ActiveX was a by product of Microsoft's Object Linking and Embedding or OLE and Component Object Model or COM technologies. ActiveX control is a way of controlling these ActiveX technologies. It is basically an OLE that supports the IUnkown interface.
An ActiveX control can be activated by a Web browser. Since the ActiveX is not a programming language, programmers are able to create and develop ActiveX controls in different languages which include Visual Basic, C, C++, and Java. It is the third version of OLE controls that came out and is capable of managing the distribution of components over networks and enabling the integration of controls into Web browsers for easier applications of ActiveX.
Such enhancements brought about by controls of ActiveX results to additional features like:
1. incremental rendering
2. code signing
3. identification of authors of controls
There are a variety of controls for ActiveX that handles specific functions. One version is the FolderView ActiveX Control which allows the user to perform:
1. Deletion and reinsertion of controls on the form
2. Setting control properties to the original properties.
3. Rebuilding of the development project
However, programmers need to input the right information about the control in the system registry even before an control can be utilized properly and efficiently. One needs to "register" the control or the whole system will not recognize it as a valid program. Your computer system normally automatically installs the components of the controls but full manual installations are possible.
When you observe an control up close, you'll find that the system is very similar to a Java applet. The only difference is that Java applets do not have a full access to the Windows operating system. Nevertheless, since these controls are able to access the operating system, extreme care must be undertaken because these controls might initiate actions which can crash the software or data stored on your computer.
But the creators of the control have found a solution to address this problem. Because of the threat of corruption the operating system, Microsoft made a registration system which allows the identification and authentication of a control before users download and use it for their Web browsers and networking needs. Still, it is quite unfortunate that ActiveX controls can only be used on the Windows platform limiting their adaptability and usability unlit Java applets which can work well with all platforms.
Announced by computersarticlesweb.com
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