3 questions about ActiveX settings?

[George]

I'm using WinXP-pro and Outlook2003. When I see a certain (reputable)
eNewsletter every day in the long list of incoming emails, I click on this
one to make it full sized so I can read the headlines. But before Outlook
brings it up, it warns...

(yellow exclamation point)"Your current security settings prohibit running
ActiveX controls on this page. As a result, the page may not display
correctly"

It used to not do this, two things have happened recently...first, I've
downloaded all the Win patches, and secondly, the newscompany seemd to have
upgraded their newsletter slightly...unsure what triggered this

1) What should I do? I've been clicking [X] or [OK] and the warning goes
away and the page displays just fine. But the warning are annoying and
extra work.

2) How would I "enable" it to bypass this message, and if I do, what could
happen?

3) Could a bad newsletter run bad code (or a virus) on the PC? Or would it
*monitor* (like spyware) what I click on in the newsletter? Or would it
from here on have capability to monitor or do anything to PC?

Thanks,
G

 

[Brian Tillman]

I'm using WinXP-pro and Outlook2003. When I see a certain (reputable)
eNewsletter every day in the long list of incoming emails, I click on
this one to make it full sized so I can read the headlines. But
before Outlook brings it up, it warns...

(yellow exclamation point)"Your current security settings prohibit
running ActiveX controls on this page. As a result, the page may not
display correctly"

The message contains ActiveX controls and you have Outlook set to read
messages in the Restricted Zone, which doesn't normally allow ActiveX.

It used to not do this, two things have happened recently...first,
I've downloaded all the Win patches, and secondly, the newscompany
seemd to have upgraded their newsletter slightly...unsure what
triggered this

Depends on your version of Outlook, but at least one version originally
opened messages in the Internet Zone, which usually allows ActiveX, until it
was patched to chnage the default zone to Restricted.

1) What should I do? I've been clicking [X] or [OK] and the warning
goes away and the page displays just fine. But the warning are
annoying and extra work.

You can change the default zone for mail reading, but I think that's a poor
choice. You can continue to do what you describe above. You could also
change your Restricted Zone settings to allow ActiveX, which I think is also
a bad idea.

2) How would I "enable" it to bypass this message, and if I do, what
could happen?

I don't know of any way to keep the message from displaying as long as the
mail is opened in a zone that prohibits ActiveX.

3) Could a bad newsletter run bad code (or a virus) on the PC?
Certainly.

Or would it *monitor* (like spyware) what I click on in the newsletter?

Depends on the capability of your antivirus program, I would suspect.
Certainly Outlook alone doesn't monitor anything.

 

[George]

Thanks Brian,

It looks like the settings for ActiveX are in Outlook Tools > Options >
Security > Zone Settings. I wondered if you or another newsgroup member
have some insights into the pulldown, where I see only ONLY two things:

--------------
Internet-
Restricted (this shows up unless I click the pull-down)
--------------

Does this mean that a) I'm "set" to Restricted [is that good or bad?] or b)
I'm not set to either one but rather these are the two things on which I can
click and see zone details, but both come into play at different times based
on some condition (what is that condition anyway)?

Also, if I click Zone Settings, now the new screen shows four choices
(Internet, Intranet, Trusted, Restricted.) and each seems to have zone
settings of their own. I wondered how these relate to the two things in the
pull-down menu...

And would I change one of these to change the ActiveX settings?

Thanks

 

[Brian Tillman]

It looks like the settings for ActiveX are in Outlook Tools > Options
member have some insights into the pulldown, where I see only ONLY
two things:

Sounds right.

Does this mean that a) I'm "set" to Restricted [is that good or bad?]

Yes. Good.

or b) I'm not set to either one but rather these are the two things
on which I can click and see zone details, but both come into play at
different times based on some condition (what is that condition
anyway)?

The zone that appears in the drop down when you don't click it is the
current zone.

Also, if I click Zone Settings, now the new screen shows four choices
(Internet, Intranet, Trusted, Restricted.) and each seems to have zone
settings of their own. I wondered how these relate to the two things
in the pull-down menu...

Two of those four zones are the two named in the drop-down.

And would I change one of these to change the ActiveX settings?

Select the zone you wish to change and click Customize. Change the ActiveX
settings you see. I'd caution you against either, though. Tell the
newsletter editor that they should not use ActiveX in their newsletter or
save the newsletter to a disk file and open it in IE.