Hi, hopefully someone can help me out with this...

When ever I'm searching the web and go on a specific website, I get this pop-up message that says "Click to run an ActiveX control on this webpage". This message doesn't come up on every website I go on, only some. I attached a picture of the pop-up message to this thread if you want to check it out. Anyway, if I clicked the "X" or the "OK" the message would disappear and so would the webpage which makes it impossible for me to view it. I'm not sure why this message suddenly came, it never used to no matter what webpage I was on.

If anyone knows how I can solve this problem and get rid of the error message(which would allow me to view webpages..), please reply!

Thanks.

ActiveX definition: ActiveX

The activeX dialog box is there as a security measure so that you know that the site that you're on is attempting to download software to your computer. Software can be bad or good, depending on the goal of the software writer, so caution is certainly warranted.

The fact that the page disappears is not a good sign. You don't know what has been downloaded and, installed on your system.

I would suggest you download and run 3 Spyware removeal/prevention programs: (1) Ad-Aware, by Lavasoft Ad-Aware Home Page, (2) Spybots Spybots tutorial page, and then the most import one (IMO) SpywareBlaster, which attempts to pevent this type of problem, SpywareBlaster

Microsoft is also working on software to prevent this type of problem. The software is now in the BETA or testing phase. When it is ready, it is supposed to be provided via Windows Update.

I hope something here will help.

Dwight

That's really useful information Dwight. I get that error every single time I try to view profiles on Myspace.com....but only when I am using Internet Explorer as a browser. If I use Mozilla I don't get that error.

As crazy as it sounds, that IE message was intentional, not an error and not spyware. Heres the story...

Microsoft has had a long-running patent spat with Eolas over plugins. So, they wrote a software patch (optional) for IE which circumvents the pesky patent - by making users click the applet or click an OK button (the message you saw) before allowing user interaction.

You can find more information about the "feature" from Microsoft. There is also info on the patch itself.

And yes, you can uninstall the patch! Simply open Add/Remove programs and hunt for "Update for Windows XP (KB912945)", then click the Remove button.

Hope this was helpful!

That was very helpful JWooden. And after reading more on this subject I now know why I don't get the error message when I use Mozilla. Thanks!