Ajax Girl

Pete LePage has posted on the IE blog about the change to component activation in IE. Microsoft licensed the silliness from Eolas, which now means that you don’t have to click to activate a component anymore.

Previously, people were getting around that by using SWFObject or UFO, but shortly you will be able to just embed away. Here is the timeline:

So you’re probably wondering when we are going to release this update? The first chance will be with an optional preview release, called the Internet Explorer Automatic Component Activation Preview, available in December 2007 via the Microsoft Download Center. Additionally this change will be made part of the next pre-release versions of Windows Vista SP1 and Windows XP SP3. After giving people enough time to prepare for this change, we’ll roll this behavior into the IE Cumulative Update in April 2008, and all customers who install the update will get the change.

If you have a custom application using WebOC or MSHTML, there may be some changes that affect your application. For example:

• If your application uses the DOCHOSTUI flag to opt-in to the current “Click To Activate” behavior, that behavior will continue to be respected and your application will require “Click To Activate”
• If you application uses the registry key FEATURE_ENABLE_ACTIVEX_INACTIVATE_MODE to opt-in to the current “Click To Activate” behavior, this registry key will no long be respected. If you wish to continue to use the “Click to Activate” behavior, please use the DOCHOSTUI flag.

In the coming weeks, we’ll be updating the MSDN article with descriptions of the new behavior. Keep an eye out here for when the preview goes live. 

Source: Ajaxian
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ajaxian/~3/182263724/no-more-click-to-activate-no-more-swfobject-ufo