Microsoft ships the Eolas update for Internet Explorer

Microsoft ships the Eolas update for Internet Explorer

Software giants Microsoft have finally shipped the Eolas patent related update for all the Internet Explorer users to fix the controversial technology used to render multimedia content on web pages.

This non-security patch was released Feb. 28 as an optional download for IE6 on Windows XP and Microsoft Windows Server 2003 operating system. This update became necessary as part of the multimillion-dollar patent spat with Chicago-based Eolas Technologies.

This update would mean that IE users won’t be able to directly interact with Microsoft ActiveX controls loaded by the APPLET, EMBED, or OBJECT elements. Users would be required to take extra effort to load them on millions of web pages around the web.

Some of the popular plug-ins, which would be affected by this update, includes Adobe’s Reader and Flash, Apple’s QuickTime Player, Microsoft’s Windows Media Player, RealNetworks’ RealPlayer and Sun’s JVM.

Microsoft however also plans to vigorously appeal the $521 million patent infringement ruling won by Eolas and the University of California over this patent abuse lawsuit.