I'm working on a new site with a lot of javascript in it. It's a beautiful piece of work in Firefox, but IE throws up a warning about "active content".
How do you guys deal with that? What do you do so IE users don't run away screaming?

There is nothing harmful in the code, it just displays pictures of the parts available when someone puts in their furnace model number. They click the picture to buy.
Is there a trick to get IE to not be so freaky about javascript?

You should only see that sort of alert when previewing locally. Once you upload, that error will go away.

Ok, that makes me feel better. Thanks Scott!

When I test my site in IE (not within CC editor) I'm asked via painful dialogue boxes whether I want to use active content.
My javascript content is used for navigation and nav still works OK if it's turned off although image-based links won't be highlighted on mouseover.
(Microsoft is obviously reacting to complaints about IE security issues. I presume this is changeable in IE's option settings but I haven't gone looking yet).

2 pages on my current site have a small-print line near the top: Note: the "active content" and "scripts" on this site assist with navigation, they can not harm your computer! http://www.drivingnt.com/services.html
I'm not sure if I'm doing the right thing here though, would a paranoid surfer think "aha they're luring me into switching javascript on but I'm not going to fall for that one!", does it give my site an untrustworthy look?

The new site I'm working on is similar to the old but the home page has a vertical nav panel on the left, if javascript is off an image saying Turning on "active content" or "javascript" will open the Fast Navigate panel below.
If javascript is on, 2 small scripts enclose the image between
<span style="display:none;"></span>
tags to stop it being dispayed, and replaces it with a script-based drop down menu.
If a surfer elects to leave javascript off they will still have a CSS based strip menu at the top for normal navigation, and I've just bought CC Sitemapper so there will be yet another nav option.

This system seems to work OK when I try it, I haven't identified any problems yet.
Furnace_Guy perhaps you could display a little note encouraging IE users to turn javascript on (say why it's a good idea) and have it "not displayed" if they have javascript on.

You shouldn't need to post that message as the active content dialog will not appear when the script is coming from the remote web server and not your local machine.

Personally, I would be suspicious if I saw a message telling me there's nothing to worry about here.

To view locally while testing pages in IE8.

Tools > Internet Options > Advanced > Scroll down to > Security and put a tick in "Allow active content to run in files on My Computer" > Apply > Save > Get out, restart IE8 and have no more problems.

Or you can just insert this comment after the doctype.

Oooops!!!
I use FF as my default browser, it looks like I've never once looked at my site onlline using IE!
Thanks Scott, Tom Philip, I didn't realise that IE treats local content differently than online. Perhaps I need to browse through the options a lot more.

Yes I thought so too, and now that I know better I've removed the messages from my site.