Active Content preferences Microsoft threw the Web a real curve ball when it started shipping versions of Internet Explorer in February, 2006 that handled Flash and all other active content elements differently. These changes, a reaction to a patent lawsuit, stopped the active content??”active content is anything that relies on Microsoft??™s ActiveX controls??”from starting automatically when the page loaded into the browser; now, the user was required to click on the content to fully activate it. In response, Adobe (then Macromedia) developed a method of storing the files combined with JavaScript that sidesteps both the patent issue and the end-user requirement. The Active Content preference offers two options for implementing these changes. For complete details on the active content modifications, see Chapter 25, ???Inserting Flash and Shockwave Elements.??? When the Insert Using Browser-Safe Scripts option is selected, any active content??”including all Adobe Flash, Adobe Reader, Apple QuickTime, and RealNetworks RealPlayer files, among others??”is added to the page using the Adobe-developed method. If this option is not enabled, the active content is instead using a combination of