What does 'ActiveX' mean?

John Graham author John Graham
What is ActiveX?
Photo by Adi Goldstein on Unsplash

ActiveX is a technology developed by Microsoft that is used to create software components that can be used in a variety of applications and programming languages. These components, known as ActiveX controls, can be used to add features such as interactive buttons, data entry fields, and multimedia content to an application.

ActiveX controls are typically written in programming languages such as C++ or Visual Basic, and they can be easily integrated into applications using the ActiveX technology. This allows developers to create powerful, interactive applications that can run on a variety of different platforms and operating systems.

One of the main advantages of ActiveX is that it allows applications to communicate with each other and share data and functionality. This allows developers to create complex, integrated systems that can be easily maintained and updated.

However, ActiveX has also been criticized for security vulnerabilities, as it can potentially allow malicious code to be installed on a user’s computer without their knowledge. As a result, many modern web browsers have disabled support for ActiveX controls by default.

Is ActiveX obsolete?

While ActiveX technology is still used by some applications and is supported by some web browsers, it has become less widely used in recent years due to security concerns and the development of newer technologies.

Many modern web browsers, such as Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox, have disabled support for ActiveX controls by default, which has limited their use on the web.

Additionally, newer technologies such as HTML5, JavaScript, and CSS have become more widely used for creating interactive, dynamic web content, rendering some of the features of ActiveX controls unnecessary.

As a result, ActiveX is not as widely used as it once was and is considered to be somewhat obsolete. However, it is still supported by some applications and web browsers, and it continues to be used by some developers.

More information

ActiveX was introduced by Microsoft in 1996 as part of the OLE (Object Linking and Embedding) framework. OLE is a technology that allows applications to share data and functionality, and ActiveX is a component of this framework that is used to create reusable software components.

These components, known as ActiveX controls, can be easily integrated into a variety of applications and programming languages.