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

Tools > Manage Add-ons and right-click on the Active X control you want to remove. Choose More Information and click Remove button. Restart your IE browser and it's gone!

Answer 3

Tools > Manage Add-ons, right click "Name" header and enable the "In Folder" section. go to the directory for the plugin you're interested in. Right click the plugin file, and click "remove".

Answer 4

Use a virtual machine. Start fresh as often as you want, and stop doing these hacks that may or may not simulate a clean machine.

Seriously, use VMWare or VirtualPC.

Answer 5

I have the same problem and have opened a new question here: make-my-activex-control-removable-from-manage-addons

Answer 6

Internet options-->General Tab-->browsing History section.... click settings and then click "View objects". A list of your active X add on's are displayed in the windows folder that they are stored in. You can manipulate these files as you would any others. Simply delete the ones you want to uninstall and restart IE.