Forcing a Full Shockwave Install

Many of your may or may not know, but the install Shockwave process just changed a few weeks back. Now, when a user without any version of Shockwave at all encounters Shockwave in Internet Explorer for the first time, they are given a bare-bones install of Shockwave. This install doesn’t include any of the Xtras, even ones as commonly used as Text, Font, Flash, Multiuser and 3D. The result is a much smaller install, but one incapable of playing almost any Shockwave content out there. But when the user firts needs these Xtras, usually immediately, they get them installed quietly. However, I came across some situtations where some movies fail to download the needed Xtras. This is easily fixed by having the user get those Xtras first by visiting another movie. Or, you can simply force a full install of Shockwave by adding the following piece to your OBJECT tag:
<param name=swInstallType value=full>
For non-IE users, you can direct them to the “full installers” rather than the “slim installers” at http://www.macromedia.com/shockwave/download/alternates/#sp
Unless you are developing content that is specifically designed to work with no Xtras, I recommend including the <param name=swInstallType value=full> parameter in your OBJECT tag.