Com-Central.net

A ZDNet reader that goes only by the name of John e-mailed me yesterday to remind me that today � April 11 2006 � is Internet Explorer's official Eolas day of reckoning. Going out in today's superpatch Tuesday batch of patches is an update to Internet Explorer that will disable frictionless operation of ActiveX plug-ins inside of Internet Explorer. Now, instead of one click to get something like Adobe's Macromedia Flash player to do something, it may take two (or in the case of an ActiveX control that used to automatically load without any clicks, now a click will be required). Seen in the screenshot of Disney's Web site (above) is an example of how end-users will be prompted to click again before an ActiveX control will begin to function. The user experience is far from ideal but Microsoft has no choice as a result of the defeat it was handed in a patent infringement suit that was filed against the company by Eolas.

I checked in with Microsoft's Internet Platforms and Security director of Marketing Gary Schare to find out how it is that business users can actually delay the update (something the aforementioned reader pointed out to me) and, what, in general, needs to be donein order to secure the return of a more friction free environment.