This resulted in richer content for compatible browsers however, introduced security dangers when browsing to websites that used ActiveX content. The use of this tag would force the web browser to automatically install the control after being downloaded with minimal user interaction. Later that same year with the release of Internet Explorer 3.0, ActiveX Controls were able to be embedded within HTML content using the “OBJECT” tag. The ActiveX framework was developed by Microsoft in 1996 due to the increased complexity of OLE 2.0 and inadequate support for COM in MFC. A common task that arises for end-users is to determine how to install ActiveX on a personal computer. First developed in the mid-1990’s by the Microsoft Corporation, ActiveX controls are used by Windows Media Player, Microsoft Office, Internet Explorer, and Microsoft Visual Studio and can be embedded into web pages for added functionality. One or more of these components can be used for development of software applications and digitally signed to validate the identity of the author of the component.

ActiveX is designed to be a framework to allow software components to be reused independent of the programming language used in development.

Allow activex on firefox