Re: How to change Active X Controls?

In article <d4dphs$a5d$1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, Cacique says...

> To be honest, I really have no idea what Active X Controls are. Do I need
> them?

ActiveX controls are scripts. MSFT developed ActiveX as a counterpoint to
JavaScript; probably because JS was a Netscape development for their browser
back when MSFT set out to drive the Netscape browser off of Windows
computers. They allow for neat "Dog and Pony" shows on web sites. I tried
one at the Kodansha (Japanese publishing company) site, once. They previewed
upcoming comic releases. If you visited the site with MSIE (only; because of
ActiveX), and hovered the mouse over the dialogue balloons in the previewed
comic (with ActiveX enabled), the dialogue would change from Japanese
writing to the English translation. Cute, but worth the security risk? Of
course, one could add the Kodansha site to the Trusted sites zone.

ActiveX controls, because of the integration of MS Internet Explorer with
the OS, give the script writer privileged access to your operating system at
the lowest levels. The only security that exists, when ActiveX is permitted,
is "signed controls"; but anybody with the money to pay for it, can get a
signed certificate. It is on the user who permits ActiveX controls to run to
decide if they will trust the certificate.

MS Internet Explorer normally has four zones displayed in the Security tab.
Each zone can be set independently to allow, or deny certain functions with
security implications.

MS Outlook Expressi is as integrated with MS Internet Explorer as the latter
is with the operating system.

By default, the Restricted sites zone of MSIE is set to the highest
security, and MSOE is set so HTML pages are rendered according to the
settings of the Restricted sites zone.

Email is the favorite method to spread viruses. Altering the security
settings of MSIE/MSOE from their defaults exposes you to the risks
associated with viral email. Especially for people who use the Preview pane,
because that automatically opens the message; along with the security
implications of changing MSOE to use the Internet zone instead of the
Restricted sites zone, and of using anything less than the High security
setting for whichever zone MSOE operates in.

In short, to maximize your safety, MSOE needs to be in the Restricted sites
zone, and the Restricted sites zone needs to be set to the High setting. I
do not recall if using Custom settings, and denying everything possible is
equivalent to High, or exceeds it. However, the consequence of such tight
settings will be that you get notices about the security settings
prohibiting ActiveX controls from running.

--
Norman
~Win dain a lotica, En vai tu ri, Si lo ta
~Fin dein a loluca, En dragu a sei lain
~Vi fa-ru les shutai am, En riga-lint
.

Relevant Pages
Loading