see. Because I see it 50+ times a day. I disabled ActiveX on purpose, yet I am hounded by this reminder that seems to have no way to "don't show me this warning again, ever!" Two solutions to this are simple: Turn ActiveX back on (which defeats my whole goal), or switch browsers to something like Opera or Mozilla. But my hope is that there is a setting, option, patch, or trick to make Intenet Explorer be QUIET when it's doing what I told it to do. I am beginning to conclude that this warning is deliberately intrusive, Microsoft's goal being to encourage ActiveX use, since it gives them more control over the Internet. [I told you I was paranoid..] Is there a way to prevent this warning from interrupting me continually?

• Answer:

  Hello sworley, Thank you for your question. Richard M. Smith has this solution for you here: http://www.computerbytesman.com/acctroj/howto.htm "How to turn off ActiveX and Java in Internet Explorer 5. Under the Windows Start menu, select the Settings | Control Panel command. Double-click on the Internet Options icon in the Control Panel window. Select the Security tab in the Internet Properties dialog box. Make sure that the Internet zone is selected. Click on the Default Level to make sure that the Internet zone is at the Medium level. Push the Custom Level... button. Scroll down to the setting labelled "Script ActiveX controls marked safe for scripting" in the Security Settings Dialog box and check the Disable option. **********Note, by changing only this setting, ActiveX controls are effectively disabled and no annoying warning messages are displayed if a page attempts to use an ActiveX control..." This discussion thread confirms that this is therea containing the settings to cure this message pop-up: http://cert.uni-stuttgart.de/archive/usenet/microsoft.public.win2000.security/2002/08/msg00107.html ">I have disabled ActiveX in IE6. When visiting pages such as cnn.com, >I get a warning: > >Microsoft Interent Explorer: >Your security settings prohibit running ActiveX controls on this page. As a result, this page may not display correctly. > >After about the 5000th time, I get the msg. > >How can I get rid of this warning? I do not want to enable ActiveX for security reasons. Answer: Tool -> Internet Options -> Security. select the appropriate zone and set to "disable" from 'prompt" It appears this should be the workable solution to remove this annoyance for you. Search Strategy: disable +"Your Security settings prohibit running ActiveX controls on this" ie OR "Internet Explorer" activex +warning +disable I trust my research has provided you with the solution. If a link above should fail to work or anything require further explanation or research, please do post a Request for Clarification prior to rating the answer and closing the question and I will be pleased to assist further. Regards, -=clouseau=-