ActiveX Control Activation

If you?re an Internet Explorer user and have recently encountered a ?Click to activate and use this control? tool-tip which forces you to click on any ActiveX control, such as Flash, Java Applets, Media Player and other objects then you?re not alone. Microsoft finally delivered a long-anticipated update for Internet Explorer that changes the way the browser loads embedded ActiveX controls.
See http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=912812

The update that causes this is MS06-013: Cumulative security update for Internet Explorer

Microsoft Windows Media Player is one of many components affected, other major ActiveX controls includC:

Adobe Reader
Apple QuickTime Player
Flash
Real Networks RealPlayer
Sun Java Virtual Machine

The modification became necessary because of an ongoing patent dispute between Eolas Technology and the University of California.

Microsoft has released a patch that will work for now but you may as well not waste your time since it is only going to be a short term fix. By the summer of 2006 (probably July and if you happen to be in Australia read that as winter of 2006) there will be no way around this problem. It will be up to web site developers to change the method they use to embed the control. My personal opinion is that most won't bother doing that. Instead they will just provide a link to the file and let it open in the appropriate program on your system. That is a media file would open your local Windows Media Player. Not a nice method but it works.

Background information regarding the ActiveX issue
In August 2003, a federal court ruled that Microsoft had infringed on a patent related to plug-in technology used in Internet Explorer.
Eolas was awarded $521 million in damages, which has ballooned to $560 million due to interest.

In response, Microsoft said it would alter how the browser implemented ActiveX, but later backed away from the switch. Software affected by the patent would include Macromedia Flash, QuickTime, RealOne Player, Acrobat Reader, Sun's Java Virtual Machine, and Windows Media Player among other applications that embed into Web pages.
But following two legal setbacks in its efforts to invalidate the Eolas patent and have the ruling appealed, Microsoft stated that it would go ahead with the update.

"Plug-ins" include objects like Flash movies and Java Applets, as well as any other components that use the EMBED, APPLET, or OBJECT HTML tags.

With the update, ActiveX controls will no longer be activated by default. The change in IE forces users to first click on the control before it will recognize any input.

As you might imagine this will be a nightmare for the users, forcing them to approve content like Flash or java applets prior to having them interact properly in the browser window.

If you insist on going ahead with the temporary fix then that patch is available at:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=B7D9801B-4FB5-492E-903E-3400ABF1D731