More often than not, these update issues are due to ActiveX traffic coming through your router. Indeed, it is that simple. There is an easy way to fix this so that you will not have to deal with the various error messages anymore and your computer will get the necessary (and important) updates that it needs. Windows Update is no joke. This has to happen. These updates are important for security and functionality. This tutorial will guide you through a quick method to allow ActiveX traffic. Please note that the admin interface of your router may or may not offer this option. It can also be that the feature is listed under a different name.

Internet Explorer 8 in particular requires ActiveX components to function properly. Disabling IE8 will not solve the problem nor will updating to IE9. You can specify firewall settings for software and hardware to allow appropriate ActiveX filtering, but this is more advanced. Here, we will be using the open source router firmware DD-WRT. This is a user-friendly firewall solution that takes the technical aspects out of more mundane functions.

Navigate to your router’s IP address in any web browser. You may not know your router IP address and you can open a command prompt to find it. Press Win+R and type “cmd” or open command prompt from the Start Menu.

In the command prompt window, type “ipconfig” and press enter. The IP address will be listed under “Default Gateway”. This should be your router’s IP address. Now just enter this IP address (yours, not the one above) in the URL bar of the chosen web browser.

Click the Security tab and find the checkbox labeled “Filter ActiveX”. Uncheck the box and this will clear the filtering and allow ActiveX traffic through.

After doing this, a new window will present. In this window, click the button labeled “Apply Settings”. This should do the trick. Close your web browser and attempt Windows Update again.

If you see an image like the screenshot above, then you have succeeded in clearing the impediment to Windows Update. Every router is different and will handle this change in a different manner. This is by no means a blanket solution, but it is one that works in most cases.

Another simple fix for Windows Update errors is to disable automatic updates and update the recommended updates manually. If they all update successfully, you can turn on automatic updates again and it should continue to work. If, on the other hand, this does not work, identify the update(s) that did not install and contact Microsoft Help regarding the issue. Generally they will help you fix it for free and Windows Update will work normally once again.

ActiveX Filtering is disabled by default but can be enabled by clicking on Tools > Safety > ActiveX Filtering. One of the easiest ways to find out that it is indeed the ActiveX Filtering that is repsonsible for broken contents is to enable ActiveX Filtering and visit Youtube. Youtube will notify the user that it is necessary to upgrade to Adobe Flash Player to watch the video. Users who disable ActiveX Filtering can watch the video without following that advice.

Many websites have suggested to disable ActiveX Filtering completely to be able to play games and watch videos again. That however is not the best solution available. While it is working it eliminates the added protection of the security module in Internet Explorer.

How to fix Java and Flash contents in Internet Explorer 9 with ActiveX Filtering enabled

Open Tools > Internet Options and switch to the Security tab there.

Internet Explorer supports four different zones each with their own distinctive security settings. All websites that are not locally accessible are using the security settings of the Internet zone, unless they have been added to Trusted Sites or Restricted Sites.

Trusted sites use less strict security rules by default while restricted sites highly restricted rules.

The idea now is to add the sites that you want to play Flash or Java contents on to the trusted sites. That alone however is not enough as it is necessary to make one small configuration change. Take a look how this is done for Youtube:

Select Trusted Sites from the available zones and click on the Sites button afterwards. This opens a new window with options to add or remove sites from the Trusted sites zone.

All you need to do is to enter youtube.com in the “Add this website to the zone” form, uncheck “Require server verification (https:) for all sites in this zone” and click on the Add button.

You do that for all sites that you access that make use of Flash, Java or other third party technologies that are added as plugins to Internet Explorer 9.

Once you are done click the close button.

Locate the custom level button and click it.

Scroll down until you find the entry Allow ActiveX Filtering under ActiveX controls and plug-ins. Note that it is enabled by default. All you need to do is to change the parameter to disable and click the ok button to save the new setting.

All Java, Flash and other third party plugin contents are from that moment on playing as usual on all sites that have been added to the Trusted Sites Zone.

And that’s it. It may happen that you stumble upon a new site that is not working properly. Just add it to the trusted sites listing to make it work as well. But be cautious with the sites that you add there as they are having more rights than standard Internet websites that use the standard Internet zone.

One option to change that is to change the custom level of the Trusted sites zone to the default medium-high which can be done in the settings of the zone. Make sure to disable ActiveX Filtering afterwards. That way you use the same security except for the ActiveX Filtering.

Users who encounter such websites may want to consider switching to another web browser to see if the contents are displayed correctly. Browsers that can be used for the tasks are Opera, Google Chrome or Firefox, which are all freely available. It is usually a better idea to navigate the site in another browser if everything is displayed as it should be, than to install an ActiveX Control.

Sometimes however the website will not work correctly in other browsers. This is often the case if the ActiveX Control is needed for the site to operate correctly. Since the other browsers do not support ActiveX Controls they cannot display the contents correctly.

Back to Internet Explorer then. Before installing the Control, users should ask themselves the following questions:

• Do you trust the website the ActiveX Control is installed from? It is usually yes if the site is an official site, e.g. a Microsoft website, work related site or financial site.
• Do you know why the ActiveX Control is needed?

The website that is displaying the Install ActiveX Control prompt should provide an answer to the second question. If you are unsure ask a tech savvy friend if it is safe to install the ActiveX Control before doing so.

An information bar pops up at the top of the screen beneath the toolbars. This prompt is the installation prompt for the ActiveX control. It asks you to give permission to the control, so that it can be installed in Internet Explorer. This is a safety measure that prevents websites from installing ActiveX Controls without the user’s consent.

When you click the popup a menu appears. Here you can click on Install ActiveX Control to continue with the installation. If you do not want to install the Control you can simply ignore it, or click the x at the left side of the prompt to close it. The Install ActiveX Control option spawns an installation dialog. Here it is again possible to stop the installation by clicking on Stop Install, or go forward with it by clicking on the Install button.

The dialog displays the publisher of the ActiveX Control and the file name of it. Some users may want to research those information in a search engine before continuing with the installation.

How To List And Uninstall ActiveX Controls

Internet Explorer offers to display all installed ActiveX Controls providing options to delete them from the browser at anytime. IE users need to open their web browser, and click on Tools > Mange Add-ons. This opens the add-on manager. They then need to locate Show and selected Downloaded Controls from the menu. This will display all ActiveX Controls in the listing.

To delete an ActiveX control it needs to be selected first with a left-click. A click on More Information opens a dialog box with a Remove option. Clicking on Remove will delete the control from the web browser. Some ActiveX Controls may require an administrator password for confirmation.

The first is that popular web 2.0 communities, in this case Digg, are being used to spread the malware. A screenshot of a Digg page shows how this is done. The screenshots shows two comments for a not so popular entry and both have a link that seems to point to Youtube at first glance but does not at second.

The url is slightly off, instead of youtube it is youtuhe and ynotube. Many users won’t recognize it and click on the link which leads to a number of redirects to a fake video site that asks you to download an ActiveX control which infects your computer. The number of redirects before the user reaches the destination is the second aspect worth noting.