Internet Explorer 9 (IE9) is the latest web browser by Microsoft which was released about 9 months ago. As a general rule we should always keep web browsers up to date unless you have a specific software that you use which requires an older version of the web browser. An updated web browser normally offers faster browsing experience, contains additional features and also more security against web based exploits. Internet Explorer 9 comes with a new feature called ActiveX Filtering which allows you to browse the Web without running any ActiveX controls. ActiveX controls are actually plugins like Adobe Flash Player, Apple Quicktime, Silverlight and Java that enable many rich web experiences but they can cause your computer to get infected if you are using an older version of the plugin that is vulnerable to exploits.

Hence, the ActiveX Filtering feature which is disabled by default offers you an easy way to help keep your web browsing activity safe. When ActiveX Filtering is turned on, visiting websites such as YouTube that requires Adobe Flash Player will show you a red bar on top saying “You need to upgrade your Adobe Flash Player to watch this video. Download it from Adobe” and at the bottom “Upgrade to Flash Player 10 for improved playback performance. Upgrade Now or More Info”. The error message will not go away even if you upgrade to the latest version of Flash Player because ActiveX Filtering is enabled.

I guess the error message is a bit inaccurate because the user may end up re-installing Adobe Flash Player but the problem still persist. To disable ActiveX Filtering in Internet Explorer 9, click on the Settings icon located at the top right of the browser, go to Safety, and click on ActiveX Filtering to uncheck it.

Even though some of us may not use Internet Explorer 9 at all, it is good that we should at least know ActiveX Filtering can cause such problems. Simply disable ActiveX Filtering from the Tools menubar and install Heimdal Agent to help keep these vital plugins up to date against exploits. It is way more convenient than enabling ActiveX Filtering all the time and manually adding websites to Trusted sites zone for websites that requires activex components.