I need to run activex to login to a server

If the site requires Windows-only browser features such as ActiveX, then it's not really a web site at all, and there's nothing you can do about it except to use Windows and/or let the site operator know that his designers are incompetent.

Like Linc said, this will not work on a Mac. You will have to use a windows based workstation, since there is no Mac compatible ActiveX capability. You could, in the long term either use BootCamp to create a dual boot workstation, use VirtualBox to host a virtual windows desktop, or use VMWare Fusion (quickly though, since they just laid off their entire develop team) or Parallels Desktop (I have previously used this and it works well). Those are your options when needing to use ActiveX with a Mac.

ActiveX is the work of Satan and his minions - aka. Microsoft. It is only slightly less ghastly than Adobe Flash, and the Oracle Java web-browser plugin.

Even Microsoft have woken up to the hideousness of ActiveX and have finally killed it off. (One presumes they drove a wooden stake through its heart.) It is not supported in Windows 10.

ActiveX strictly speaking has only ever worked in Internet Explorer and Microsoft discontinued Internet Explorer for Mac over a decade ago. It has therefore only been available in Windows. Microsoft have for years been encouraging developers to switch to using .Net instead.

Like Linc Davis said anybody i.e. software developers and website developers still using ActiveX is an idiot or worse a sadist or psychopath.

The same will soon apply to all those VPN product manufacturers forcing poor defenceless users to install and use the Oracle Java web-browser plugin in order to be able to install and run an SSL VPN client. (Oracle have finally announced that they will be killing off this plugin.)

If some cretin of a sales person tried to sell me a product that required using ActiveX I would have security escort them from the building. If some equally cretinous IT manager bought such a product then they should certified as criminally insane and sent to Arkham Asylum.

Are you certain it is ActiveX and not Active Directory?

Leaving aside all the polemics, if you must log into the server using a web browser and the requirement is ActiveX, then you have no choice but install Windows on your computer because ActiveX is only available in Windows using an Internet Explorer browser. Your choices are to run Windows in BootCamp or using virtualization with a product such as VMWare Fusion.

What your workflow will look like will largely determine whether you choose BootCamp or virtualization. In other words, if you spend the bulk of your time using applications based in the browser it might be best to stay in Windows full time at work and BootCamp might be the better solution. If you only need access to the server for basic data services you might be able to use your Mac for most work and just pass information back and forth through the server using Windows. In this case virtualization might be the better solution. Until about a year ago this is what my wife was forced to do - they had a data system whose front end required ActiveX. Knowing Microsoft intended to kill off IE in the future developers finally replaced that system with one that is browser and platform agnostic.

As someone above suggested, you should confirm with IT that the requirement is ActiveX and not Open Directory. Open Directory is a network protocol which allows users to log into a server and people sometimes confuse one with the other. Your Mac can handle Open Directory though sometimes IT needs to get involved to help get things set up properly.

+1

+2 in fact.