ActiveX disabled by default in Microsoft 365

ActiveX is a powerful technology that enables rich interactions within Microsoft 365 applications, but its deep access to system resources also increases security risks.

Starting this month, the Windows versions of Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft PowerPoint, and Microsoft Visio will have a new default configuration for ActiveX controls:Disable all controls without notification.

Zaeem Patel at the Microsoft 365 Insider Blog

Be honest: did any of you know ActiveX was still a thing? Heck, when was the last time you even thought of ActiveX? This technology acted a replacement for Windows' COM and OLE 2.0, and was used to make controls in a whole slew of Microsoft applications. ActiveX controls from one application could also be embedded into another, like showing a toolbar from Word inside an image editor.

ActiveX has several major downsides, the two biggest of which are its relative lack of portability, and most of all, its atrocious security record. I'm genuinely surprised it's taken them this long to actively, fully disable the technology by default.