activex on opera?

[pin]

hey, got a newbie question.. is activex just used by IE? the reason i ask is that i've switched to opera (i've had enough of IE <sigh>), so i'd like to check!

[Dan Perez]

Hi pin!

Here's a quote from Opera's site

{QUOTE-> Plug-in architecture

ActiveX is a Windows component technique used to run arbitrary code in other programs (such as a browser). While this is a very powerful programming technique, it is also a potential security nightmare as access is given to the operating system as well as the browser itself. Even with Microsoft's security model, a large number of Internet Explorer's security holes have been related to ActiveX. Opera does not support ActiveX and consequently avoids these problems. It does support Netscape type plug-ins (NP4). This is a much smaller, but not entirely negligible security risk. While the data a Netscape plug-in can access from Opera is strictly limited, it is still a full-fledged program and can as such interact with your system. Any restrictions you may have for downloading or installing other programs should therefore apply to plug-ins as well. <-QUOTE}

The URL I got this from is

http://www.opera.com/security/index.dml

HTH,

Dan

[pin]

wow thx.. i guess i should have gone to the source eh!

but does this mean that i no longer need the protection aspect of spywareblaster?

[Dan Perez]

Well, I am not nearly as knowledgeable on the program as others so you should wait and hear from the others on this but I think that while SB's main emphasis is to block activex installations it also provides protection in other respects. In any case, in my experience I have found that Opera does not work well on some sites so for those I am forced to use an IE type browser so although I use Opera predominately I still use IE on occasion and thus rely on SpywareBlaster.

Again, I would look for some feedback from Javacool, Pieter or one of the others on this for more definitive feedback

[pin]

you are right about the incompatibility. i use IE still for windows updates, mozilla for my univ database site, and opera for just about everything else. there's no total escape!

[javacool]

SpywareBlaster's protection is system-wide - not just related to Internet Explorer (although that is where you will find the protection most useful).

For example, SpywareBlaster can disable much ActiveX-based spyware should it get installed as a "bundled bonus" with another app (as an example). (SpywareBlaster's ActiveX blocks apply globally.)

Best regards,

-Javacool

[pin]

ahhh i hadn't considered that.. good point. thx for the info!