Total ActiveX rejection

G

Guest

I cannot download ANY activex controls on ANY website, including Dell or
Microsoft. I get the standard:

"Your security settings do not allow Web sites to use ActiveX controls
installed on your computer."

I have enabled all activeX abilities, turned off ALL security, turned off
all privacy restrictions, turned off popup blocking, shut down all firewalls.
In fact, I have enabled everything, everywhere in the computer so that
nothing is restricted whatsoever - in other words, there is no safety,
firewalls, privacy or security on my system now. I know - extremely unwise -
but I'm getting desperate because I cannot download any updates for XP, virus
scanning updates. etc.

The only other thing the message bar says is:

"This page may not display correctly. Click here for options…"

When I click on the information bar the ONLY thing it says is "Information
Bar Help". There is no clickable saying "What's the risk?" or anything else.
When I click on "Information Bar Help", it just gives me the standard useless
windows helpbox about how to use the information bar itself.

Elsewhere on various pages regarding ActiveX issues, I've seen;

"You must be an Administrator in order to change the ActiveX controls
settings in Internet Explorer."

I am logged in as Administrator. I have tried all the solutions that have
worked for other people through various discussion groups across the net, and
none have had any effect on my system. I have also shut down all programs -
period - other than IE - with no effect.

I downloaded the latest IE 6 patch from Microsoft and I already have the
latest version of SP2 (one week old). I when I run either the patch or the
SP2 CD I get:

"Setup could not verify the integrity of the file "Update.inf". Make sure
the Cryptographic service is running on this computer."

It is running (and I've tried it without too). Just to clarify; I have the
latest virus definitions installed, and just to be safe, I've been doing
several scans during the day just to make sure I still haven't picked up
anything nasty.

I'm not running any 3rd-party firewalls, etc. I even took it back to square
one (restored it to date of purchase). Nada.

I may be faced with having to dump my personal files onto CD and
reformatting the drives. Unless there's something painfully obvious that I've
been missing all along?

Any help would be hugely appreciated.

Regards
 
U

Uncle John

Amelia,

Microsoft have been distributing new ActiveX controls in their automatically
installed security patches.

To try and solve your problem, go to Control Panel Internet Options. In the
Security Tab set all the security zones to the default. Go to the Trusted
Zone, add the site
http://update.microsoft.com.
Close Internet Options and open Internet Explorer
browse to
update.Microsoft.com/windowsupdate/v6/default.aspx?ln=en-us

You may be asked to install a new ActiveX component in which case follow the
prompts and do so

You should get your updates OK. If you after that you still get the total
ActiveX rejection please post here again.

BTW Windows Update is very slow today.
 
G

Guest

Uncle John said:
go to Control Panel Internet Options. In the Security Tab set all the
security zones to the default. Go to the Trusted Zone, add the
site http://update.microsoft.com/

Done. Unfortunately, this had no effect at all. I still get the standard
popup information bar "Your security settings do not allow Web sites to use
ActiveX controls installed on your computer." with no actual information
inside it. As a matter of fact, I had already added numerous Microsoft URLs
added to my trusted zone, all with no effect.

Thanx, and regards.
 
G

Guest

Uncle John said:

Under the various sections on their website:

"What are the correct IE security settings" -

I have now reset my security settings according to their recommened
parameters (although my previous settings were TOTALLY open and unsecure).

"Do I need to disable my firewall"

I have completely removed all firewalls. On their debug page I told it to
run all tests, but before it can, it fails and defaults to the
troubleshooting page::

"PC Pitstop utility did not load. NOTE: If you are using Windows XP Service
Pack 2, look at the top of this page and see if the yellow Information Bar is
displaying a message about PC Pitstop. If so, click the Information Bar and
select "Install ActiveX Control".

I am running SP2 and that (or any other) option is not there to click on. It
then gives an information page, wherein it gives possible reasons:

1. "Security certificate: You may have answered NO when you were presented
with the security certificate. You must accept the certificate so that PC
Pitstop can diagnose problems on your PC. "

I have allowed all certificates to be allowed.

2. "Internet Explorer security settings: Your IE security may be set so that
you cannot accept ActiveX controls. IE's default security settings ask if you
want to accept controls, rather than blocking them. To restore the defaults
in Internet Explorer, follow these instructions..."

Done. Again.

3. Web proxy issues: A web proxy or other "web accelerator" may have an old
copy of our utility in its cache.

Never installed.

4. Old or incomplete PC Pitstop utility

Never installed.

5. Try rebooting

Done. Again. In both safe and straight administrator modes. With
cache/temporary-internet-files cleared. Re-booted, double-checked all
settings in security/privacy/connections

BUT, after struggling for so long with this, it does feel great to at least
have someone else adding some firepower to the issue.

So thanx, Uncle John.
 
U

Uncle John

Amelia,
I am glad to help, having suffered from your problem in the past.

It does appear that you have either a corrupt installation of SP2 or have
got Spyware or a Virus on your machine.

1 To check your SP2 installation hit Start\Run
type CMD
Enter
This gives you a command prompt
Type sfc /scannow
Enter
The process will start. You must have your XP +SP installation CD or XP CD &
SP 2 CD. You will be prompted when to insert the CD's in your default CD
drive

2 If you do not have an antivirus program and anti-spyware program you must
get them and run them. If you already have them do a full sweep. If you have
nothing yet you could do a trial with
Panda's TruPrevent at
http://www.pandasoftware.com/products/truprevent_personal2005/
You can run it a few times for free.

3 Try again to access Windows Update. I you can get on there but nowhere
else you can access the trouble shooter and ask for Microsoft Help by email.
If you cannot get Windows Update you can try the news group for help there.

http://www.microsoft.com/communitie...d45-de9e-4fc5-9bc1-2d1d0de6daee&lang=en&cr=US

(Put it in as all one line)

In the meantime you could download Firefox, which does not use ActiveX and
see if you can browse with that.

Let me know how you get on.
 
G

Guest

It would appear that I've found the cure - with great assistance by Uncle
John. The cure, as it turns out, is never mentioned in any Window
documentation, nor in any help files. It would appear to be an inherent
glitch that the Microsoft debugging team missed.

Good 'ol regsvr32...

1. Click Start ->Run and type "regsvr32 Softpub.dll" (without double quotes)
2. Click okay to register it
3. Do the same re-registration process with the rest of these .dll files:

regsvr32 softpub.dll (as mentioned above)
regsvr32 wintrust.dll
regsvr32 initpki.dll
regsvr32 urlmon.dll

4. Restart your computer and try the update site again (or other sites
requiring ActiveX to be enabled).

As Uncle John mentioned previously, test your ActiveX settings status (after
re-booting) by going here:
http://www.pcpitstop.com/testax.asp?print=1

and then do a security check here:

http://security.symantec.com/sscv6/home.asp?langid=ie&venid=sym&plfid=23&pkj=KSCMWCGZYFVHDYKDBFV

It would appear that the vicious circle, or the ActiveX / Catch-22-syndrome
has been broken.
ie. according to Miscrosoft (and Dell), you must have ActiveX enabled in
order to fix the problem of ActiveX being unable to be switched on, which
obviously cannot be done.

Going here:
http://v4.windowsupdate.microsoft.com/troubleshoot/
or to any other related Microsoft troubleshooting page will not help if your
ActiveX is disabled (Catch 22). The above regsvr32 method above should solve
the issue.

If you've rebooted and it STILL doesn't solve your particular ActiveX
problem, here's another thing to try:

1.Click start, then run
2.Type in gpedit.msc
3.In the left side, click Computer Configuration, Windows Settings,
Security Settings, Software Restriction Policies.
4.In the right side, double click Trusted Publishers
5.Make sure the top radio button says End Users'
6. Click OK and close gpedit
7. Re-boot and try Windows Update again. You may have to do some of the
other fixes presented on this site after that, but this should cure that
problem.

When I approached Dell about this issue, they said it was a Microsoft
problem and I should be dealing with Microsoft. In turn, Microsoft said it
was a manufacteruer problem and I should be dealing with Dell. Another
Catch-22 with the consumer cuaght in the middle. Both said they would be
happy to talk to me if I prepaid a LOT of money in order I could resolve an
issue on my one-month-old, warrantied machine.

Big Thanx, Uncle John. No Thanx Microsoft or Dell.
 
P

PA Bear

See:

Changes to Functionality in Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2: Browsing
Security Enhancements
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/winxppro/maintain/sp2brows.mspx

Description of the Internet Explorer Information Bar in Windows XP SP2
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=843017

Working with Internet Explorer 6 Security Settings
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/using/howto/security/settings.asp

Use Security and Privacy Features in Internet Explorer 6
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/using/howto/security/ie6.asp

Setting Up Security Zones
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/using/howto/security/setup.asp

A Description of the Changes to the Security Settings of the Web Content
Zones in Internet Explorer 6
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=300443
 
G

Guest

PA Bear said:
See:
Changes to Functionality in Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2: Browsing
Security Enhancements

<snip>

Thanx Pa Bear,

Fabulous resources ONCE you've been able to turn on ActiveX. You can't
acccess most of them with ActiveX out of commission. It's sort of like a
blind person being able to cure his blindness - all he has to do is
physically read the cure from a book first. I think Microsoft assumes that
everyone's system will have ActiveX (and everything else) working perfect out
of the box. Unfortunatley, mine wasn't. I found about 20 installation
boo-boos that Dell did when they setup the drives (to their credit, they've
admitted to 6 of them).

I've bookmarked all the ones you sent. Thank you!
 
U

Uncle John

Amelia,

Great news that you fixed your problem.

Below is a list I was going to send if you had not fixed your problem of other things that you can do [complied by Blizhosting who will give online help, only charging for a fee for difficult problems].
http://www.blizhosting.com/v3/HTML/index.html.
If you use a firewall (like ZoneAlarm, Norton Internet Security etc. ), even if you disabled your firewall in the past,try restarting it and see if that helps the situation. You also might try uninstalling an
installed firewall, to verify that it isn't causing a problem (even if it is disabled).
1.. Clear your IE cache and cookies -- open Internet Explorer, click the Tools menu, then
Internet Options, then click the Delete Files button, and when that's complete click the
Delete Cookies button.
2.. Check your IE Security settings -- open Internet Explorer, click the Tools menu, then
Internet Options, then Advanced tab, scroll to the Security section, and verify that "Check for server certificate revocation" is unchecked. Also verify that 'Use SSL 2.0' and Use SSL 3.0' is checked, then click OK.
3.. Click Start, then Run, and enter the following:
regsvr32 softpub.dll
then click OK
and do the same for the following:
regsvr32 wintrust.dll
regsvr32 initpki.dll
4.. Click on START, then RUN, then copy and paste this Regsvr32 command:

regsvr32 softpub.dll wintrust.dll initpki.dll dssenh.dll rsaenh.dll gpkcsp.dll sccbase.dll slbcsp.dll cryptdlg.dll

the blanks are spaces. The command takes a little while to execute.
Good Luck
 
I

Ichneumon

It would appear that I've found the cure - with great assistance by Uncle
John. The cure, as it turns out, is never mentioned in any Window
documentation, nor in any help files. It would appear to be an inherent
glitch that the Microsoft debugging team missed.

Good 'ol regsvr32...

I came to this newsgroup with the intention of asking for
help with the exact same problem (failure to load of *all* ActiveX
controls from websites), and was surprised to find a thread already
underway on the same topic. I tried *all* of the suggested fixes
in this thread, as well as all the fixes in all referenced links,
and a lot of other fixes I'd turned up on various internet searches.

Nothing worked.

I even tried comparing all DLL files on a computer that worked
versus the ones on the computer that didn't, and manually copying
versions of likely candidates from the "good" machine to the "bad"
machine, but not only did that not help the ActiveX problem, at
one point I reached a state where the "bad" machine refused to log
in after a reboot because Windows "could not properly verify its
license". I managed to undo that change in Safe Mode, thank goodness.

Finally, after several *days* of trying absolutely everything under
the Sun, I tried using RegMon and FileMon from http://www.sysinternals.com
(a *great* website with *incredibly* valuable and unique utilities) in
order to "watch" the file and registry activities of both the "good"
and "bad" machine to see if I could spot a clue as to what was different
between the way the two of them processed an ActiveX install, and/or at
what point the "bad" machine was failing.

Lo and behold, in the FileMon log I spotted the "bad" machine referencing
various Symantec (Norton) anti-virus DLLs. I didn't even know I *had*
Symantec anti-virus on this machine. It never popped up during booting,
nor in the system tray, nor did it ever give any virus warnings (even when
I *had* a couple of viruses) nor was there even a Start Menu entry for it.
It was totally "stealthed" somehow. I found an entry for Symantec AV 2003
in the "Add/Remove Programs" list, and I deinstalled it.

*poof*, my ActiveX controls now finally work in Internet Explorer! Woo hoo!

I'm posting this reply in case it may help others who find this thread, either
now or in the future via Google, to perhaps save them from the same long ordeal
I had to go through.
 
P

PA Bear

Lo and behold, in the FileMon log I spotted the "bad" machine referencing
various Symantec (Norton) anti-virus DLLs. I didn't even know I *had*
Symantec anti-virus on this machine.

Hmmm. Was prolly the trial version preinstalled on the machine when you got
it.

You might wanna run this Symantec tool, too:
http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/nav.nsf/docid/2001092114452606

....and, if any problems persist, reinstall Windows 5.6 Scripting Engine:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/downloads/list/webdev.asp
(uninstalling NAV 2003 or earlier is known to break this).
 

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