ActiveX What is ActiveX?
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ActiveX is Microsoft technology used for developing reusable object oriented software components. ActiveX is an alternative name for OLE automation (OLE - Object Linking and Embedding), not a separate technology.” Wikipedia It should suffice to say that ActiveX is a technology that was developed to bring the power of Object Linking and Embedding or OLE as it is popularly known, to empower web browsers and particularly Internet Explorer, to display such objects. When web pages with embedded ActiveX components are downloaded, the corresponding controls are also downloaded and automatically launched by the operating system of the computer. This can, over some time, clutter up the registry with unwanted data and controls, thus slowing down the system drastically. This will mean having to clean up the registry with a registry cleaner periodically. ActiveX controls are actually used by Windows to display very rich interfacing activity such as animation, video images, virtual reality that used 3D technology, high resolution images and the like. ActiveX Prompts For Registry Cleaners When downloaded into your computer, an ActiveX control is actually packaged as an .OCX file. There are cases when more .OCX files are downloaded and needed for a web page. The .OCX files like ActiveX controls need to be registered on your system before they can be used. Registering means that a program capable of doing this queries the ActiveX control and saves specific information about it into Windows Registry so that the operating system can find it and therefore be able to use it. However, one must keep in mind the importance or cleaning up the registry periodically. The Internet has the best registry cleaners available free. So, make use of them to keep your system running smoothly. Pro's and Con's Of ActiveX Controls It is important to understand that with all the 'pros' of ActiveX technology also come a few 'cons' as well. ActiveX is a very powerful tool and is sometimes used by individuals, with a flair for the technology, to create ActiveX controls with malicious intentions. These 'corrupt' ActiveX controls can wreak havoc on your system and leave you helpless for no fault of yours. After all, you know that ActiveX is supposed to help your system run some programs, right. So why not download an ActiveX control when you are prompted to do so? It is for this reason that Microsoft has developed the ActiveX security system. In Windows XP operating system, this security system is embedded in Internet Explorer. The registry of the system automatically blocks the download and installation of any ActiveX component in the Registry of the computer. Apart from this when an ActiveX component has to be installed the computer will prompt the user to check for the signature of the component. If the ActiveX component is registered with Microsoft the ActiveX component is verified as authorized and is allowed to be installed in the registry of the computer. If the ActiveX component is not verified the system offers the user a choice of not installing the ActiveX control. Some Advice For Internet Explorer Users If you are using Internet Explorer you should ensure that you are using a security level set to Medium or above in Internet Explorer. You can do this by going to tools in IE and select 'Internet options' then click on 'security' and slide the level to medium or higher. Now, after reading about the entire automatic downloads of controls and stuff, it makes sense to download a window registry cleaner and use it periodically to clean the registry of your system. There are enhanced registry cleaners to clean the complex registry of Windows XP as well. Author is admin and technical expert associated with development of computer security and performance enhancing software like Registry Cleaner, Anti Spyware, Windows Cleaner, Anti Spam Filter, A. Singh. Learn secrets for an efficient Registry Cleaner. Visit our Home page or Resource Center to read more about products and download free trial of a range of security and performance enhancing software like:
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=A_Singh As you can see, unwanted ActiveX controls can congregate in your computers registry and result in system errors and browser crashes. You will find that your computer may start running at a slower pace as a result of a bloated registry. |
