ActiveX
Microsoft’s brand name for the technologies that enable interoperability using the Component Object Model (COM). ActiveX technology includes, but is not limited to, OLE.
A set of technologies that enables software components to interact with one another in a networked environment, regardless of the language in which they were created. ActiveX™ is built on the Component Object Model (COM).
A software technology, built on the COM foundation, that allows networked components to interact with each other independently of the languages they are written in. ActiveX is used particularly for applications dealing with the Internet and the World Wide Web. ActiveX components include ActiveX objects, which expose their properties and methods, and ActiveX clients, which access them. See also OLE.