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ActiveX—faster and smaller to add more punch to pages!

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Web sites come alive with ActiveX—the standard that Web developers worldwide are using to create dramatic multimedia effects, interactive objects (like our Genie friend at right), and sophisticated applications. ActiveX support in Internet Explorer 4.0 allows ActiveX controls to be faster, smaller, and more fun than ever before! In addition, Internet Explorer 4.0 makes it easy for users to quickly uninstall controls they no longer need.

Developers can write ActiveX controls in any language, including C++, Visual Basic, and Java. Internet Explorer 4.0 comes installed with a set of new ActiveX multimedia controls that make it easy for developers to deliver dazzling yet low-bandwidth effects on their Web pages. Also, ActiveX controls have full access to Internet Explorer 4.0's Object Model, which allows developers to manipulate pages dynamically.

For developers who want to create their own ActiveX controls, Internet Explorer 4.0 presents new opportunities to create faster, smaller, and more integrated controls than ever. Highlights include:

  • Windowless Controls that allow developers to create transparent and non-rectangular controls—a crucial feature for overlapping controls with Internet Explorer 4.0's 2-D layout feature.
  • Apartment Model Controls, which increase performance by taking advantage of the fact that Internet Explorer 4.0 is a threaded container.
  • Quick Activation, an improvement that greatly simplifies the process of initializing controls.
  • Support for downloading data asynchronously, which boosts performance for controls that need to download images or other complex data.

Visit the ActiveX Component Gallery for samples and demonstrations.


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Last Updated: Tuesday, April 08, 1997