Recently Microsoft lost a lawsuit which required that they not “automatically” enable dynamic content in their browser, or something.

Whatever.  The result is that you now have to CLICK on flash swf files running in your browser before they will be “Activated”.

The way to get around this is to use javascript to do the dirty work. 

Check out this link for a quick include that can help with the work around:

http://www.sitepoint.com/article/activex-activation-issue-ie