At the technology workshop, there were questions about ActiveX. ActiveX controls are software components used by web pages to allow your browser to do something with the page, much like a Java applet. They make the website more interactive and program-like. For example, a page might have an ActiveX control to allow viewers to see a working excel spreadsheet in a webpage. Like any piece of technology, the “bad guys” sometimes create pages with malicious ActiveX components. That threat is why warning messages sometimes appear across the top of your browser warning you that a page uses ActiveX controls. If you trust the website and want to see the active content, click on the warning message for options.
To check what ActiveX controls you have installed on your computer you can do the following: While in Internet Explorer go to the Tools Menu > Click Internet Options > Click the “Settings” button > Click the “View Objects” button. If you right-click each one and select properties, it will give you a little more information about it. For example, I have an ActiveX control that my computer uses for running Windows Updates. Under properties it gives me the website that the control is used with, which would be Microsoft.