IE Automatic Component Activation (Changes to IE ActiveX Update)

Back in April 2006, we made a change to how Internet Explorer handled embedded controls used on some webpages. Some sites required users to “click to activate” before they could interact with the control. Microsoft has now licensed the technologies from Eolas, removing  the “click to activate” requirement in Internet Explorer. Because of this, we're removing the “click to activate” behavior from Internet Explorer!

It’s important (and cool) to note that this change will require no modifications to existing webpages, and no new actions for developers creating new pages. We are simply reverting to the old behavior. Once Internet Explorer is updated, all pages that currently require “click to activate” will no longer require the control to be activated. They’ll just work.  

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. 

Thanks,

PEte LePage
Senior Product Manager

Comments

• Anonymous
  November 08, 2007
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  November 08, 2007
  About time.  Why didn't MS just license this from Eolas after they lost the case?  The money it must have cost to make and support (and revert) this change must have been comparable to whatever (idiotic) licensing they wanted to charge.

• Anonymous
  November 08, 2007
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  November 08, 2007
  Great news at the IEBlog : Back in April 2006, we made a change to how Internet Explorer handled embedded

• Anonymous
  November 08, 2007
  Forgive my ignorance, but why the long wait for a reversion to previous usability? How come it can't be apart of next Tuesdays release?

• Anonymous
  November 08, 2007
  Really great news. Finally the usability issue is improved or at least back to what it was before on IE6.

• Anonymous
  November 08, 2007
  One of the most annoying developments over recent years has been the "Click here to active this

• Anonymous
  November 08, 2007
  Yay! No more annoying workarounds.

• Anonymous
  November 08, 2007
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  November 08, 2007
  The Internet Explorer team is going to be offering a slightly less annoying version of the ActiveX behavior

• Anonymous
  November 08, 2007
  Yeah!! Woohooo!! You can't imagine how annoying this has been for the past 1.5 yrs. REALLY, REALLY annoying. The sooner you roll this out, the better! (Now waiting till DEC will seem like a million years!)

• Anonymous
  November 08, 2007
  Following its August settlement of a long-standing patent dispute with Eolas , Microsoft is readying

• Anonymous
  November 08, 2007
  You've been kicked (a good thing) - Trackback from DotNetKicks.com

• Anonymous
  November 08, 2007
  About time!  I hated click to activate and have been delaying using it on our control..now we don't have to. Excellent!! DK

• Anonymous
  November 08, 2007
  Find out what Social News Sites are discussing this post over at metagg.com

• Anonymous
  November 08, 2007
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  November 08, 2007
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  November 08, 2007
  "we’ll roll this behavior into the IE Cumulative Update in April 2008" So, if I read this correctly (and sorry for doing so, it is not like there is any info on this blog about IE8), it means that IE8 as a beta, is at least as far away as Q2,2008! So much for a Christmas present this year for developers dying to hear news on an IE8 release.

• Anonymous
  November 08, 2007
  If you've used Internet Explorer in the past ~1.5 years, you've know doubt been inconvenienced

• Anonymous
  November 08, 2007
  > "Microsoft has now licensed the > technologies from Eolas" Ridiculous. By licensing this "technology", you are admitting that Eolas invented it and that it belongs to them. Just leave it as it is. Eolas was wrong in the first place, and now you are rewarding them for it. Has anyone patented walking or breathing yet? There must be a market for that.

• Anonymous
  November 08, 2007
  Well, We have another check to make inside cross-site JS libraries and We'll need them for many time ... thank You IE team, You did a great choice last 2006 year!

• Anonymous
  November 08, 2007
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  November 08, 2007
  IE fixing Click to Activate issue!

• Anonymous
  November 08, 2007
  Opera Software has implemented "Click to activate" as well. I doubt think they'd pay Eolas' any money, especially for a thing as distasteful as software patent.

• Anonymous
  November 08, 2007
  "Microsoft has now licensed the technologies from Eolas, removing  the “click to activate” requirement in Internet Explorer." I'm confused, how to you have to have a license to remove something? What (in plain English) is the specific action that Eolas is trying to patent? The installation of a plugin, a warning about installing a plugin, etc?

• Anonymous
  November 08, 2007
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• Anonymous
  November 08, 2007
  Great!  Now can you also make it so IE doesn't consume 800MB of memory after forty minutes?

• Anonymous
  November 08, 2007
  Great, but any information about IE8. Please don't keep us waiting too long.

• Anonymous
  November 08, 2007
  you may remember the result of EOLAS litigation a while back. yes, the one resulting in what some feel

• Anonymous
  November 08, 2007
  IE 7.0 dosen`t easy to use at all,for web develpor

• Anonymous
  November 08, 2007
  Which is the latest IE version that doesn't implement the "Click to Activate" behavior?

• Anonymous
  November 08, 2007
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  November 08, 2007
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  November 08, 2007
  Le blog de l’équipe d’Internet Explorer vient d’annoncer un nouveau changement à venir du comportement

• Anonymous
  November 08, 2007
  Great news from the IE Blog : Back in April 2006, we made a change to how Internet Explorer handled embedded

• Anonymous
  November 08, 2007
  Great news from the IE Blog : Back in April 2006, we made a change to how Internet Explorer handled embedded

• Anonymous
  November 08, 2007
  Le blog de l’équipe d’Internet Explorer vient d’annoncer un nouveau changement à venir du comportement

• Anonymous
  November 08, 2007
  No More Click To Activate In Internet Explorer

• Anonymous
  November 08, 2007
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  November 08, 2007
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  November 08, 2007
  Wow! This is a great news. Thanks.

• Anonymous
  November 08, 2007
  Si je vous parle du procès Microsoft contre Eolas, ça ne vous dira peut-être rien. Mais se je vous parle

• Anonymous
  November 08, 2007
  No more "Click to activate this control"

• Anonymous
  November 09, 2007
  I agree with Faramond. I prefer a click to activate or an option

• Anonymous
  November 09, 2007
  No “Click To Activate” = welcome banners and unwanted code executed

• Anonymous
  November 09, 2007
  Wow, no more swfObject that is great!!! I would really advise that you provide setting to disable/enable this feature.  I happen to personally like that I can control what content runs when I view page; however, my clients really do not like it when their viewers have to click to make the navigation or other design elements work.

• Anonymous
  November 09, 2007
  What is this "Click to Activate" thing that everyone is all in a flurry over? I have never seen this once, in any browser I use! Firefox, Opera, Netscape, or Safari for Windows. Is this another one of those Proprietary IE Int_RA_net things? I don't get it?

• Anonymous
  November 09, 2007
  In a recent posting on the IEBlog the IE product Manager has outlined that the "click to activate"

• Anonymous
  November 09, 2007
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  November 09, 2007
  As many have mentioned, won't it be a cause to slow browsing and/or security risks? I hope you'll have an option to keep the 'click-to-activate' behavior...

• Anonymous
  November 09, 2007
  AtulMarathe, This doesn't make any difference to browsing speed or security. The "Click to Activate" thing does NOT prevent a control from running. "Click to Activate" only prevents a user from interacting with the control until they have clicked on it. This was never and should never be seen as a security enhancement. Use the "Manage Add-ons" option under tools if you want to prevent controls from actually running. -Dave

• Anonymous
  November 09, 2007
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  November 09, 2007
  This is good news, although I do not see any contribution of Eolas Inc. other than patent trolling or perhaps we now have another good example for arguing against software patents. @IE team Why waiting so long for the update and why do you not remove the activation entirely?

• Anonymous
  November 09, 2007
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  November 09, 2007
  Allowing ActiveX to silently run along with the 8mb ie temp files cache minimum is lowering IE's security.  Please keep the 'prompt on ActiveX run' as well as let us disable IE's local disk cache (no temp files) and also 'clear all IE data on IE close'.  Many secure environments, banks and financial firms, have to block un-approved software (i.e, ActiveX controls) and/or remove temporary data for auditing compliance from the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002.  Succinctly, allowing an application to install itself with approval from the computer owner is a bad practice.  A software company/writer relying on an undocumented workaround to circumvent this need for customer approval is also a bad practice since the software company/writer is displaying that they are not concrened with security of their application as well as the security of the end user's machine.

• Anonymous
  November 09, 2007
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  November 09, 2007
  This doesn't happens to Firefox ^^

• Anonymous
  November 09, 2007
  @Maketuning: Guess who Eolas will sue next?  Google will probably pay up since they pretty much own Firefox anyway.

• Anonymous
  November 09, 2007
  On one side this is great news, on the other side ActiveX is still a security problem.

• Anonymous
  November 09, 2007
  Last year, Microsoft was forced to add one of the worst features ever to IE because of the Eolas patent

• Anonymous
  November 09, 2007
  I just want to note that Microsoft announced on November 8th that they will be removing the "click to activate" in April 2008 as a cumulative update and as an optional update in December 2007 Source: http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/archive/2007/11/08/ie-aut..

• Anonymous
  November 09, 2007
  Please give us the option to keep "Click to Activate". I heard about this change a few weeks ago and was dismayed that Microsoft is being forced to do this. I know the majority want this default behavior removed, but I very much wish to keep it.

• Anonymous
  November 09, 2007
  @vanilla Make sure you read the entire post: > 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”

• Anonymous
  November 09, 2007
  What a costly change for Microsoft and for all the web developers.  And wasted time and effort to all the users who had to click to activate anything on a web page.  All we did was move a big pile of rocks from one place to another and then back again.

• Anonymous
  November 09, 2007
  What about adapting the plugin system of Mozilla?

• Anonymous
  November 09, 2007
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  November 09, 2007
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  November 09, 2007
  Do we know why this fix has to be bundled with the SP till April next year? It's a much needed urgent fix, can't we just release it through weekly updates?

• Anonymous
  November 09, 2007
  I would like an option in order to block some activex installation requests. It's very annoyng when I go on a site and I see a yellow bar request to install an activex. Please add an option to deny it FOREVER.

• Anonymous
  November 10, 2007
  Who cares? Has no-one heard of SWFObject?

• Anonymous
  November 10, 2007
  Great news but why the long wait to revert to the previous usability?

• Anonymous
  November 10, 2007
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  November 10, 2007
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  November 11, 2007
  HEY MICROSOFT!! TRY THIS! class ca.nectere.utils.ClassUtils{   //create a movieClip and associate a class with it   static public function CreateWithClass( classRef:Function, target:MovieClip, name:String, depth:Number, params:Object ){       var mc:MovieClip=target.createEmptyMovieClip(name,depth);       mc.proto = classRef.prototype;       if (params != null) for (var i in params) mc[i]=params[i];       classRef.apply(mc);       return mc;   }   //attach a movieClip from the library and associate a class with it   static public function AttachWithClass( classRef:Function, target:MovieClip, id:String, name:String, depth:Number, params:Object ){       var mc:MovieClip = target.attachMovie(id, name, depth, params);       mc.proto = classRef.prototype;       classRef.apply(mc);       return mc;   }   //link a class with an existing movieClip, use for _root / timeline association   static public function LinkWithClass( classRef:Function, target:MovieClip ){       var mc:MovieClip = target;       mc.proto = classRef.prototype;       classRef.apply(mc);       return target;   } }

• Anonymous
  November 11, 2007
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  November 11, 2007
  Woo hooo! :-) "Back in April 2006, we made a change to how Internet Explorer handled embedded controls used on some webpages. Some sites required users to “click to activate” before they could interact with the control. Microsoft has now...

• Anonymous
  November 11, 2007
  Thanks for all the answers, the blog is so inclusive. >__>

• Anonymous
  November 11, 2007
  The very beginning on the article states "Some sites required users to “click to activate” before they could interact with the control." Would not it be more correct to says that "IE required users to "click to activate" controls for some sites"?

• Anonymous
  November 11, 2007
  Agree with Mark Sowul. It was just a tiny amount of cash for Mircosoft. Microsoft should have licensed this patent earlier, even though this patent is stupid. That would have saved efforts of developers around the global.

• Anonymous
  November 11, 2007
  @Dmitri, nice observation. It's funny how they've worded it like that.

• Anonymous
  November 11, 2007
  So is the update that is planed for April 08 just only for IE7? How about IE6?

• Anonymous
  November 11, 2007
  Microsoft si accorda con Eolas: gli Activex torneranno ad attivarsi automaticamente su Internet Explorer

• Anonymous
  November 12, 2007
  I like it that the behavior will go back to the old way, but what I REALLY don't like about this: That Eola got money out of it. I think MS should rather have left the behavior as is and don't give them any money at all.

• Anonymous
  November 12, 2007
  It didn't really bother me. There is a really easy workaround for this "click to activate". You should better give better update the browser to more W3C standard compliant. That is a bit more aching, I think. Still it is a start.

• Anonymous
  November 12, 2007
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  November 12, 2007
  Questions from an exasperated developer: Will you apologize to developers for this shambles of a stumbling block that we've had to work around for the past year and a half? (and will have to continue to do so for another two years max while the update filters onto people's systems). And will you please stop acting like you're the victim of Eolas. With so many development resources available I don't believe there wasn't a way you could have worked around it. No other browser ever had to do this. Also, is this going to be for IE6 too? I tried to avoid getting the original update in the first place - but Microsoft snuck it onto the system somehow and now even IE6 is demanding I "Click to Activate".

• Anonymous
  November 12, 2007
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  November 12, 2007
  "And will you please stop acting like you're the victim of Eolas. With so many development resources available I don't believe there wasn't a way you could have worked around it." How exactly? No amount of development resource can find a way around such a blatent patent. "No other browser ever had to do this." I believe Opera has done it too. Firefox and other open source ones have got away with it because Eolas have chosen not to uphold it for them.

• Anonymous
  November 12, 2007
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  November 12, 2007
  This is very interesting stuff. i wish developer like myself would have a chance to test this earlier.

• Anonymous
  November 12, 2007
  Thanks IE! That whole issue almost made me switch to firefox but I remain a microsoft fanboy still. Keep up the good work.

• Anonymous
  November 12, 2007
  iTnews reports that Microsoft will remove a 'feature' (yes, feature) from IE. The supposed feature

• Anonymous
  November 13, 2007
  TENGO PROBLEMA PARA DESCARGAR ARCHIVOS FORMATO QUICKTIME. EXPLORADOR DICE "INTERNET EXPLORER NO PUEDE DESCARGAR. INTERFAZ NO DISPONIBLE. FAVOR INDICAR SOLUCION.-

• Anonymous
  November 13, 2007
  I'm amazed that only 2 or 3 people have pointed out how bad this is. Acknowledge Eolas' ridiculous patent? I was ready for a class action lawsuit against Eolas, myself. The patent is fraudulent, and the US court system failed. By licensing the patent it seals the coffin on any future cases. Microsoft may be evil, but Eolas' patent is worse. I will be diligently looking for a patent to use against them.

• Anonymous
  November 13, 2007
  Eolas doesn't have a product.  Just patents.

• Anonymous
  November 13, 2007
  If there's no patent for filing idiotic patents, we still might have a chance against Eolas.

• Anonymous
  November 13, 2007
  Hooooray, great news :) Maybe you remember when Microsoft lost his case with Eolas, we were force to

• Anonymous
  November 13, 2007
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  November 13, 2007
  "What's despicable is that Microsoft used people who use IE and forced them to "click to activate" as a means of getting around the whole EOLAS mess and not accepting responsibility." ROFL. Yeah, it's "despicable" they worked around a garbage patent. It's a shame it was ever accepted in the first place. It seems "despicable" to me that they did not go after other browser makers.

• Anonymous
  November 13, 2007
  Well, about time. But by now hordes of people have worked on making scripts to go around that annoyance. Scripts like UFO, SWFObject, WMPObject. Those scripts have now taken on a life of their own, having been pushed to great heights and taken way beyond the merely busy work which was the elimination of the "click to activate this control" mess.

• Anonymous
  November 13, 2007
  It's about time MS did something about this.I mean come on how long can it take to add an update like this if there is a lot of people working on the same thing? Shoot why take so long to get back to the No Click to Activate Control feature that should have never been removed to begin with? At least you are making things right again at long last.Also please be sure that this No Click to Activate Control stays forever.So many of us like it the way it was with the No Click to Activate. I have Friends online who hate this Click to Activate control too.Here is a list of effected things that had workarounds because of the change that should never have been made to begin with.You can see these just below: Online Windows Media Player Movies Online Quicktime Media Player Movies Online Shockwave Media Player Movies Other Online Media Player Movies Online Banners with links back to websites who made them. Embeded Jukebox Music Players Online Chat Room Apps Online PC Games Online Magazine Sites Online PC Game Sites Some Message Board Apps Some Online Site Creation Apps There are more for this list but i can't think of any more.With the Re Addition of the No Click to Activate those problems will be fixed. I am sure my friends will agree with me on these that i listed for everyone to agree or disagree about. I am going to be happy to get this update.I know those who hate Click to Activate will like it too.

• Anonymous
  November 13, 2007
  Maybe April 2008 is the date Eolas goes under and die. Or Eolas hoped some super browser would be launched in April 2008 to crush IE7. This shows the bad side of patents, Microsoft may be "teh evil", the anti-Microsoft aren't any more angelic.

• Anonymous
  November 13, 2007
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  November 13, 2007
  BTW IE TEAM, THE OTHER DAY I WAS PLAYING WITH THE IE6 VPC IMAGE (THE LATEST ONE) AND I SET THE DATE TO JANUARY 2008 EVERYWHERE, IN THE BIOS, ON THE HOST OS, IN THE VM ITSELF AND YET IT DIDN'T EXPIRE. HAS MS GIVEN AWAY A COPY OF XP PROFESSIONAL? CAN YOU CONFIRM THAT IT DOESN'T EXPIRE?

• Anonymous
  November 14, 2007
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  November 14, 2007
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  November 14, 2007
  What has all this EOLAS stuff got to do with IE8? I don't see anything in the post about bug fixes for IE8, and there is nothing about W3C recommendations being added to IE? What's the story?!

• Anonymous
  November 14, 2007
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  November 14, 2007
  Topaz, why are you not criticizing Opera for also using Microsoft's "Click to Activate" workaround?  Actually, it's unclear what your criticism actually is.  You hate Microsoft, that much is clear, but your posts here have no substance to them.  Just mindless ranting.

• Anonymous
  November 14, 2007
  hm, don't be so rude people...

• Anonymous
  November 14, 2007
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  November 14, 2007
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  November 14, 2007
  Maybe the lawyers realized settling this thing makes more economic sense. We're talking about a free web browser that may be replaced by a new version soon.

• Anonymous
  November 14, 2007
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  November 14, 2007
  תיכף נדבר על מה ולמה... (הפוסט הזה כבר יושב אצלי "בקנה" כבר שבוע...) כמפתח אפליקציות אינטרנט

• Anonymous
  November 14, 2007
  I work on Silverlight and when I host my Silverlight application inside ASP.net application, I get "Click

• Anonymous
  November 15, 2007
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• Anonymous
  November 15, 2007
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  November 16, 2007
  Come'n guys, this situation for developers and programmers is going out of control, do you really need until April 2008 to fix this little issues?....

• Anonymous
  November 16, 2007
  Come'n guys, this situation for developers and programmers is going out of control, do you really need until April 2008 to fix this little issues?....

• Anonymous
  November 16, 2007
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  November 16, 2007
  I'm glad the click to activate feature will be gone, I've found it to be quite annoying.. Great news!

• Anonymous
  November 16, 2007
  It's taken long enough, but at last IE7 is going to do what it should have done.

• Anonymous
  November 16, 2007
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  November 16, 2007

• CSS3 Target Property * http://www.w3.org/TR/2004/WD-css3-hyperlinks-20040224/#target0 To keep it short (and I'll probably post a YouTube video or post this on my site) add CSS3 target property support in addition to the other CSS3 properties and support for application/xhtml+xml and IE8 could by a professional web designer's objective analysis be Web 3.0 capable.

• Anonymous
  November 17, 2007
  Voilà une excellente nouvelle tant pour nous développeurs Web que pour les utilisateurs et internautes

• Anonymous
  November 17, 2007
  Voilà une excellente nouvelle tant pour nous développeurs Web que pour les utilisateurs et internautes

• Anonymous
  November 17, 2007
  Internet Explorer-i meeskond teatab IEBlog-is, et Internet Explorer-ist kaob alates tuleva aasta aprillist vajadus klikkida ActiveX põhiste komponentide aktiveerimiseks hiirega korra vastaval komponendil. Uuendus, mis tuleva aasta aprillis tehakse, ..

• Anonymous
  November 18, 2007
  Hello there! Just came across your blog and thought I would say hello.

• Anonymous
  November 18, 2007
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  November 18, 2007
  @Topaz Yeah you're right.  I don't know enough about the US patent system, the patent in question or the case for that matter.  I found the patent difficult to swallow due to similarities in existing technology.

• Anonymous
  November 19, 2007
  Just got this back from a MS Feedback inquiry "We appreciate you intent to file IE feedback. The IE site on Microsoft Connect was intended for beta feedback. The IE 7 team discontinued feedback on our site when the product released about a year ago. As largely a beta site, we do not often become involved with feedback for released products. Feedback for IE 7 is now submitted through normal support channels." Interesting perspective isn't it. Lets journey back in time in the IE Blog shall we... IE Feedback finally announced! http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/archive/2006/03/24/560095.aspx A few key quotes: "What version of IE is this database for? The feedback site is for IE7 and future versions of IE. Feedback for the current version under development will be taken through the site. Once IE7 has shipped, it will be used to report issues with IE7 to examine for following versions." Hmm, that didn't work, now did it. "As an issue is worked on, you should expect to see comments added to the bug giving some details." Yeah, that kind of died didn't it.  Not only is the site gone now, there's not even any updates in the IE blog. "There will be an ongoing blog for feedback created in the near term which will cover the top issues reported during the week" Hmm, yeah maybe I missed the announcement, where is this blog? Lets not forget the most important quote in the entire blog post: "After much discussion on the team, we've decided that people are right and that we should have a public way for people to give us feedback or make product suggestions. We wanted to build a system that is searchable and can benefit from the active community that IE has here." 7 months later, and Feedback was closed. I realize that Al and Dave have moved on to greener fields, but the efforts made to have IE development involve the community resources for a better IE seem to have been all but forgotten. THREE HUNDRED AND NINETY ONE days into the NO 2-WAY COMMUNICATION with the MICROSOFT IE TEAM, I think I've just about had enough. Thanks for the ride, I think i'm getting off this train.

• Anonymous
  November 19, 2007
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• Anonymous
  November 19, 2007
  @Al Billings "Maybe it will rise again?" No, it won't. At least in 2-3 years, though I suppose it will rise never at all. "I have no idea who on the IE team would work on it though." There is no "IE team" at this moment. Yes, I know that there are several people that are formally on the list of "IE team". But they don't carry out any real work. "I wonder when the IE8 beta will be?" We will know something about new versions of IE in the end of 2009 or even later. Maybe there will be no new versions at all.

• Anonymous
  November 20, 2007
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  November 20, 2007
  @Al Bilings yeah, downloaded Firefox 3 beta already.. its so nice to see a browser that is actually moving forward! I know rc is a bit.. pesimistic? shall we say? but one has to wonder with the complete lack of info on this blog. btw, you've been doing some awesome work on the mozilla side of things Al!  Glad to see you are getting the chance to be part of a really productive software team.

• Anonymous
  November 20, 2007
  Rc, I know for a fact that there is an IE team still. I have friends that are still on the project or who have left in the last six months. They aren't feeding me data or anything but I know for a fact that the IE team exists and is, well, working on IE. The details of that work are what is lacking. Given Dean's previous promise during IE7 to not go dark again and to release often, I'm just wondering what the plan is after a year. Kyle, thanks. I mostly work on organizing and testing the security releases and in the new Places feature for Firefox 3, which replaces the existing bookmarks and history system with a sqlite backend and a bunch of APIs for talking to it. It's cool stuff.

• Anonymous
  November 20, 2007
  In other words, rc, no matter how many times you post on every blog post here that the IE team doesn't exist, you're still wrong. :-)  I'm not sure what the motivation is when people do come and go from the IE team and members of it have spoken to people at various companies, including the Mozilla Corporation, at conferences and meetings in the last while. It exists.

• Anonymous
  November 21, 2007
  part (2) It is like an absolutely perfect environment where the developer community can not only see what is going on, not only report issues they find, submit test cases, and track bugs and features, but should the development team not have the time or resources, YOU the clever developer can even contribute code to fix things! In contrast, ALL WEB DEVELOPERS have NO IDEA what is happening in IE DEVELOPMENT, we can't submit BUGS, we can't request FEATURES, we can't TRACK a gosh darn thing, and there isn't even a 50,000ft overview of what is going on in IE8?! Please correct me if I'm wrong, but it appears blatantly obvious to me that Microsoft does not care one iota about the Developer Community!? Feedback was closed "temporarily".... by anyones definition, is not "Over a year". I know that focus has likely been put on Vista (because of a complete lack of sales), but lets be honest, without a state-of-the-art web browser in the OS, you haven't got a complete OS.

• Anonymous
  November 21, 2007
  part (2) It is like an absolutely perfect environment where the developer community can not only see what is going on, not only report issues they find, submit test cases, and track bugs and features, but should the development team not have the time or resources, YOU the clever developer can even contribute code to fix things! In contrast, ALL WEB DEVELOPERS have NO IDEA what is happening in IE DEVELOPMENT, we can't submit BUGS, we can't request FEATURES, we can't TRACK a gosh darn thing, and there isn't even a 50,000ft overview of what is going on in IE8?! Please correct me if I'm wrong, but it appears blatantly obvious to me that Microsoft does not care one iota about the Developer Community!? Feedback was closed "temporarily".... by anyones definition, is not "Over a year". I know that focus has likely been put on Vista (because of a complete lack of sales), but lets be honest, without a state-of-the-art web browser in the OS, you haven't got a complete OS.

• Anonymous
  November 21, 2007
  part (3a) Even the experts are ditching Vista: http://www.lockergnome.com/blade/2007/02/28/vista-even-the-experts-are-giving-up-on-it/ Can Vista recover?: http://www.msforums.com/index.php?showtopic=144 Is Vista a dead end?: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,2037002,00.asp

• Anonymous
  November 21, 2007
  part (3b) IE7 for Vista DEAD as Dodo: http://www.msdner.com/dev-archive/179/253-923-1796548.shtm IE 7, Dead on Arrival: http://connect.educause.edu/blog/wole/ie7deadonarrival/2284?time=1195311840 Is IE7 a dead horse: http://forums.cnet.com/5208-6035_102-0.html?forumID=77&threadID=215890&messageID=2305841

• Anonymous
  November 21, 2007
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  November 21, 2007
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  November 21, 2007
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  November 22, 2007
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  November 26, 2007
  I'm not sure how I missed this one, but for those of you not following Tim Heuer's blog, he's recently

• Anonymous
  November 27, 2007
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  November 28, 2007
  Wow, what a big set of weeks the past few have been (and I've been too busy doing other things to

• Anonymous
  November 30, 2007
  Quick post between meetings that I wrote up before the kids headed off to school today... a week's worth

• Anonymous
  December 11, 2007
  Kurzbeschreibung: Optionales Update, welches das Ausführen von ActiveX-Controls auf Webseiten wieder aktiviert, ohne dass das ActiveX-Control-Element zusätzlich angeklickt werden muss ("Hier klicken zum Aktivieren"). Das sogenannte "IE ACA (Automatic

• Anonymous
  December 11, 2007
  Kurzbeschreibung: Optionales Update, welches das Ausführen von ActiveX-Controls auf Webseiten aktiviert, ohne dass das ActiveX-Control-Element zusätzlich angeklickt werden muss ("Hier klicken zum Aktivieren"). Das sogenannte "IE ACA (Automatic Componen

• Anonymous
  December 11, 2007
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  January 22, 2008
  Es ist wieder mal OOP und viele Techies, Architekten, PLs und Middlemanager pilgern zur Messe München

• Anonymous
  February 12, 2008
  Kurzbeschreibung: Optionales Update, welches das Ausführen von ActiveX-Controls auf Webseiten wieder aktiviert, ohne dass das ActiveX-Control-Element zusätzlich angeklickt werden muss ("Hier klicken zum Ausführen"). Das sogenannte "IE ACA (Automatic Com

• Anonymous
  February 12, 2008
  Kurzbeschreibung: Optionales Update, welches das Ausführen von ActiveX-Controls auf Webseiten wieder aktiviert, ohne dass das ActiveX-Control-Element zusätzlich angeklickt werden muss ("Hier klicken zum Ausführen"). Das sogenannte "IE ACA (Automatic Com

• Anonymous
  February 13, 2008
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  February 13, 2008
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  February 13, 2008
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  February 20, 2008
  Huhtikuussa 2006 Microsoft teki muutoksen tapaan, jolla web-sivulla oleva ActiveX-komponentti ladattiin

• Anonymous
  February 20, 2008
  Huhtikuussa 2006 Microsoft teki muutoksen tapaan, jolla web-sivulla oleva ActiveX-komponentti ladattiin

• Anonymous
  April 03, 2008
  On my Deep zoom Post , I recommended that for Deep Zoom applications you instantiate the control using

• Anonymous
  April 08, 2008
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  April 08, 2008
  Kurzbeschreibung: Kumulatives Sicherheitsupdate für Internet Explorer 6 unter Windows XP SP2. Siehe Security Bulletin MS08-024 (englisch bzw. deutsch). Aktuell: ja direkter Download oder über Windows Update. Ersetzt: Alle bislang erschienenen K

• Anonymous
  April 08, 2008
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  April 08, 2008
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  April 24, 2008
  If you are doing Silverlight development, you are no doubt slapping in the <object> tag or using

• Anonymous
  June 23, 2008
  Many Silverlight developers have noticed a rather fundamental change between the Silverlight installation/instantiation

• Anonymous
  June 28, 2008
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  August 06, 2008
  The comment has been removed