Microsoft

Enabling or Disabling ActiveX Controls

ActiveX controls are programs that do not run as standalone applications. Instead, ActiveX controls reside within a Microsoft Office file or within a browser such as Internet Explorer. ActiveX controls add rich functionality to your applications. For example, you can use an ActiveX control to add scheduling features to an Access database. ActiveX controls have full access to your computer. This makes them very powerful. For example, ActiveX controls can access the local file system and can change Registry settings of your operating system. This makes them potentially very dangerous. A hacker can use an ActiveX control to render Windows unusable!

You can take two steps to help ensure that ActiveX controls ...