Problem with ActiveX filtering in IE9

Nikilet · 08 Oct 2011

I've been finding that in many cases when I'm shopping, the only way I can accomplish that is to open Firefox and use it.

Many times when I click the blue circle in the address bar to "turn off ActiveX filtering" it apparently does not turn off.

Example: I was shopping for kitchen faucets. Sites that had really good specification information had it stored in pdf files and I COULD NOT open those files. All I would get is a blank page with a little blue circle in the top left corner.

Same thing with curtains. At JC Penney, for instance, I can not always view the actual product pictures.

If there is help to correct this I would appreciate if someone would help me out and thank you in advance.

*Note: Please do not advise to "Reset all zones to default level." I tried that and lost my Bing Bar/HP Smart Print, KeyScrambler. I had to go through quite a process to get those back.

Nikilet · 09 Oct 2011

I guess I'll have to reply to myself. I'm wondering what I am doing wrong that I can't get any interest, or answers.

From reading other posts, I'm thinking the problem I'm trying to explain maybe has to do with Scripts. I don't know. I was just hoping that someone could give me some fixes to try. Maybe there aren't any. Hard to believe that this new IE9 cripples a person when shopping at known sites like JC Penney, Amazon, etc. The IE8 worked very well for me, but I figured I'd better finally update for security reasons.

DBone · 09 Oct 2011

To be clear, you have active x filtering checked in IE9 > tools > saftey > active x filtering? If so, then when you uncheck active x filtering from that menu, does the issue go away? Also, do you have any other protection or addblock enabled?

Nikilet · 09 Oct 2011

Yes, ActiveX filtering is selected under Tools/Safety. To the best of my knowledge, I have nothing additional. I am running IE9 the way it installed. I had never actuall tried unchecking ActiveX filtering from that Safety tab. I always did it from the blue circle in the address bar. But I just went to Amazon and tried this. It's still the same story. The first video clip I choose will play. On the next clip it will just continue to "load." I installed the Script add on in Firefox and it gives many options to allow and I never have any trouble there. Only with this mickey-mouse IE9. Another thing I get quite frequently -- AFTER I have closed down -- is a pop up telling me IE had to close. I almost wonder if it's some update they've applied because this was not happening when I first installed it.

DBone · 09 Oct 2011

Ok, uncheck the active x box, restart IE9 and see what happens. Which version of flash is installed? What PDF reader is installed?

Nikilet · 09 Oct 2011

I've been using Foxit Reader for quite a long time now. My Flash is always up to date. I run Secunia PSI, plus I get advisories from Adobe. Version is 10.3.183.10. I turned of ActiveX under Safety. I restarted, went to Amazon and same thing. I also tried one of the sites for faucets where specs were within a pdf. Just a blank page with a blue circle in top left corner. Also, since I turned off that ActiveX filtering and restarted, neither McAfee SiteAdvisor nor Avast WebRep are active. They are selected under toolbars and they show up as active on my browser window, but neither one is kicking in. ---------------------------------------------------------------- I enabled the ActiveX filtering, restarted and got the WebRep and SiteAdvisor back. I can't understand why diabling ActiveX filtering would interfere with these browser helpers.

DBone · 09 Oct 2011

Yikes. There is a new Flash 11.0.1.152 is current. It seems for some reason that your plugins for IE9 are are not working, I see in your sig that you use a registy cleaner, did these problems start all at once, maybe after a registry clean? In Foxit there is a setting "to view PDF files in your browser", maybe that has not been selected/installed for IE9? I really have no other suggestions because of the number of issues you are having. I am not a fan of registry cleaners as they will (only a matter of time) cause problems. That may or may not be the issue here, but I did a quick test on a couple of cleaners and they both messed up a fresh install: Registry Cleaner Tests - Why NOT To Use One!

This is what happened to Chrome with Auslogics Registry Cleaner:

"Test 2 (Auslogics): I opened up Auslogics and it found 149 registry problems, which I removed them all and rebooted. I used my machine for the rest of the day and tested everything the best I could to replicate test 1's usage test. I was able to open avast!'s help file, and avast! opened quickly, however, it no longer had any audio (avast! likes to talk to you). Chrome was a mess. On top of the error when trying to check for updates, web pages now took 7,8,10 seconds to open, and even after finally opening, the icon would spin again. But the big thing was, I no longer could see any images in Google search's image section.........Just blank sections with a blue icon in the corner. Again, MBAM was OK. The biggest problem, was boot time. Now my boot time was much, much longer, no matter how many times I rebooted. Like with CCleaner, I am 100% positive that more problems would pop up after weeks of use."

Sorry I can't be of any more help.

Nikilet · 09 Oct 2011

:) I will check out this flash situation. I very recently updated due to an advisory I received from Adobe, and Secunia PSI, which has always been totally faithful, has not advised of any update. I sincerely thank you for your help.

DBone · 09 Oct 2011

Hopefully another member will pop in with some other suggestions.

Phone Man · 09 Oct 2011

My understanding is that Firefox does not support Active X so if the sites work with FF then Active X is not required and it should not matter if IE is Filtering Active X or not. As for PDF files I use NitroPDF but I disable the browser plugin and force it to open the program. I did this also with Foxit and it seems to work better. Which I could help more but I use FF just about all the time and rarely use IE.

Jim