14 DAY TRIAL // The Microsoft Update Catalog is the place to go when you need to manually download a specific update and get more information on it, but until now, this service has been available for Internet Explorer users exclusively because of a single requirement: ActiveX.
Microsoft restricted access to the Update Catalog to Internet Explorer, so unless you were using this browser, you weren’t allowed to connect to it. There were workarounds, of course, such as changing the user agent to make your browser be identified as Internet Explorer, but officially, only Microsoft’s product was allowed.
ActiveX will no longer be required
And yet, the software giant has finally understood that it makes no sense to keep the Update Catalog private for IE users, so the company is now working to remove the ActiveX requirement and open this service for any browser out there, including Chrome and Firefox.
“The Microsoft Update Catalog website is being updated to remove the ActiveX requirement so it can work with any browser. Currently, Microsoft Update Catalog still requires that you use Internet Explorer. We are working to remove the ActiveX control requirement, and expect to launch the updated site soon,” the company said in an announcement, without actually providing any specifics on when this is going to happen - Microsoft is making some Windows Update changes on Windows 7 and 8.1 in October, so the ActiveX requirement could be removed by then.
What’s funny is that not even Windows 10 users with Microsoft Edge can access the Microsoft Update Catalog, as the website returns an error telling them that they’re trying to connect to “some vintage web tech” and that “this website runs on older technology and will only work in Internet Explorer.”
So even if they’re on Windows 10, Edge users still need to turn to Internet Explorer, or resort to tricks such as the one mentioned above and change the user agent to be able to access the Update Catalog on their PCs.
