Making sure Applets work

Don't want to lose site visitors

[jgar]

We use some applets that are useful for site stickiness.

With the confusion over Microsoft and Java Virtual Machine, it is more and more likely that some users (especially those new to the Internet) will simply see a page that Doesn't work, and will go away.

How is it possible to detect if their machine can run applets, and convince them to download Java VM from Sun Microsystems if necessary?

It was never so complicated, because virtually every PC was shipped with Java VM - now it's becoming an issue.

Any ideas?

[txbakers]

I recently removed the last applet from my main site. Can't be bothered with the slow load time or the issue of VMs anymore.