ActiveX is creeping into more and more programs. Recently I've installed
McAfee VirusScan 8x and the new Yahoo! Messenger 6, only to find that both
of these rely on embedded ActiveX controls.
I keep my Internet Zone security settings for ActiveX set to "prompt",
mainly so I get the choice of allowing or disallowing Websites to waste my
dial-up bandwidth on irrelevant animations, and prevent them trying
anything
malicious.
The problem with this is, the two desktop applications mentioned above use
the *Internet* Zone for their ActiveX. Why? Shouldn't they be using the
"Local Zone"? Why is there such a trend to use ActiveX and Internet
Explorer_Server instances in desktop applications anyway? From my
experience, compared with their predecessors, these ActiveX based
applications take much longer for their windows and dialogue boxes to
load,
and are less efficient with regard to both upload and download bandwidth.
In keeping my Internet Zone settings for ActiveX set to "prompt", I
repeatedly receive prompts from these desktop applications every few
minutes, and they suspend until and unless I am there to click YES to each
and every one of them.
So, in order to run McAfee VirusScan and/or Yahoo! Messenger *desktop*
applications correctly, is it right that I am forced to change my security
peferences for the *whole Internet*?
Comments, agree/disagree's appreciated.
PS. Mainly because of the ActiveX, I've uninstalled the new Yahoo!
Messenger
and reverted to the old v5.6, and I won't be buying McAfee VirusScan when
my
license expires in 12 months - if the next version is still using ActiveX.
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