2 Msgs from Activex don't let me Work......

(I have Win98se, OE 6.0, IE 6.0, Dell Dimension XPS T450MHz Pentium III)

Hello, I just tried to do a windows update...and found the unpleasant surprise that it's only accessible to "administrators "! How does one become one? Why? So I tried to ask at the Microsoft forum... and it gave me this msg: "You must enable ActiveX controls in order to browse Discussion Groups."

Also, on trying to open certain websites, I get this msg: "Your current security settings prohibit running Activex controls on this page. As a result the page may not display correctly. "

Hope someone could decipher these puzzling things for me? It seems there's no end to glitches, etc...

Thanks so much for any help. Adela

 

An ActiveX control (also known as a Downloaded Program File) allows a website to install and run programs on your computer. These would include online virus scans, windows updates. The ActiveX controls can also be used to install a trojan virus on your computer, or other bad things. Windows Update and online virus scans are the only good uses things for this.

and found the unpleasant surprise that it's only accessible to "administrators "!
ActiveX controls are disabled for the regular Internet Zone, and this is not a bad thing.

I get this msg: "Your current security settings prohibit running Activex controls on this page. As a result the page may not display correctly. "
ActiveX controls have nothing to do with what you can see on a webpage, see the top paragraph. You could have been infected by something hard to get rid of. These things are not always detected by a anti-virus program.

I would leave the ActiveX security settings as you have them, and ignore the above error message.


How to fix Windows Update. Go to Internet Options, click on Security tab, then click on the Trusted icon. Now click on the Sites button. In the new window that appears, first uncheck the box for "Require Server Verification (https:/) for all site in this zone ". Below where it says 'Add this website to the zone', enter this in exactly *.windowsupdate.microsoft.com. Then click on the Add button, then click on OK.

BTW, Win98 does not have an Administrator type of user.