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When I right-clicked on a downloaded program, and chose Update. A graph appeared and the update started. I would like to know what gets updated?
Also, can the downloaded programs be safely deleted?
Don’t bother to ask why I wanted to update, I was curious and radomly chose that option. I know I can get in deep stuff by clicking on things I know nothing about. Curiosity killed the cat, and satisfaction is supposed to have brought him back. I don’t expect to be brought back.
This is about where the downloaded Active X Control Programs can be viewed.[/u] Those are the “downloaded programs.”[/u] 
As you probably know, Active X controls are mini programs that jazz up or enhance the functionality of a web site using MS technology. The new MSN site is full of them. They display games sometimes, all kinds of animation, stock tickers, ball scores and tables on sports sites, ect for the purposes here. This list here is only a small fraction of the Active X controls on your computer–the ones you’ve downloaded. The columns that matter here are status and version, and you can also view the same thing by right clicking one of them and then left clicking Properties.
If a web page isn’t displaying properly this could be due to a failure of an Active X control to load or that it’s out of date. That will show up in the Status column. The version column is about whether you need to update a control or utility. If you think there is an updated version, right click the entry in the Program File column and choose update. IE will go to the site of the control’s origin quickly and check to see if one is available. Java Controls are also listed here, When you right click an item and choose properties, you can tell from the Properties Dialogue Box what species (Active X or Java), dependencies, size and the URL that it came from.
There is incredible potential for an active X control to take over your system if it’s malicious, but security wasn’t in play on this thread. An Active X control can be downloaded and executed by a web browser with full access to Windows. An active X hack can do all kinds of damage to your system, capture your email or IP address, and target you for spam or hacking. Active X is a set of rules for how apps share info.
You asked about deleting them. You could and could copy them but leave them there. Programs depend on them to work. If you deleted one connected with Shockwave, then you wouldn’t see animation but a program needing it would prompt you to download Shockwave again. If the Downloaded Programs folder you see at View Objects is deleted, a new one is created the next time IE downloads new program files. Any space saved or speed gained from deleting these is infinitely negligible. This contexts the safety aspect a little: Custom Levels – ActiveX.
If you want a more comprehensive tool to view Active X controls, and delete unwanted ones, you can download Active XCavator Version 2.0 for Complete Active X Control Detection.
SMBP
This is about where the downloaded Active X Control Programs can be viewed.[/u] Those are the “downloaded programs.”[/u] As you probably know, Active X controls are mini programs that jazz up or enhance the functionality of a web site using MS technology. The new MSN site is full of them. They display games sometimes, all kinds of animation, stock tickers, ball scores and tables on sports sites, ect for the purposes here. This list here is only a small fraction of the Active X controls on your computer–the ones you’ve downloaded. The columns that matter here are status and version, and you can also view the same thing by right clicking one of them and then left clicking Properties.
If a web page isn’t displaying properly this could be due to a failure of an Active X control to load or that it’s out of date. That will show up in the Status column. The version column is about whether you need to update a control or utility. If you think there is an updated version, right click the entry in the Program File column and choose update. IE will go to the site of the control’s origin quickly and check to see if one is available. Java Controls are also listed here, When you right click an item and choose properties, you can tell from the Properties Dialogue Box what species (Active X or Java), dependencies, size and the URL that it came from.
There is incredible potential for an active X control to take over your system if it’s malicious, but security wasn’t in play on this thread. An Active X control can be downloaded and executed by a web browser with full access to Windows. An active X hack can do all kinds of damage to your system, capture your email or IP address, and target you for spam or hacking. Active X is a set of rules for how apps share info.
You asked about deleting them. You could and could copy them but leave them there. Programs depend on them to work. If you deleted one connected with Shockwave, then you wouldn’t see animation but a program needing it would prompt you to download Shockwave again. If the Downloaded Programs folder you see at View Objects is deleted, a new one is created the next time IE downloads new program files. Any space saved or speed gained from deleting these is infinitely negligible. This contexts the safety aspect a little: Custom Levels – ActiveX.
If you want a more comprehensive tool to view Active X controls, and delete unwanted ones, you can download Active XCavator Version 2.0 for Complete Active X Control Detection.
SMBP
I guess that the Justice Department might disagree with that assessment, Joe. Of course this discussion is a good microcosm of what the whole stink has been about. While developers and Microsoft itself have decided it just works better to include everything in the OS, in practice it’s a) illegal, and 
contributing to the confusion of the average user who may not be smart enough to develop to Windows, but knows that if they decide to use the email client in Mozilla, they want OE off their system. I might point Gloria to the “Set Program Access and Defaults” section within Add/Remove Programs (in XP), for a fairly simple way to make IE and OE appear to “go away” (even though they don’t, really!)
Ahhh but how we digress! Before this discussion meanders over to flash memory on Mars, I’ll be a good boy and quit (for now……)
kip
I guess that the Justice Department might disagree with that assessment, Joe. Of course this discussion is a good microcosm of what the whole stink has been about. While developers and Microsoft itself have decided it just works better to include everything in the OS, in practice it’s a) illegal, and contributing to the confusion of the average user who may not be smart enough to develop to Windows, but knows that if they decide to use the email client in Mozilla, they want OE off their system. I might point Gloria to the “Set Program Access and Defaults” section within Add/Remove Programs (in XP), for a fairly simple way to make IE and OE appear to “go away” (even though they don’t, really!)
Ahhh but how we digress! Before this discussion meanders over to flash memory on Mars, I’ll be a good boy and quit (for now……)
kip
Well Gloria,
I was able to follow your paths exactly on my system also. Got the R/C update and it looks like it looked for an update to the ActiveX controls listed. Some it appeared to find updates, some it just changed the last accessed date on that file. No problem apparently.
The only thing I can fault you on, is your term “giffer”. It’s Gipper, the Notre Dame U football player, made somewhat famous by Coach Knute Rockne, but more famous by Ronald Reagan in the movie. Outside of that your English receives a good passing grade. 
Bob
Well Gloria,
I was able to follow your paths exactly on my system also. Got the R/C update and it looks like it looked for an update to the ActiveX controls listed. Some it appeared to find updates, some it just changed the last accessed date on that file. No problem apparently.
The only thing I can fault you on, is your term “giffer”. It’s Gipper, the Notre Dame U football player, made somewhat famous by Coach Knute Rockne, but more famous by Ronald Reagan in the movie. Outside of that your English receives a good passing grade.
Bob
Gloria–
Where are you that you don’t expect to be returned, from this known download of this unknown program with this randomly choosen option to update with an unknown update and mysterious graph with right click updating that you want to know can be safely deleted? I didn’t have to ask why you wanted to update this. I’m sure you wanted the cutting edge version of it. 
Is this what is meant by an enigma enshrouded in a mystery? 
How did you finally decide to put this into “General Windows Solutions?” While you were doing this were you by any chance watching the ending of Vanilla Sky?
SMBP
Gloria–
I just meant I would love to try to help you, but look at your first post and imagine you’re someone else–would you possibly know what the question is about? The ending of Vanilla Sky, a mainstream movie with Tom Cruise, Penelope Cruz and Carmen Diaz reminded me of the mystery in your first post. If you click the eye you’ll see an interesting site and it would take a lot more than that to scare you I believe. 
SMBP
Gloria–
I just meant I would love to try to help you, but look at your first post and imagine you’re someone else–would you possibly know what the question is about? The ending of Vanilla Sky, a mainstream movie with Tom Cruise, Penelope Cruz and Carmen Diaz reminded me of the mystery in your first post. If you click the eye you’ll see an interesting site and it would take a lot more than that to scare you I believe.
SMBP
I wasn’t intuitive enough to extrapolate any info from the post.
SMBP
I wasn’t intuitive enough to extrapolate any info from the post.
SMBP
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