How can I delete (not disable) ActiveX add-ons in Internet Explorer (7 and 8 Beta 2)?

Question

I'm developing a solution which uses an ActiveX control (a commercial one which we bought and that I did not develop). I need to develop the proper installation pages to simulate what happens when a user who has never visited the site and does not have the add-on installed comes to the page.

I've found the "Manage Add-Ons" bit in Internet Options and I'm not having any luck.

In IE7, I see an ability to enable or disable any control and a "Delete ActiveX" option, but it's disabled for this particular control.

In IE8 Beta 2, the "Manage Add-Ons" bit has been completely reworked and I no longer see an option to delete the control. Each control has a "Properties" dialog and I can "Remove" it, but the button doesn't appear to do anything (could be related to how "Delete ActiveX" doesn't work for this on in IE7).

It looks like maybe this control is installed in such a way that merely deleting it from IE won't work or isn't allowed, but it's not a control with its own entry on the Add/Remove Programs menu in XP, so I can't uninstall it that way either.

How can I delete/remove (not disable) this ActiveX control in IE so that I can simulate what happens when people come to the site and the ActiveX control hasn't been installed yet? I figure there must be a way to "purge" IE of it.

Answer 1

You could unregister the control with

regsvr32 /u badboy.ocx

at the command line. Though i would suggest testing these things in a vmware.

Answer 2

Close all browsers and tabs to ensure that the ActiveX control is not reside in memory. Open a fresh IE9 browser. Select Tools->Manage Add-ons. Change the drop down to "All add-ons" since the default only shows ones that are loaded.

Now select the add-on you wish to remove. There will be a link displayed on the lower left that says "More information". Click it.

This opens a further dialog that allows you to safely un-install the ActiveX control.

If you follow the direction of manually running the 'regsvr32' to remove the OCX it is not sufficient. ActiveX controls are wrapped up as signed CAB files and they extract to multiple DLLs and OCXs potentially. You wish to use IE to safely and correctly unregister every COM DLL and OCX.

There you have it! The problem is that in IE 9 it is somewhat hidden since you have to click the "More information" whereas IE8 you could do it from the same UI.