Hi, hartbeatmr,
Thanks for the reply.
I tried the steps at the forum webpage that you had recommended, even though I had already tried this. Even when "Active X filtering" and "Tracking Protetion" and the security tab's "Protected Mode" are turned OFF, with the rest of the Security tab settings in Default Mode, I.E. does not try to deal with, much less install, ActiveX components. I double checked the specific ActiveX settings in the Security tab, and nothing there is an impediment. Before doing that "reset procedure" that I mentioned in my original post (as per the Microsoft article "How to Reinstall or Repair I.E." at{http://support.microsoft.com/kb/318378}, my I.E.9 DID deal with ActiveXs.
I am still open to suggestions from you and from anyone else.
On the bright side, I did find a forum that that may turn out to be useful to me in the future.