Post by Admin on Jun 20, 2006 10:43:06 GMT 7
Some of you may have gotten used to clicking the yellow information bar that comes out saying Install ActiveX control sometimes when you visit a website.
Some of you might care less on what ActiveX is but I know some of you do want to know what you are approving to be installed on you computer when you agreed to install it.
Let me start by explaining what ActiveX is all about. In layman terms,
ActiveX is a small program that is used to make your browsing experience more interactive and fun by running some of the locally installed software that is present in your computer like Microsoft Windows Media Player or Microsoft Word in your browser itself instead of needing you to open the program individually to view content on the web.
This is great!.. most of the time but what if some one bad is trying to take over your computer? All that person needs to do is to make you agree to install an ActiveX control that will do... lets say for example download a virus or a keylogging software and then you're pretty much on the screwed list.
What I'm trying to impart here is becareful to what you agree on the web. If it is a website that you know is good for example Trend Micro's Online Virus Scan which will prompt you to install an ActiveX control then it is ok to install it but if it is a website that you do not know about and it prompts you repeatedly to install this unknown ActiveX control if not the page is not going to load crap then DON'T do it. Red flags should be flying and sirens should be wailing in your head!!!
Mcafee has an interesting way in dealing with this issue on safe websites and I for one would encourage you to try it out.
www.siteadvisor.com/
It's a free plugin for Internet Explorer. What it does actually is it places a small button on your browser's toolbar and that button changes color depending on the site's safety ratings, as to where it gets the safety rating from, I dont know, I must say it is quite simillar to IE 7's anti phising abilities but hey I'll let you find out by yourselves.
You can also use browsers that do not depend on ActiveX controls like Mozilla's FireFox or url=http://www.opera.com]Opera[/url] as alternatives but dont think that it is safer and you can still go to those websites that you didnt dare to go before ;D
You can manage your ActiveX controls after you've installed them since they are basically small programs you can uninstall them when you want to by following these steps.
1. Click TOOLS on Internet Explorer's toolbar.
2. Scroll down to MANAGE ADD-ONS from the drop-down menu.
3. Select ENABLE OR DISABLE ADD-ONS.
4. The MANAGE ADD-ONS WINDOW will now open. Select one of the options under SHOW to view the ActiveX Controls in your computer.
5. You can now highlight an ActiveX Control from the list, and either disable it in the SETTINGS box, or delete altogether in the DELETE box.
6. Press OK to perform the appropriate change.
7. Repeat as necessary to remove other controls.
Keep on surfin ;D
Cheers
Faizul
Some of you might care less on what ActiveX is but I know some of you do want to know what you are approving to be installed on you computer when you agreed to install it.
Let me start by explaining what ActiveX is all about. In layman terms,
ActiveX is a small program that is used to make your browsing experience more interactive and fun by running some of the locally installed software that is present in your computer like Microsoft Windows Media Player or Microsoft Word in your browser itself instead of needing you to open the program individually to view content on the web.
This is great!.. most of the time but what if some one bad is trying to take over your computer? All that person needs to do is to make you agree to install an ActiveX control that will do... lets say for example download a virus or a keylogging software and then you're pretty much on the screwed list.
What I'm trying to impart here is becareful to what you agree on the web. If it is a website that you know is good for example Trend Micro's Online Virus Scan which will prompt you to install an ActiveX control then it is ok to install it but if it is a website that you do not know about and it prompts you repeatedly to install this unknown ActiveX control if not the page is not going to load crap then DON'T do it. Red flags should be flying and sirens should be wailing in your head!!!
Mcafee has an interesting way in dealing with this issue on safe websites and I for one would encourage you to try it out.
www.siteadvisor.com/
It's a free plugin for Internet Explorer. What it does actually is it places a small button on your browser's toolbar and that button changes color depending on the site's safety ratings, as to where it gets the safety rating from, I dont know, I must say it is quite simillar to IE 7's anti phising abilities but hey I'll let you find out by yourselves.
You can also use browsers that do not depend on ActiveX controls like Mozilla's FireFox or url=http://www.opera.com]Opera[/url] as alternatives but dont think that it is safer and you can still go to those websites that you didnt dare to go before ;D
You can manage your ActiveX controls after you've installed them since they are basically small programs you can uninstall them when you want to by following these steps.
1. Click TOOLS on Internet Explorer's toolbar.
2. Scroll down to MANAGE ADD-ONS from the drop-down menu.
3. Select ENABLE OR DISABLE ADD-ONS.
4. The MANAGE ADD-ONS WINDOW will now open. Select one of the options under SHOW to view the ActiveX Controls in your computer.
5. You can now highlight an ActiveX Control from the list, and either disable it in the SETTINGS box, or delete altogether in the DELETE box.
6. Press OK to perform the appropriate change.
7. Repeat as necessary to remove other controls.
Keep on surfin ;D
Cheers
Faizul
