IE 7 - get Active X alerts to stop appearing (reject them by default w/o prompting)

Factual Questions
1

Does anyone know how to set Internet Explorer 7 so that it rejects any and all Active X scripts by default, and stops showing me the annoying message that asks me whether or not I want to install something?

Some sites have Flash ads that I can’t see because I don’t have Adobe Flash Player installed. I don’t care to see those ads, and I have no need for Flash Player. However, whenever I visit these sites, they try to run an Active X script to install Flash Player on my machine.

When that happens, I am prompted via IE 7 banner to approve/disapprove of the Active X script. I always click the X and close the banner, but it gets annoying to do it over and over again. Is there anyway just to make the default “No Active X at all!” and also to get the banners to stop appearing?

Unfortunately, switching to another browser is not an option. Gotta stay with IE 7.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

2

I don’t have IE7 on this machine - but in IE6, it’s in Tools>Options>Security - then you select the ‘internet zone’ and click a button to set a custom security level. Options regarding Activex, java, etc. are available here.

You might need to add a few known sites to the trusted sites zone after this though - for one thing, Windows Update won’t work without Activex.