What is Active X - Housecall??

[Daniel-Man]

just wondering what active x housecall is as It's installed on my machine. It seems to be linked to trend micro online virus scanner or something? is this right? and if so how does it work, why would it need an active x control on my computer??

[Budfred]

Try here:

http://www.trendmicro.com/en/products/desktop/housecall/more/faqs.htm

and consider using Google:

http://www.google.com/

[mjc]

Housecall is Trend's online virus scanner, and it is ActiveX.

ActiveX® controls are among the many types of components that use COM technologies to provide interoperability with other types of COM components and services. ActiveX controls are the third version of OLE controls (OCX), providing a number of enhancements specifically designed to facilitate distribution of components over high-latency networks and to provide integration of controls into Web browsers. These enhancements include features such as incremental rendering and code signing, to allow users to identify the authors of controls before allowing them to execute.

http://www.microsoft.com/com/tech/ActiveX.asp

A loosely defined set of technologies developed by Microsoft. ActiveX is an outgrowth of two other Microsoft technologies called OLE (Object Linking and Embedding) and COM (Component Object Model). As a moniker, ActiveX can be very confusing because it applies to a whole set of COM-based technologies. Most people, however, think only of ActiveX controls, which represent a specific way of implementing ActiveX technologies.

[Paul Komski]

Put simply, the antivirus scan is run from Internet Explorer using an ActiveX control to execute the scan after the control has been downloaded from Trend's HouseCall site.

This allows the whole thing to be done from Internet Explorer, while you remain on-line, without installing a whole executable program onto your HDD - as with a "normal" anti-virus scan.

Signed controls such as this from a reputable firm like Trend are safe. Be very wary of ever running unsigned controls though.