Question
Users are reporting that they are having to click on an applet in GMS to activate it before they can use it. Why is this happening all of a sudden?
Answer
This is caused by a patch for IE released by Microsoft on February 28th 2006 to allow them to work around their infringement of a patent held by a company called EOLAS relating to embeded content. This patch is currently optional but will be bundled into the main IE updates during April and will shortly after become mandatory.
All embeded content such as ActiveX, Adobe Reader, Apple QuickTime Player, Macromedia Flash, Microsoft Windows Media Player, Real Networks RealPlayer, Sun Java Virtual Machine is affected.
Currently only Microsoft IE has been affected by the patent infringement but it may eventually spread to other browsers such as Firefox, Netscape, etc.
Here are the official advisiory links from Microsoft:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/advisory/912945.mspx
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/912945
With the release of Version 12 of GMS Gordano have implemented a different method of loading applets which is not affected by the changes Micosoft have been forced to make to IE. There is therefore no need to click on an applet in order to activate it prior to use.
Customers using earlier versions of GMS are advised to upgrade to take advantage of this new funcionality.
Keywords:click, applets, Java, IE, Eolas