Flash Problem: “Click to activate and use this control”

For the IE users, you may notice a message prompting you to “click to activate and use this control” when you mouseover a flash animation. Why is this happening? It’s a result of the latest IE update.

Microsoft recently lost a legal battle with a patent holder about the way Internet Explorer displays OBJECTs and EMBEDs in webpages. Microsoft then decided to update its Internet Explorer browser 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.

Luckily, there are solutions to this problem for the web developers. Amara has been kind enough to share them with us.

Source: Amara: Flash Problem