Use ActiveX? Consider Disabling or Just Use Firefox
June 1, 2008
A lot of my clients are now complaining about a bug that tells you that Windows has been infected, and to give them your credit card to remove this bug. There are many names for this, but it is extortion. The developers of this device have moved their servers and business off shore, so they are immune to US Law. There is no point in trying to give them money. Having a bug on your machine is hard enough, no need to ahnd over your credit card information and identity in addition to having to rebuild your machine.
If you are opposed to installing Firefox (don’t forget to include Java Runtime Envinronment and Flash player – so that most of the web works properly in Firefox), then consider shutting off ActiveX. Do do so, follow these steps:
Select Tools (or press the keys Alt T ) — Then select Internet Options
Select the Security tab – press the Custom level… button
In the bottom area of this tab area, Under Reset customer settings, Reset to: select the down arrow in the pull down list and choose High, and press the OK button and then OK again.
What you are turning off here is the ability of your computer to get infected using Internet Explorer.
In general, many of the bugs that jump on your windows computer are relying on ActiveX to be turned on. If you were using Linux, Mac OS X, or FireFox you will not have this problem.
