Anyone want to decrypt this error message?

[Gumby16]

I have a computer running Win2k. The following error message has started popping up whenever I try to open any folder, My Documents, My Computer, etc.. (even when I try to type a drive letter directly into Run from the Start menu).

"Your current security settings prohibit running ActiveX controls on this page. As a result, the page may not display correctly." Not very specific.

I've tried changing the security settings from Medium down to Low through the Internet Options, but it's not helping. Anyone have any suggestions? Am I looking at a software problem or some type of virus? Any info would be appreciated.

 

[D1gger]

 

[CrowBarr]

I'm not totally sure on this...so anyone can feel free to correct me if I'm wrong...but it sounds like you have an ActiveX script locking you down...probably something malicious. I get this message on my WinXP Pro machines that are behind my firewall / content filter when they are being filtered massively, but only on the web...not in regular local folders. I might try looking for malicious scripts / services running on that machine.

 

[ColKurtz]

Originally posted by: Gumby16
I've tried changing the security settings from Medium down to Low through the Internet Options, but it's not helping. Anyone have any suggestions?.

Are you sure you're looking at security options? Unless IE has changed, "Low" , "Medium", "etc sound like Privacy settings, not Security.

Do you have a Custom tab under IE -> Tools -> Internet Options -> Security? If so, go in there and see if ActiveX is disabled.

Whether you want to re-enable it is another story... Switch to Firefox and never have to worry about ActiveX errors again

 

[Gumby16]

Everytime I change the PRIVACY settings back to Medium and click OK, whatever is running changes them right back to the ultra-mega-ridiculous settings. As for the security settings, I've checked them all. ActiveX is enabled, and it is set-up to never download unsigned content or run ActiveX controls without prompting.

 

[Gumby16]

I should say that was happening in local folders, not just on the internet. So I don't think IE itself is the problem per se. There is definitely something malicious going on, now I just have to find it and kill it and make it stay dead.

As an interesting side note, I ran a virus scan, cleaned up the two viruses it found, but that didn't fix the problem. However, now I can open folders but still cannot run anything in those folders. I can Ctrl-C, Ctrl-V things I want to run onto my desktop and they work fine, but they will not run within folders.

I'm about two seconds from backing up the few files I need (since Nero still seems to burn things correctly) and just doing a clean format-install. Thanks for the suggestions CrowBarr and ColKurtz.

 

[mikecel79]

Originally posted by: Gumby16
I have a computer running Win2k. The following error message has started popping up whenever I try to open any folder, My Documents, My Computer, etc.. (even when I try to type a drive letter directly into Run from the Start menu).

"Your current security settings prohibit running ActiveX controls on this page. As a result, the page may not display correctly." Not very specific.

I've tried changing the security settings from Medium down to Low through the Internet Options, but it's not helping. Anyone have any suggestions? Am I looking at a software problem or some type of virus? Any info would be appreciated.

Do you ahve some kind of Internet security suite running like Zone Alarm, McAfee, or Norton? Sounds like it messed with setting for the My Computer zone and stopping Explorer from functioning. Did you do any "tweaking" of services or add any other software lately?

 

[Gumby16]

No protective software (Norton, ZoneAlarm, etc...) is running on this computer. There haven't been any software changes except for Microsoft Updates for the past few months. All this computer is used for is to access the internet, do some word processing, and listen to music.

 

[jmagg]

I think its related to the aim "pictures on the beach" type virus thats been going around. There are a few varients. My son got the virus, I was able to find and delete the offending exe, but after many hours (days) of troubleshooting, uninstalling, reinstalling, i was never able to repair ("Your current security settings prohibit running ActiveX controls on this page. As a result, the page may not display correctly.") I gave in and reinstalled windows.

You will be able to access your folders by going to tools>folder options>use windows classic desktop and use windows classic folders.

Things i tried.
Multiple virus scans with AVG, Avast, Housecall.
Spyware scans MS antispy(restoreIE included), Spybot, Adaware.
Reinstall sp4 (win2000)
Reinstall directx
Repair IE
Stripped the system down in terms of software (uninstalled nearly everything)
Searched processes ad nausium.

If you do find a way to repair this, please post back.

 

[CACR]

:|

I have exactly the same problem! The thing is, we just reformatted our computer and that is when this irritating problem started happening. I do have zonealarm but I've always used zonealarm and I have never encountered this problem before. It is so annoying, I can't access anything! I think that the message itself is nonesense, isn't it? Why would an internet explorer message come up when I'm not even connected to the internet? And I HAVEN'T disabled ActiveX controls anyway, they are on "prompt".

I hope somebody can tell me how to fix this! It is driving me crazy!

 

[CACR]

I seem to have fixed the problem on my computer. see: http://forums.techguy.org/showthread.php?p=2401563#post2401563