Rejoice. "click to activate and use this control" is Now Dead.
So sayeth the IEblog:
IEBlog : IE Automatic Component Activation Now Available
The IE Automatic Component Activation (IE ACA) update is now available as part of the April 2008 Internet Explorer Cumulative Update. The "click to activate" behavior, formerly required for ActiveX controls embedded in some webpages, is now permanently removed from Internet Explorer. For detailed information on IE ACA, see our blog post from last November announcing this update.
This update replaces the IE ACA previews released in December 2007 and February 2008.
Which means I can stop using SWFObject and just dump Flash into the page like I used to way back when. SWFObject is really a nice piece of code, but I'm a lot happier when I'm not relying on JavaScript for something as basic as getting Flash embedded into a page. It's just an added layer of complexity and an extra download* that I don't need in my life and I'm damn glad to be rid of it.
Want an example of the complexity I'm talking about? check out this post I wrote a few months ago:
Belt and Suspenders- Flash Embed With SWFObject and Conditional Comments
While it works, it's WAY too complicated for anyone's good.
*although I do wrap all JS into a single file now, just appending SWFObject to the bottom of the file. Even doing that it adds a few KB to the download, so even in a single file situation it's overhead I'd rather be rid of…