History
Faced with the complexity of OLE 2.0 and with poor support for COM in MFC, Microsoft rationalized the specifications to make them simpler, and rebranded the technology as ActiveX in 1996. Even after simplification, users still required controls to implement about six core interfaces. In response to this complexity, Microsoft produced wizards, ATL base classes, macros and C++ language extensions to make it simpler to write controls.
Starting with Internet Explorer 3.0 (1996), Microsoft added support to host ActiveX controls within HTML content. If the browser encountered a page specifying an ActiveX control via an OBJECT tag, it would automatically download and install the control with little or no user intervention. This made the web "richer" but provoked objections (since such controls ran only on Windows) and security risks (especially given the lack of user intervention). Microsoft subsequently introduced security measures to make browsing including ActiveX safer.
For example:
- digital signing of installation packages (Cabinet files and executables)
- controls must explicitly declare themselves safe for scripting
- increasingly stringent default security settings
- Internet Explorer maintains a blacklist of bad controls
On October 17, 1996, Microsoft announced availability of the beta release of the Microsoft® ActiveX Software Development Kit (SDK) for the Macintosh.
Shortly thereafter, Microsoft made Active-X open source. Documentation for Active-X core technology resides at The Open Group and may be downloaded for free.
Read more about this topic: ActiveX
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