Lack of Activex

just got myself a new HDD and so thought id do myself a nice shiny new install of Win7 as everything is backed up onto the old drive, install seemed to go fine, but when i went to use IE the ActiveX controls arent working! doesnt matter what site, Nvidia, MSN games, the ActiveX test here: ActiveX Test cane back as Activex not supported,

things I have tried:
Gone through the IE options and changed everything marked "Activex" to On or Prompt,
Taken IE off through "Add or remove Windows Features" and put it back on again,
Tried to redownload IE8 from MS and got told that y OS isnt supported, as its marked for XP and Vista only

any ideas? or is it just a bum install?

Check that the COM+ service is running. I think it might need to be.
Also open gpedit.msc (the the local group policy editor), check that 'Turn Off ActiveX opt-in prompt is 'not' enabled (not configured is the default and this is ok too).

No need to try and download and re install IE8.

Have you reset IE and tried again? Seen the activeX install bar, and accepted it? How about the given steps on that page, any popup blocker add on's, programs, antivirus programs? Tried temporarily disabling them to test? Might also running an elevated SFC command. Enter cmd in the start menu search, right click on it, run as admin - enter sfc /verifyonly.