One of these tiny details is checking that the Flash player is installed. On a Win Internet Explorer system, Flash is implemented by an ActiveX control. The easiest way to check for Flash on such a system is by VBScript. Here is the code:

<SCRIPT LANGUAGE=VBScript>
Function Flash_checkForActiveX
  Dim hasPlayer, playerversion, minVersion
  minVersion = 4
  hasPlayer = false
  playerversion = 10
  Do While playerversion >= minVersion
   On Error Resume Next
   hasPlayer = (IsObject(CreateObject(
     "ShockwaveFlash.ShockwaveFlash." & playerversion & "")))
   If hasPlayer = true Then Exit Do
   playerversion = playerversion - 1
  Loop
  Flash_checkForActiveX = hasPlayer
End Function
</SCRIPT>

And here is the conditional version of the same script. It checks first that the browser is supported, as well as that the system is WIN IE. Only then it writes our the VBScript to check that the player is installed and its version is supported. Here is the code:

if(supportedBrowser && winIEpass) {
  document.write(
    '<script language=VBScript>' + '\n' +
    'Function Flash_checkForActiveX()' + '\n' +
    'Dim hasPlayer, playerversion' + '\n' +
    'hasPlayer = false' + '\n' +
    'playerversion = 10' + '\n' +
    'Do While playerversion >= minPlayer' + '\n' +
    'On Error Resume Next' + '\n' +
    'hasPlayer =  (IsObject(CreateObject(\
        "ShockwaveFlash.ShockwaveFlash.\" & playerversion & \"\")))' + '\n' +
    'If hasPlayer = true Then Exit Do' + '\n' +
    'playerversion = playerversion - 1' + '\n' +
    'Loop' + '\n' +
    'Flash_checkForActiveX = hasPlayer' + '\n' +
    'End Function' + '\n' +
    '<\/script>'
  );
}

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• Computing Percent Loaded of a Flash Movie
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• Looping an SWF
• Controlling the Movie's Picture Quality
• Checking if Flash is Playing