Why do I see a message prompting me to “click to activate and use this control” when I roll my mouse over a Flash animation?

This is a result of the latest Internet Explorer update.

Microsoft recently lost a legal battle with a patent holder about the way Internet Explorer displays OBJECTs and EMBEDs in webpages.

because of the rulling, Microsoft released an update to Internet Explorer with changes requiring user input to display and activate ActiveX based media.

This affects all Flash animations but also other files such as QuickTime, RealPlayer, Java and Adobe Acrobat among others. It means users have to click the object first in order to activate its functions.

There are ways for website developers to modify their website so that the user experience is not impacted by Microsoft’s changes. Samples with the fix

To fix the problem, modify your web sites using these steps:

1) Just below the last <object> in your HTML page, insert the following Javascript:

<script type="text/javascript" src="ieupdate.js"></script>

2) Open a new document in Notepad or your HTML editor, and copy & paste the following content into it:

theObjects = document.getElementsByTagName("object");
for (var i = 0; i < theObjects.length; i++) {
theObjects[i].outerHTML = theObjects[i].outerHTML;
}

3) Save this file as ieupdate.js

4) Upload both files to your webserver, and the problem should be solved.

To read more about this issue and see other solutions available, please visit:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/ieupdate
http://www.macromedia.com/devnet/activecontent/articles/devletter.html
http://blog.deconcept.com/2005/12/15/internet-explorer-eolas-changes-and-the-flash-plugin/