ActiveX Controls Gain Support From 71 Software Vendors

SAN FRANCISCO, March 12, 1996 — At the Microsoft Professional Developers Conference today, leading software vendors announced and demonstrated a wide range of Microsoft®
ActiveX

Controls (formerly called OLE Controls). ActiveX Controls provide instant, rich functionality for Web pages, including sound, video, animation, security, credit-card approval, other commerce enhancements and more. In addition, ActiveX Controls are an open, cross-platform technology supported by Microsoft Internet Explorer version 3.0, NCSA’s
Mosaic 2.2 and NetScape
Navigator 2.0, as well as ActiveX Control containers, including applications for the Visual Basic® programming system, Visual C++® development system set, Visual FoxPro® database management system, Microsoft Access database management system, Borland® Delphi®
2.0, and PowerSoft PowerBuilder

.

“ActiveX Controls are going to revolutionize the Internet because they will enable a new generation of active Web pages,”
said Paul Maritz, group vice president of the platforms group at Microsoft Corp.
“Web authors can use ActiveX Controls to add very sophisticated functionality to Web pages quickly and easily and to create a dynamic and interactive environment.”

Internet Integration

The market for ActiveX Controls is thriving and presents attractive opportunities for software vendors. New features specific to the Internet have been added to the ActiveX Controls architecture, making the market potential even greater.
“Commerce Direct International is the first company to use Microsoft’s ActiveX Technologies to make online electronic commerce transactions appear as if they are part of an existing Web page,”
said Gerry Bakker, president of CDI.
“Having both the choice of a range of platforms and the richness of the Windows® operating system to work with is an ideal investment scenario for independent software companies looking for growth.”

Open and Cross-Platform

ActiveX Controls are an open architecture supported by thousands of software vendors and corporations, as well as by all of the key tools vendors. A developer can use any tool or language to create very powerful controls that support specific platform functionality such as multimedia, graphics, data access and much more.

“Adobe fully supports ActiveX Controls,”
said Dave Emmett, vice president of the Acrobat products group at Adobe Systems Inc.
“The technology allows Acrobat customers and developers to create Web content that is completely integrated with other ActiveX technologies, such as Web browsers like Internet Explorer. We view this as an important opportunity to continue to establish Acrobat as a first-class Web-publishing standard.”

In a related announcement, Microsoft said it is collaborating with Macromedia to deliver cross-platform Component Object Models (COM) that will enable ActiveX Controls to run on the Macintosh®
platform. Microsoft will show cross-platform COM to the industry in an upcoming open process design preview.

Security

ActiveX Controls are used in conjunction with digital signatures to give developers and end users the best of both worlds: Developers are free to use all the functionality and richness of Windows, and end users can trust that the ActiveX Controls they download from the Internet are safe to run and have not been modified or substituted en route. More than 40 companies support Microsoft’s digital signature initiative.

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (NASDAQ
“MSFT”
) is the worldwide leader in software for personal computers. The company offers a wide range of products and services for business and personal use, each designed with the mission of making it easier and more enjoyable for people to take advantage of the full power of personal computing every day.

Microsoft, ActiveX, Visual Basic, Visual C++, Visual FoxPro and Windows are registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corp. in the United States and/or other countries.

NetScape is a trademark NetScape Communications Corp.

Borland and Delphi are registered trademarks of Borland International.

PowerBuilder is a trademark of PowerSoft Corp.

Macintosh is a registered trademark of Apple Computer Inc.

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Supporters of ActiveX Control

3D Web http://www.3dweb.com/

ACI US Inc

Attachmate Corp. http://www.attachmate.com/

Bennet-Tec Information Systems http://www.bennet-tec.com/

Black Diamond Consulting http://www.bdiamond.com/

Blue Sky Software Corp. http://www.blue-sky.com/

Brainstorm Technologies http://www.braintech.com/

Bristol Technology, Inc. http://www.bristol.com/

Business@Webb (Object Tower)

CenterView

CheckMaster Corp. http://www.instachecks.com/