[HOW TO] - Deal with the "Click to Activate" message

What's the deal with my Flash files needing people to click to activate them?
A lot of people blame Microsoft for introducing this behaviour in one or more of their Windows updates. The reason they did that was due to a patents lawsuit by a company called Eolas. They claim that they are the original developers of certain browser plug-in technology and ActiveX controls fall into that area. To get around purchasing a license from Eolas Microsoft altered the way ActiveX controls behave, requiring users to first click to activate them. This doesn't just affect Flash although most of the discussions you'll hear about it focus there, it affects any ActiveX control.

Most people have focused on Internet Explorer as the problem browser here but several others will or will eventually fall into the same trap. The latest Opera browser has the same "Click to activate" issue. Some people got quite agitated with Microsoft when they first released the update as part of the Automatic Windows Update process. What those people didn't realise was that they had actually announced the changes months prior to actually implementing them as they could obviously foresee the problems it would cause people. They also listed their own solution to get around this behaviour.

How do I prevent people having to "click to activate and use this control"?
There are several solutions to the problem provided by a range of people from the actual companies involved to helpful net users. The most widely accepted method is to use Javascript to write the HTML although there are several variations to how this is performed. Here is a list of the most widely used methods:

• Microsofts solution
• Adobes Active Content Developer Center - They created a whole area of their site to deal with this issue
• Adobe Flash Updates Download Page – Adobe released an update entitled “Flash Professional 8 and Flash Basic 8 Active Content Update“ which incorporates their recommended solution into the HTML template Flash uses when it publishes HTML
• SWFObject 2 - The most commonly used solution for those not using the Adobe template
• Unobtrusive Flash Objects - Deprecated in favor of SWFObject 2
• Marks Active Content Blogspot
• Jesse Skinners Solution
• Amara Softwares Click to activate guide
• A List Apart: Flash Embedding Cage Match – Not directly about the Click to activate issue, it's just good knowledge to know