Silverlight execution is blocked due to the installed version. Microsoft Silverlight, what is this program and is it needed? Let's find out! Do you need Silverlight

Microsoft Silverlight is an XML and .NET based technology originally intended to replace Adobe Flash. Another, similar, competing development is JavaFX, launched almost simultaneously. What does Silverlight allow developers to do? Having experience with XAML in programming, use it to its fullest, allowing yourself to manipulate vector graphics, animation and video. Silverlight itself is subset Windows Presentation Foundation with all the above features. It also includes a full version of the .NET CLR, called CoreCLR, which allows you to write in Silverlight in any of the .NET programming languages.

Although Silverlight and Flash have much in common, the functionality and capabilities of these two development environments differ markedly

Silverlight is a cross-platform development environment and is implemented for Windows operating systems, Mac OS 10.4 and higher. The compatibility problem at the moment is the partial lack of support for Opera, which is used by a huge number of users. Here Flash has an undoubted advantage - it is completely cross-platform. However, the recently released Silverlight 2 Beta 1 works on the latest version of Opera 9.50 for Windows. But, of course, for complete stability you will have to wait for the final version.
The first beta version of Microsoft Silverlight was released in December 2006. First stable version– in mid-2007. Unlike most Microsoft products, Silverlight has a portion of the Dynamic Language Runtime available under OpenSource code.
A few days ago, on May 16, under the auspices of the project Mono developers have released an open source version of the Silverlight plugin for operating systems Linux. This development is called Moonlight. More about her below.

On March 5th of this year, a beta version of Silverlight 2.0 was released, included in Microsoft Visual Studio 2008. The latter has the following useful features:

Templates for Visual Basic and C# projects.
Intelligence and code generators for XAML.
Debugging applications.
Web reference support.
Integration with Expression Blend.

But in the very second Silverlight, many useful and pleasant additions were made, such as:

Developers can write in any .NET language: VB, C#, JavaScript, IronPython and IronRuby.
Easier to embed UI elements (as part of WPF UI Framework), added rich controls ( TextBox, CheckBox, RadioButton, Slider, ScrollViewer, Calendar, DatePicker and so on.).
‘rich networking’ support: calling support REST, WS*/SOAP, POX, RSS and other standard HTTP services. I’ll immediately mention, once again, cross-domain access to various resources.
Rich Base Class Library, including huge functionality (collections, IO, streams, globalization, XML, etc.), as well as the ability to use API for HTML DOM/JavaScript integration with .NET code.
Silverlight 2 will not require you to install the .NET Framework on your computer, because the installer (by the way, its weight is much higher than the first version - 4.3MB) has everything you need.

Since we mentioned Silverlight in the light of comparison with Flash, it’s worth taking a look at what the differences between these creation tools are. Rich Internet Applications(functionally rich applications).
Now Adobe has released a direct competitor to Silverlight - this is a language and development environment Flex, we will dedicate a separate article to it someday. And here is a list comparing Silverlight and Flash:

SilverLight does not require installation of a video codec to play .WMF video format
Flash requires a codec to play .WMF video. There are also restrictions on playing other video formats.

Silverlight supports full screen video.
Flash does not support scalable full-screen video.

Silverlight uses an animation model called WPF, which is based on time rather than frame animation.
Flash uses frame-by-frame animation.

Silverlight does not support GIF and BMP formats. Only JPG and PNG image file formats are supported.
Flash currently supports all graphic formats.

Silverlight allows you to embed text into your project, and install it with object loading.
Working with fonts in Flash is quite difficult.

Silverlight uses XAML, and it is still declarative.
Flash - ActionScript

Silverlight does not yet allow you to work with pixel graphics and use various effects and filters.
Flash allows you to do this already from version 8

Silverlight uses XAML which is based on text information and can be easily modified using simple XML objects.
Flash uses binary (binary) forms of recording.

Silverlight allows you to use various technologies when creating a project - JavaScript, C#.
Flash only allows you to use ActionScript programmatically.

Using Silverlight Streaming you can create a full-fledged video website using a free service.
No streaming service is available for free in Flash.

Today, Silverlight has practically gotten rid of its inferiority and is a completely cross-platform application.

Despite the fact that the comparison between Silverlight and Flash is a very common occurrence, it does not seem true to everyone. Indeed, Silverlight can be used for approximately the same purposes as Flash, but the former is more like a modern lightweight analogue of Java applets with support for advanced UI creation technologies. The general trend, let's call it the goal, of Silverlight technologies is a soft “thickening” of the web client and the departure of currently popular technologies Javascript/AJAX/Flash.
In the same vector they develop, but with some differences. If the main goal AIR&Prism is " domestication of the Internet", then Silverlight tries completely tame the web.
Microsoft Silverlight itself is implemented very elegantly. When it was created, it was clear to everyone that writing a browser plugin to support an analogue of Java applets, only based on .NET, was not difficult. Naturally, the framework itself is quite heavy and not every user has it installed. Therefore, Microsoft programmers did the following - they implemented an applet that is responsible for Silverlight 2.0 in the browser and contains an impressive part of the framework necessary for the normal operation of Silverlight applications. And, at the same time, it weighs less than 5 MB, although the website says: 1 MB (here the employees of the Redmond giant embellished it - they love it).

For Silverlight development you will need:

Plugin for the browser. Its beta version can be downloaded. Versions available for Windows (IE, Opera, Firefox) and Mac OS X.
Silverlight SDK, containing tools and documentation. Available for download.
Silverlight Tools for Visual Studio is a convenient add-on that allows you to develop SL projects directly in the Visual Studio IDE. The Express version is not yet supported, but this feature will be in the final version of the product.
Microsoft Expression Blend 2.5 March 2008 Preview is something between a development environment and a graphical editor for developing WPF applications.

Among the interesting developments directly related to Silverlight, it is worth noting the recent release of the closed beta version of Popfly.

Popfly is a Silverlight application that allows the user to create mashups, widgets and other applications using a simple web interface. All such projects appeared on the wave of success Yahoo Pipes– a tool for creating the same mashups and mini-applications using drag'n'drop interface. Microsoft entered this market niche in a timely manner and, according to the authoritative TechCrunch, is now ahead of all its competitors.
And it is ahead of them for one simple reason - providing more opportunities. In Popfly you can create mashups, applications, web pages, widgets, and combine all this into a social network (as part of the Live Spaces platform). In Live Spaces, in turn, you can team up with other users and application creators. In general, a comprehensive connection. In addition, recently PopFly has been able not only to “make friends” with services, but also to create “casual” games, and even those who have never done this before can do this.
Initially for a beginner game developer A set of more than 15 game templates, hundreds of pictures, animations, sounds and other elements of future games is available. All this is created and edited in a clear visual mode. You can also play there.

The interface makes you freeze in amazement. Creation and management occurs by dragging and connecting blocks, as shown in the screenshot:

Each block acts as a module that uses the web service API. Today there are several dozen such blocks, which provides ample opportunities to work with various services.

As promised - a few words about Moonlight. This is the result of joint cooperation Microsoft and Novell, who last fall entered into an agreement, the main idea of ​​which was: porting the Silverlight application to operating systems Linux.
And just recently Moonlight 1.0 was released. It allows you to run applications written in Silverlight 1.0, but now, in parallel with the Silverlight 1.1 Alpha - Silverlight 2 Beta 1 branch, work is underway on the next versions of Moonlight.

Another interesting detail regarding Microsoft Silverlight is the launch of the first channel Internet broadcasting based on this technology. Since October 9, 2007, a wide audience can become familiar with the benefits of this solution. The contractor was the company SMS Media Solution, which was assisted by the Russian representative office of Microsoft. Well, the last small achievement was the live broadcast of the inauguration of the new Russian President Dmitry Medvedev using... what? Silverlight. The broadcast could be embedded in any website that supports iframe, by simply inserting a piece of code.

Editor of the authoritative online publication ReadWriteWeb, Richard McManus, in his forecast for 2008, noted that technologies like Silverlight will gain more and more fans: developers and users. Especially taking into account the fact that Microsoft was not lazy and ported Silverlight to mobile devices. In March, Nokia announced support for the technology in its S40 and S60 series phones, as well as the Nokia 770 and n8x0. The add-on is available as a plug-in for browsers of supported platforms.

Looking at some examples of how Silverlight applications work, you are surprised - nothing like this existed until recently

Naturally, not even every fifth person will try to create their own application in Silverlight just to see its capabilities with their own eyes. In addition, how to see with your own eyes the capabilities of Silverlight as a platform for developing interactive business solutions.
For this reason, Microsoft launched a site for hospital operations. Patient Journey Demonstrator is a project of the British branch of Microsoft, already ready for preliminary public viewing. This is not the final version, but the main functionality is available and is of some interest.
The application consists of three parts, together representing “one day in the life of a medical institution from the perspective of various users.” The fully interactive interface guides you through the entire application, and a built-in “guide” shows you how to take advantage of all the features.
There really is something to see, we can at least note the work with cardiograms using technology DeepZoom– a lot of graphic information that is easy to use.

Until recently, Microsoft promoted its product mainly through partners and achieved some success in creating an alternative to Flash technology. At a minimum, the Silverlight plugin can be installed in any browser, but critical mass has not yet been achieved. And a few days ago the corporation dealt a powerful blow that could change the situation.
Along with the start of testing the new site Microsoft Download Center, which was created using Silverlight, each user visiting the resource will receive an offer to download and install the Silverlight plugin; otherwise, some of the content and functionality of the site will be unavailable to him.

Silverlight Applications

Silverlight uses traditional browser enhancement technology - plug-ins .

The benefit of the add-on model is that to view content created by different people and companies, the user only needs to install a single component - a Silverlight add-on. To do this, the user just needs to download one small file from the Microsoft website for free and enter confirmation in a single dialog box. The whole procedure takes no more than a minute. Once the add-on is installed, the browser will be able to handle any content that is compatible with it without user intervention.

The figure below shows two views of a page containing a Silverlight object. Above is the page the user sees when the Silverlight add-in is not installed. At this point, the user can click the Click now to install button to be taken to the Microsoft website, where they will be prompted to install the add-on. Below is the same page after installing the Silverlight add-on:

Currently, the Silverlight add-on is installed on 75% of Internet-connected computers (including desktops and mobile devices). If you consider only computers running Windows and Internet Explorer, the Silverlight percentage will be higher. These figures are impressive, but Flash add-ons are still installed on more web devices (96%).

Silverlight System Requirements

It is very important that any web technology is compatible with as wide a range of computers and devices as possible. Silverlight technology is currently under development, but it is already compatible with most operating systems:

Silverlight 5 runs on computers running Windows 8, Windows 7, Windows Vista, and Windows XP. The minimum versions of browsers that support Silverlight are Internet Explorer 6, Firefox 1.5 and Chrome 4.0. The add-ons also work under Windows 2000, but only with Internet Explorer 6. Other browsers such as Opera and Safari (for Windows) also currently support the Silverlight add-on, but it is not yet documented for them.

Silverlight add-ins work on Mac computers running OS X 10.4.8 or later. Must be an Intel processor (PowerPC hardware is not acceptable). For Silverlight, the minimum browser versions are Firefox 2 and Safari 3. Silverlight applications are not supported on Apple mobile devices, including iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad.

Silverlight 5 add-ons do not currently work on Linux, but the Mono team is creating an open source library for Silverlight (the Microsoft-endorsed Moonlight project). The latest stable official version of Moonlight supports Silverlight 2 applications, but a beta version has now been released that supports Silverlight 4. Progress is slow, so it is not yet known when Moonlight will support Silverlight 5, if at all.

Silverlight is one of two officially supported application development technologies for Windows Phone 7 and 8 (the other is Microsoft XNA).

Installing the Silverlight add-in requires a small file (less than 10 MB) that is easy to download, so installing the Silverlight add-in is no more difficult than installing Flash.

Silverlight and Flash

Currently, the most successful and popular browser add-on, Adobe Flash, is installed in more than 96% of browsers around the world. Flash technology has a long history - more than ten years. Flash was originally a simple tool for adding animated graphics, but over time it has gradually evolved into a powerful interactive content development platform.

For .NET developers, building websites using Flash content comes naturally. However, Flash requires separate development tools - a completely different programming language ( ActionScript) and other programming environment ( Flex).

The worst part is that there are no easy ways to integrate Flash content with .NET server code. In particular, it takes a lot of effort to call a Flash object to a .NET component. Using .NET server code to render Flash content (for example, to create an ASP.NET control that manipulates Flash content) is an even more difficult task.

Compared to Flash, Silverlight makes it much easier to manipulate .NET content. Silverlight's main goal is to enable the creation of applications that are as powerful and cross-platform as Flash, based on the world-class .NET programming platform. This allows developers to write Silverlight client code in the same language (C# or VB) as the server code. In addition, developers can use the same abstractions in Silverlight client code that they use in server code, including I/O streams, controls, collections, generic objects, and LINQ facilities.

Silverlight and HTML5

When Silverlight technology was created, it was assumed that its main purpose would be the development of powerful web pages, and its main competitor was Adobe Flash technology. However, after several versions of Silverlight were released, the world has changed. Adobe Flash apps are still supported on virtually every desktop computer, but they have been left out of popular Apple products like the iPhone and iPad. As a result, the mobile device niche has begun to gravitate towards other solutions, such as single-platform, dedicated applications (running on only one operating system) and HTML5.

At the moment, everyone agrees that HTML5 is the future of the Internet (but not now, but someday later, and when exactly is unknown). However, the features promised by the HTML5 platform in the indefinite future are already implemented in Flash and Silverlight technologies. In addition, Flash and Silverlight provide many additional tools. For some applications, these additional features are not very necessary.

Without a doubt, HTML5's position will strengthen over time. But until then, developers are forced to choose between tools that are supported now (Silverlight and Flash) but will never be supported on mobile devices, and tools that are not supported now but will be supported on all devices, including mobile devices, in the future. In the latter case, the developer will prefer HTML5. This dilemma of choosing between powerful and affordable tools. Silverlight is powerful and HTML5 is affordable because it is now supported by all desktop browsers (but not all mobile devices).

Because of these trends, many Silverlight developers are unsure about the technology's place in the future of the Internet. Since the future is quite uncertain at the moment, consider the following factors:

HTML5 implementation and support are not yet complete. In particular, not all HTML5 features are supported in Internet Explorer. In IE 10, some HTML5 features were promised but never arrived. Many features are available in IE 9, but IE 8 has almost no HTML5 features. This is too bad, because IE 8 is still the most popular browser for the Windows XP operating system, which shows no signs of leaving the scene (it is still installed on most desktop computers). For these reasons, HTML5 remains a less supported technology than Silverlight, and this situation will not change for at least several years.

Silverlight has features that HTML5 doesn't. Even browsers that fully support HTML5 fall far behind Silverlight in some key areas. They do not provide powerful capabilities for streaming video, hardware graphics acceleration, calling Windows components, accessing files, running applications outside the browser, surfing the network, etc. It's hard to imagine that the HTML5 platform will ever be able to compete with some of Silverlight's specialized features, such as PivotViewer elements, which combine animation, data filtering, and image scaling into one easy-to-use package.

Silverlight is based on high-level APIs. It's possible to create applications without using tools such as data binding, templates, and styles, but they allow you to do so quickly and efficiently. Many of the tasks that can be accomplished in HTML5 require a lot of discipline and careful planning. They can be solved using JavaScript, but its syntax is not strongly typed, making it nearly impossible to build large applications in JavaScript. Additionally, in JavaScript, all animation routines must be written by hand, and multi-threading support is extremely clunky, making it difficult to perform complex tasks in the background.

Silverlight is supported by high-level development tools. Visual Studio makes developing Silverlight applications as easy as regular desktop applications. Expression Blend makes it easy to create complex user interfaces with powerful graphics and animation.

Silverlight integrates easily with ASP.NET. In particular. Silverlight allows you to submit queries to a back-end database via a web service. Because of this, many experts believe that even after HTML5 takes over the Internet, Silverlight will remain the technology of choice for closed corporate networks.

The future of the Silverlight platform is currently quite unclear. It may remain the platform of choice for .NET-based enterprise application developers, or it may gradually evolve into a niche tool for creating powerful computer games and video players. One thing is certain: Silverlight will never replace HTML as the primary language for building traditional open source websites. However, this was never planned.

Silverlight and Metro/Windows 8

When Microsoft announced that Windows 8 would be based on a new programming model for powerful client applications (called Metro), development of the Silverlight platform came to a halt. Many developers have wondered: will a new programming model become Silverlight's killer in the near future?

The answer to this question is a categorical “No!” Metro technology is designed to make it easier to create a completely different type of application: lightweight, touch-sensitive, and data-intensive. These applications are designed for future generations of Windows 8 tablets. Metro technology (like its close cousin WPF) competes with the iPad platform. Metro applications cannot run on non-Microsoft platforms, or indeed on any version of Windows other than Windows 8. For this reason, Metro technology is not a competitor or of interest to Silverlight developers.

In the future, Silverlight's niche may narrow. It seems to be sandwiched between cross-platform HTML5 applications, which are gradually gaining more and more market share, and Metro and iPad applications for mobile devices. However, Silverlight currently occupies (and will continue to occupy for a long time) the vast space between these technologies.

Silverlight and WPF

One of the most interesting aspects of Silverlight technology is that it borrows from .NET the powerful WPF model used to create complex client interfaces.

WPF technology is designed for creating complex Windows applications. WPF not only simplifies the development process with convenient high-level tools, but also provides faster performance by rendering any content directly through the DirectX pipeline.

Obviously, Silverlight cannot duplicate all of the features in WPF because many of them depend on operating system capabilities, including Windows-specific drivers and DirectX features. Yet, rather than inventing an entirely new set of controls and classes for the client side, the Silverlight developers used a subset of the WPF model. If you have experience with WPF, you'll be surprised at how similar Silverlight is to WPF. Below are a few common features:

To define the Silverlight user interface (the collection of elements that fill the content area), you use XAML markup, just like WPF. Silverlight can even display data using the same data binding syntax as WPF.

Silverlight borrows many of the basic controls and templating mechanism (for changing the appearance of standard controls) from WPF.

Silverlight uses shapes, paths, transforms, and brushes to draw 2D images. All these features are almost the same as in WPF.

The Silverlight workbench provides a declarative animation model that is based on a storyboard sequence and works in the same way as the WPF animation model.

The MediaElement class is used to play audio and video files, just like in WPF.

Silverlight development

Silverlight 1 was a very modest version. It included support for 2D drawing and multimedia playback. It didn't even have a CLR runtime driver or a .NET language compiler, so developers were forced to write code in JavaScript.

Silverlight 2 has been radically changed. It added the common language runtime, a subset of .NET Framework classes, and a WPF-based user interface model. As a result, Silverlight 2 became one of the most anticipated technologies in Microsoft's history.

Subsequent versions of Silverlight are not as ambitious as Silverlight 2. Silverlight 5 maintains the Silverlight 2 development model and adds several carefully selected new features. Let's list the advantages of the latest version:

Silverlight 5 applications launch faster, support 64-bit browsers, and provide clearer display of anti-aliased small fonts.

Improved print model by adding PostScript drivers. As a result, printing is faster and requires less memory.

Silverlight provides the application with part of the Microsoft XNA framework for creating XBox games. Added a powerful low-level interface for displaying 3D scenes. Most importantly, all calculations are performed in hardware, providing significant performance improvements. You can also note the reduction in audio latency by supporting Microsoft XNA tools when playing audio files. This is especially useful in video games where latency is intolerable.

You can now play a video clip faster or slower without changing the tone of the audio. This allows you to view content (such as a video lesson) at the selected speed.

Added a control that allows you to view huge collections of data. One control combines many functions, such as image scaling, data filtering, and transition animation. The best thing is that when using this control, the developer needs to write almost no code.

You can now troubleshoot data binding errors by setting breakpoints in binding expressions.

Silverlight applications running outside the browser can now display additional windows like Windows desktop applications. You don't even need advanced access rights to do this.

Applications running with elevated permissions can access any files on the hard drive that the user has access to (except those that require administrator privileges). On a Windows computer, you can use P/Invoke calls to access legacy C functions from Windows API libraries.

Silverlight 5 Backward Compatibility

Can an existing Silverlight application developed in a previous version run on a computer that has the Silverlight 5 add-in installed? This is not as simple a question as it might seem at first glance, because Silverlight 5 introduces some subtle changes and fixes a number of bugs that can affect the way your application works and even change its behavior.

To prevent changes from affecting existing applications, Silverlight 5 uses the quirks (non-standard). When a Silverlight 5 add-in loads an application compiled for previous versions of Silverlight, it automatically enables a custom mode that closely emulates the runtime behavior of the previous version of Silverlight.

For more information about the subtle differences between Silverlight 5 and Silverlight 4, see the article Ensuring That Your Silverlight Applications Work with Silverlight 5 on MSDN.

I wanted to ask Microsoft specialists, because all other methods have been exhausted, no one can help. The problem is that I wanted to install Silverlight (more precisely, I don’t really need it as such :), but Netflix doesn’t work without it).

Yes, I’ll tell you right away, the system is 7 32 bit. Several browsers are installed - IE10, FireFox, Chrome.

And now any installation attempt ends in failure. I tried to run it from different browsers, without a browser at all, silverlight.exe - the result was the same - “Could not install.” Moreover, at first the “Additional information” button did not work at all. Then it suddenly started working and began displaying on the Microsoft website with the message:

Message ID: 1622

The installation log file could not be written. Verify that the Temp folder exists and that you can write to it.

I don't understand why this is such nonsense. I installed so many programs, and not a single one complained. There are no problems with the file system. The windows\Temp directory exists and is accessible. Moreover, I even created a special C:\TEMP for him, I thought maybe he would complain about it. The same.

Accordingly, the question is: what can prevent the program from installing? I read somewhere on the site here that this could possibly be related to the system language? But why doesn't this stop all other programs? Is there any way to install this crap yet? I'm just curious, after all.

Microsoft Silverlight is not a program. On the one hand, it is a technology for developing multimedia software; on the other hand, it is a platform for developing this software.

Official Microsoft Silverlight logo

Why is it needed?

Silverlight was developed by Microsoft as a broader, safer and more productive technology than its direct competitor. The purpose of both technologies is identical, namely the development and support of applications with vector, raster 2D and 3D graphics, audio and video clips. It is a platform for RIA applications.

RIAs are web applications that are downloaded to the user’s device for execution. While working, they can complete components from the Internet.

Silverlight combines 4 of the most important modern web components.

It was assumed that Silverligth would be deployed on each operating platform, but in fact it appeared only on Windows, Mac OS X, Symbian. Cross-platform also implies that an application developed using Silverligth should work and look good both on the screen of a personal computer and on the display of a tablet or smartphone.

A key component of the Silverligth platform is XALM, a markup language. It allows you to include text in your application that is indexed by search engines (Google, ).

Silverlight applications (starting from version 2) are part of the .NET technology, which allows them to be developed in any of the platform languages ​​(C#, Object C++, Python).

What do you need to install

For a programmer, installing Silverlight involves deploying the appropriate development environment on your PC: Visual Studio on Windows and Mac OS X, and Mono on Linux.

For the user, Silverlight is a module or plugin for a web browser. To use its capabilities, you need to download a browser that supports it.

Do you need Silverlight

If you are a user, then the answer is clear. No. In 2012, the technology was officially recognized as unpromising and obsolete. And today no modern browser supports it (except Edge).

Although there are several hundred powerful enterprise solutions on Silverligth, the number of applications is dwindling every month. Microsoft experts suggest that by 2021 there will not be a single Silverlight-based application left.

The user should not worry that some web component will be inaccessible to him. Software manufacturers either long ago replaced components written in Silverlight in their software products, or implemented support for both Silverlight and Flash.

Hello everyone) Today I will tell you about a plugin called Microsoft Silverlight, which is needed for any multimedia to work on a website. Well, that is, some kind of animation, audio and video playback, in general, Microsoft Silverlight is needed for all this! But what’s interesting is, as I understand it, it’s something like Adobe Flash Player, only from Microsoft, now that’s interesting! That is, with the help of this Silverlight, a video can be played on a website without using regular Flash!

Here's an unexpected joke, that's what I found out. So I don’t know whether you know it or not, but I will write - in 2015, support for NPAPI format plugins was disabled in many browsers. And that’s why Microsoft Silverlight no longer works in browsers such as Opera, Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome! Because of which there was a mountain of dissatisfaction on the Internet and all that, many users began to look for an option on how to enable NPAPI, but alas, this is no longer possible. However, you can use the old version, for example, I used the old version of Chrome and you can enable NPAPI there! If you're interested, I wrote about this.

Microsoft Silverlight - Debriefing

Some users write that they installed Microsoft Silverlight and their browser stopped lagging when playing videos. I don’t know how true this is, but I think it’s quite possible. However, many users still write that this thing is of zero use, they downloaded it, installed it and didn’t notice the difference. Well, I understand all this, especially considering that Microsoft Silverlight no longer works in many browsers..

I also read one comment that the browser may freeze due to a site that uses Microsoft Silverlight, and all because the browser no longer supports this thing! Maybe this is why it freezes, because there is something on the site that the browser does not support. Well, well, this is logical..)

As I understand it, at the moment Microsoft Silverlight only works in the Internet Explorer browser. If you use this browser, then you may not need to remove Microsoft Silverlight, but if you don’t use it, then I think you can remove it. Well, think for yourself, this thing is no longer supported by popular browsers, but YouTube generally wants to switch to a format WITHOUT Flash, using only HTML5 for video.. That’s how things are..

I also have this Microsoft Silverlight, and not just, but three pieces - regular, version 4 SDK and version 5 SDK. I don’t know where it came from, I definitely didn’t install this thing myself..

In general, I don’t know about you, but I’ll delete this thing)

So, as I understand it, this thing is installed in these folders:

C:\Program Files\Microsoft Silverlight\
C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Silverlight\
C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Silverlight\
C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\Microsoft\Silverlight\
C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\RIA Services\v1.0\Libraries\Silverlight\

In general, not only in these folders, maybe somewhere else. To check, open the system drive and where the search field is, that is, in the upper right corner, then write the word Silverlight there and you will see a lot of things, this is what I have:

A few thoughts out loud. It may be worth searching not by the word Silverlight, but by the phrase Microsoft Silverlight. I think so, because maybe the Microsoft Silverlight program is one thing, but there may be some other program whose name includes the word Silverlight.. Therefore, to be more precise, it is better to use the full name, that is, Microsoft Silverlight!

How to completely remove Microsoft Silverlight from your computer?

So, now about the removal. You can delete it either simply or using a certain deleter. I mean with the help of , its trick is that it will help you remove the program and will also help you remove the remnants of the program in Windows. In general, it removes and cleans it later. But today I’ll show you how to remove it manually and then how to manually clean Windows from residues..)

Now just a moment. In general, I advise you to make a restore point before deleting. This is not difficult, in the end you will protect yourself from glitches, this is, so to speak, a good insurance policy in case something goes wrong. I already wrote how to do it in an article about it, I advise you to look at it.

So, to uninstall you need to click Start and select Control Panel there:

If you have Windows 10, then cool, no doubt, but there this item is in another menu, to call it, press the Win + X buttons!

Then we find the Programs and Features icon there, here it is, launch it:

A window will open with all installed programs; don’t just delete anything here! Well, that is, don’t delete just anything, because there may be glitches and all sorts of mistakes! In this list, find Microsoft Silverlight, right-click and select Uninstall:

Then the following message will pop up, here you click Yes (well, if you haven’t changed your mind, of course):

Then the following window will appear:

The entire removal probably took me about ten seconds. But, in the window, well, where the list of software is, I personally still have Microsoft Silverlight versions 4 SDK and 5 SDK:

They also need to be removed, but they are removed in the same way as the first version, where there is no SDK. In general, I think that you will not have problems with this)

How to clean Windows after uninstalling Microsoft Silverlight?

In general, you uninstalled Microsoft Silverlight, but it is possible that there are remnants of this program in Windows. You can clean Windows of these residues, see how to do it. So first I'll show you how to remove file junk. This means you open the system drive and there in the upper right in the search field write the name of the program, that is, Microsoft Silverlight (if you just use the word Silverlight, the results will be less accurate):

You will find folders of files that belong to the Microsoft Silverlight component, although we have already removed it. All this CAN be deleted, BUT before that, make a checkpoint, here’s a look at how to create it. Whether to create it or not is up to you; there may be jambs after removing the remains, but this is rare. But if anything happens, then using a previously created restore point, you can return everything to the way it was. In general, guys, I warned you!

Well, here’s everything that was found on your system disk, all of it relates to Microsoft Silverlight and it can be deleted. To immediately save yourself from the problems of one being deleted and the other not, I suggest you install the utility. This utility helps you delete even things that you don’t want to be deleted. But you can also delete it in a simple way by simply selecting Delete from the menu. In general, I selected all the folders, well, I completely forgot to select all the bottom two, and then I right-clicked on them and selected the Unlocker option (I already have the utility installed):

Then I select Delete from the menu and click OK:

Unlocker started deleting everything that I had selected and, to be honest, it was a little scary, because even this message popped up, then I clicked Yes:

In general, it deleted a lot of things, I really felt like all the roots of Microsoft Silverlight were being torn out of Windows... The fear still did not leave me, because for some reason I advised you to make a restore point, but I didn’t do it myself... Well, that’s it...)

This is how it was removed for about five minutes:

In general, everything went well, now I’ll do a reboot to check later that there will be no glitches and jambs in Windows... I did a short reboot, launched the browsers and everything seems to be working fine. There were no errors, folders opened normally, in general Windows worked fine)

So I won’t be 100% sure, but deleting file junk seems to be safe!

Now I will show you how to remove junk from the registry that is left over from Microsoft Silverlight)

So look, hold down the Win + R buttons and write the following command there:

And click OK:

The registry editor will open; do not delete anything there for no reason. This is where we will look for garbage. To do this, hold down the Ctrl + F buttons and write there something like:

Microsoft Silverlight

In principle, you can just use the word Silverlight.. But with the full name the accuracy will be higher..

That's it, after this the search will begin. Anything that is selected later can be deleted. These can be either folders (on the left) or keys (on the right). Right-click on them and select Delete. Then press the F3 button to continue the search and so on until there is a message that the search is over! For example, I found some DisplayName key, if you double-click on it, you will see this:

That is, you see, even if there is not a word about Microsoft Silverlight in the name, it will still be inside! What I mean is that they are searched not only by name, but also by content, so rest assured that everything that is found is definitely Silverlight and can be deleted! In general, here is an example of how to delete a key:

I didn’t find any trash folders, but deleting it is just as easy, right-click on it and select Delete!

As you can see, everything is simple. If you do everything exactly as I wrote, then there will be no errors. Well, if you have doubts, then it’s better not to do anything at all, the stability of Windows is more important! But the most ideal option is to make a recovery checkpoint! Let me remind you once again that I wrote about this!

By the way, this way I also removed the Avast antivirus and cleaned out the trash can after it, if you’re interested!

Well, all the guys, good luck to you, I wish you a good mood and that you don’t have any problems!)