[thelist] Internet Explorer Install on Demand

George Dillon <> Evolt! evolt at georgedillon.com
Sun Apr 28 07:31:01 CDT 2002


> >  ........ Can I compel my user to download this font

> Your question has been sitting up there for quite a while with no takers

Perhaps because the whole idea of *compelling* visitors to a web site to
download *anything* sounds disturbing and many on this list would regard
such a practise as evil.  Thankfully it is not possible.  OK fonts are no
big deal, but think what else could be involved if websites really *could*
force downloads upon their users and you'll quickly see that if this were
always possible the web would be so dangerous as to be unworkable.

> I some times arrive at sites... written in characters which my machine
> does not recognise e.g. Japanese and Chinese sites...
> ... a dialog box appears with "Internet Explorer Install on
> Demand" in its title bar...
> "To display this page correctly, you need to download and install the
> following components.  Loading . . . please wait"
> The question is, how this dialogue box is made to appear and ...

I may (probably will) be corrected on this, but the situation you describe
strikes me as being the web working more or less the way it should.  Those
dialogues are thrown up by a Microsoft I.E. set-up-update routine which, as
Mark's reply indicates, relies on ActiveX scripting.

Since this can (and should) be turned off in I.E. or set to prompt by
(un)checking the appropriate choices under Tools > Internet Options >
Security > Custom Level, your desire to force the download upon your
visitors will not be 100% reliable.

> from where it downloads those "components"?

These components are included as part of I.E. so it would be logical to
assume they are downloaded from Microsoft. However, they *may* also be
available with the original installation files, and if your users really
require Urdu language support it's likely they will be using a version which
includes the necessary files.  If they have not installed them on set up
they can do so by clicking on Start > Settings > Control Panel > Add/Remove
Programs > Microsoft I.E (+version no) > Add/Remove > Add a component > OK
and then checking the appropriate box(es) under Multi-Language Support >
Next.  If the needed fonts are included in their set-up files they will then
be installed.  If not they will be asked if they want to download them from
the internet (i.e. Microsoft).

For security-minded users it would be much better to offer instructions on
how to acquire the files they need than to (vainly) try to force a download.

> For instance I have a font "Urdu Web". It is Windows based font and deals
> with Urdu language characters.

A quick search on Google at [ mind the wrap ]

http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=%22Urdu+Web%22+font+download&hl=en&btnG=Goo
gle+Search&meta=

points to 100 pages.  The top page in the listing offers "the Urdu Web™
font" (and others) for free but states that it can only be used with pages
created using ParsNegar II.  If that's what you're using, why not offer a
link to that page and let them deal with the download issue (and bandwidth)?

OTOH This page:

http://www.mrc-cbu.cam.ac.uk/Language/DMDX/paradigms/parad10.html

states that "In order to view this page properly you will need to download
and install the true type arabic font. This is, in fact, a font called "Urdu
Web" that does not need a special keyboard driver so can be used in standard
latin alphabet versions of Microsoft packages."

So the font you are using may not be what it says it is!

HTH

George Dillon




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