Microsoft is changing how it handles ActiveX controls in IE

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Are you aware of the changes to how the ActiveX Control works within IE? Most (possibly all --– I am not sure) IE plug-ins use ActiveX to load within the IE browser; and therefore if your site's user base is predominately IE user, which is true for most of us, this presents a potential big problem. If you are lucky, users will only have to double-click on controls instead of single click. (The first click is to activate the control, while the second is to use the control.)

This is an exert from Microsoft's site, http://support.microsoft.com/kb/912945/en-us:
This update changes the way in which Internet Explorer handles some Web pages that use ActiveX controls. Examples of programs that use ActiveX controls include the following:
Adobe Reader
Apple QuickTime Player
Macromedia Flash
Microsoft Windows Media Player
Real Networks RealPlayer
Sun Java Virtual Machine
You can download the update today from the same page to test for yourself -- I understand this will be pushed down through the automatic update in about a month.

For Flash Developers, Adobe/Macromedia has posted a work-around on their site.

In briefly viewing the work-around, it made me wonder about what Microsoft is gaining through making this change... I mean, if there is a work-around, then other than making everyone re-write their pages, what real benefit is there to changing the behavior? Perhaps I have missed something. Either way, look out as we are all going to feel the pain once again as Microsoft tries to recover from the mistake of adding ActiveX to IE 10 years ago.

Comments

David said…
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Fri Apr 21, 09:08:00 PM PDT
David said…
I heard that the reason behind the IE change is because of a lawsuit with Eolas (http://www.shayna.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.display_entry&id=90) I haven't done much stuff with plugins myself, but I know that this will affect a lot of sites.
Fri Apr 21, 09:10:00 PM PDT
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