Active Content Developer Center

November 8, 2007 – Important update: As a result of recent technology licenses acquired by Microsoft, the "click to activate" restrictions are no longer mandatory. Microsoft plans to remove the activation behavior from Internet Explorer in April 2008.

Microsoft has indicated that developers will not need to make any modifications to existing websites; controls will function as they did before the activation change was made in April 2006. For the latest information about the update and information about preview releases, please read the Microsoft Developer Network article, Information for developers about Internet Explorer.

User experience in the updated Internet Explorer

Microsoft has released updates to Internet Explorer that changes how it handles active content such as that viewed in Adobe Flash Player, Authorware Player, Shockwave Player, and Adobe Reader, as well as Sun Java, Apple QuickTime, RealNetworks RealPlayer, and other ActiveX controls.

Active content that is embedded in HTML pages in certain ways will not receive user input (for example, keyboard or mouse events) until the user clicks either to activate or continue loading the control. To learn more about what types of interaction are blocked, read the MSDN article, Activating ActiveX Controls. To see what users experience when they view Flash content with the new browser, watch the following demo:

View demo: Viewing Flash Files in Internet Explorer

There is a way to deal with this behavior. Developers can modify their HTML pages so that interactive controls can immediately respond to user input. We expect that many developers will want to make content "active" without requiring the user first to click.

Modifying your site for Internet Explorer changes

Microsoft has published several solutions for updating your web pages so that your interactive content will activate without requiring the user to click. These solutions, including a JavaScript-based solution, let users interact with the content immediately. For more information on these solutions, see the Microsoft article, Activating ActiveX Controls.

Adobe is sharing JavaScript-based solutions in the form of product updates—as well as a manual solution—to help make it easier for developers who use active content to address the changes to Internet Explorer. While following the same basic approach as the Microsoft solution, these solutions are particularly useful for developers who use multiple instances of Flash or Shockwave content on their sites.