Question

If I run this code on IE8 or lower, I get this error: Object doesn't support this property or method

var hasFlash = ((typeof navigator.plugins != "undefined" && typeof navigator.plugins["Shockwave Flash"] == "object") || (window.ActiveXObject && (new ActiveXObject("ShockwaveFlash.ShockwaveFlash")) != false));

Answer 1

Maybe the new ActiveXObject part is failing, because ActiveXObject is (in your current setup) not anything that the new operator can be applied to — or ‘ShockwaveFlash.ShockwaveFlash’ isn’t a valid input and therefore an exception is thrown.

You can however easily rewrite your code to address that problem:

var hasFlash = (function() {
    if (typeof navigator.plugins != "undefined" && typeof navigator.plugins["Shockwave Flash"] == "object") {
        return true;
    } else if (typeof window.ActiveXObject != "undefined") {
        try {
            new ActiveXObject("ShockwaveFlash.ShockwaveFlash");
            return true;
        } catch (e) { }
    }

    return false;
})();