Programming language and software component model used to connect applications in a network. Active-X was developed by Microsoft and is used by Internet Explorer (among others) to display Office documents. Today, Active-X elements work differently than they did in the past with Windows and now conform to the .com-standard. They may present a security risk, owing to their close relationship with the operating system. Hence, browsers other than Microsoft Explorer do not support Active-X for security reasons.
Since most web pages are static documents with little interactivity, Microsoft created a programming language, called ActiveX, to remedy this situation. ActiveX "controls" promise to make the web-surfing experience comparable to that of highly produced CD-ROMS, where you can listen to music, watch animation and video clips, and interact with the program.