Microsoft Releasing "Patch" That Will Handicap Flash and Other Common Plug-Ins
Posted by Robert, 3 April 2006Microsoft will be releasing a "patch" for its Internet Explorer browser. The goal of the new version of IE 7 will be to disable automatic user interaction with browser plug-ins that use Microsoft's ActiveX controls.
In a nut shell, PDFs, Flash movies, audio files, videos, movie trailers, and Java applications will not work when the page is first loaded if the user is using Internet Explorer 7, which requires at least Windows XP SP 2. To get any of those plug-ins to work, the user must first agree (on each page) to run an ActiveX control on that webpage. When another page is loaded, the same confirmation box will pop up again. Here are some common programs that use ActiveX controls:
- Acrobat Reader
- Flash
- QuickTime
- Windows Media Player
- RealPlayer
- Java Virtual Machine
What's the Big Deal?
The big deal is that PDFs will require confirmation before a user can interact with them. Flash menus and Flash movies will not initially interact with the user and will require confirmation with each page load. Any other "fancy" part of common webpages will not function until the user approves them. On each page. This "update" is mandatory for IE7 users.Who's at Risk?
At risk are all users of Windows Internet Explorer 7 and all those who use new or updated Windows XP, Service Pack 2.Who's Safe?
Firefox users and those who use browsers other than Internet Explorer and operating systems relased prior to, or as an alternative to, Windows XP should see no change. Most commonly, pre-Windows XP, Firefox, Opera, Mac and Linux users should not notice a difference.What If a Page is Disabled?
If trying to view a page that has been disabled by this update, let the site's webmaster know. In the mean time, try to test the page in an alternate browser. If there's an error on the Brainfood site, please let us know.As a Developer, How Do I Ensure My Page Is Still Accessible to IE Users?
There's a great discussion on the Macromedia / Adobe Flash Message Boards. Basically, make a .js file with this content:
theObjects = document.getElementsByTagName("object");
for (var i = 0; i < theObjects.length; i++) {
theObjects[i].outerHTML = theObjects[i].outerHTML;
}
Then, at the bottom of any page with Flash content, add this:
This has been tested with Flash but may also work with other plug-ins.<script type="text/javascript" src="yourFileName.js"></script>
Sources
eweek.com link:http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,1944867,00.asp
Microsoft whitepaper:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/?url=/workshop/author/dhtml/overview/activating_activex.asp