Internet Explorer stops animated gifs when a link is clicked

I've got to find a workaround somehow...

[MatthewHSE]

I just found out (okay, I probably knew before but never actually came to grips with it) that IE stops playing animated .gif's when you click a link to visit another page. Firefox, on the other hand, plays the .gif right up until data from the next page starts to come in.

I have a very good reason (related to usability) to desire strongly that IE would continue playing a particular .gif the same way Firefox does. Is there anything I can do to accomplish this, or am I up a creek without a paddle?

Thanks,

Matthew

[encyclo]

The biggest difficulty is that you can't be sure that the GIF is going to animate at all. Even in Firefox there are controls which can disactivate the animation after one cycle. This is not counting those who won't see the graphic at all.

It is already a usability and accessibility problem if your design is dependent on an animated GIF. You will probably be better-off long term if you rethink your approach to presenting the information - or at least look at the methodology.