Deploying plugins for Internet Explorer

Question

Hi everybody.

I'm looking for a way to deploy an Internet Explorer plugin for SVG-rendering without manually installing it on every client machine.

Is there a way to use some ActiveX voodoo stuff to automatically install a plugin?

I have no reliable information about the IE versions that are used on the client side so I assume the worst: IE6.

To make things even harder, the users probably don't have administrator privileges on the client machines.

The whole thing happens in an enclosed local network, so security considerations are entirely secondary.

It also does not really matter which actual plugin it will be, anything that can render SVG and run Javascript on it will do just fine.

I can't think of anything to make this work so I'm desperate for help here...

Answer 1

I'm looking for a way to deploy an Internet Explorer plugin for SVG-rendering without manually installing it on every client machine.

Use Group Policy to distribute software in general to machines in a domain.

Is there a way to use some ActiveX voodoo stuff to automatically install a plugin?

Not without the usual information bar warning coming up and the two confirmation steps, which makes it probably less convenient in the end than just running an EXE.

(It used to be easier, without the ‘information bar’ and only one confirmation step. The result was virus and spyware carnage.)

Answer 2

See this article on Packaging ActiveX Controls. Depending on your control users may or may not be able to install it via .cab file with object tag without administrative privileges.

If you have administrative credentials for every machine, you can use PsExec to remotely install the executable.