In April , Microsoft was finally forced to update how ActiveX plug-ins behave in Internet Explorer. So now, if you go to a website that has ActiveX elements (including Flash), you will see a tooltip that says: “Click to activate and use this control”. I had a few problems with this myself…

Now ActiveX elements cannot be interacted with until the user enables them, usually by clicking the ActiveX element or pressing Spacebar or Enter.

Fortunately, there are some fixes that use Javascript to show the ActiveX information directly, one I recommend being FlashObject by Geoff Stearns. Not only does it fix the problem, but the script can detect the Flash plug-in in all major web browsers, is search engine-friendly, and can be used in valid HTML and XHTML 1.0 documents.

Simply download and include the flashobject.js file in the same folder as your website, then follow Geoff’s instructions on how to include the rest of the Javascript on your page to embed your Flash movie.

Now your flash movies will show in the same way as before, without users having to make any extra click or activation. Praise the Lord!