active x control question

[Leonard F Kiesling]

using win 98se, dell desktop 5 yrs old, ie 6.0 browser. i have a question
regarding an advisory box which is displayed sometimes when viewing certain
web pages. the advisory box says page may not view properly because of
something with my active x controls. i use spybot search & destroy 1.3 with
teatimer activeated, spywareblaster, norton AV 2002, & adaware se. could any
of these programs prevent an active x control from displaying a web page?
and/or is there a setting for active x controls in ie's properties? any
input greatly appreciated. thank you, len kiesling

 

[IE Customizer]

The ActiveX controls are download and stored on your computer over the
Internet to allow you to view and use particular web pages. If you choose
not to allow IE to use and install them then you may not be able to use the
web page you are viewing for the purpose it was intended.

You can control how IE treats ActiveX controls from the Security Settings
for the Internet Zone. (Tools/Internet Options/Security/Custom Level).

Signed ActiveX controls can be traced to their publisher and so can be
trusted. You may want to Enable the Download of Signed ActiveX controls.

But you may want to Prompt before Unsigned ActiveX controls are downloaded.

The other security options for ActiveX controls are obvious... Anything
marked safe for scripting or that has been digitally signed can be trusted.
You should at least set IE to prompt before downloading anything that cannot
be trusted.

If you have a look at the Security settings for the Trusted Zone you will
see that even Unsigned and Unmarked controls are accepted without prompting.
That is because they are comming from a trusted web site (in the eyes of you
the user).

I set IE to prompt for Unsigned controls so that I have a choice at least
but personally I have not heard of any ActiveX control being exploited for
malicious purposes.

There are some ActiveX controls that can cause problems for Windows versions
but these are blocked automatically by IE ( It maintains a list of
compatiable ActiveX controls in the Registry)

 

[Leonard F Kiesling]

thanks for reply! i followed your info & changed 2 settings. the "initialize
and script active x controls not marked as safe" is now shown as disable.
would you suggest i mark that as a prompt? thank you, len kiesling