ActiveX

ActiveX is a set of technologies from Microsoft that provides tools for linking desktop applications to the Web. ActiveX controls are reusable component program objects that can be attached to email or downloaded from a website. Many ActiveX controls come preinstalled on Windows operaating systems. Web pages invoke ActiveX controls using a scripting language or via an HTML OBJECT tag. It is possible to specify a URL where the control may be obtained if it is not installed locally. Unlike Java, which is a platform-independent programming language, ActiveX controls are distributed as executable binaries tailored for a Windows operating environment.