Microsoft Silverlight

5.1.50901

Software information

License:

Freeware (Free)


Updated:

17 Oct 2016


Publisher:

Microsoft

Website:

http://www.microsoft.com/

Software Screenshots

Size: 1.39 MB


Downloads: 8342


Platform: Windows (All Versions)

Review by George Norman (Cybersecurity Editor)

on 29 Nov 2012

When it was first rolled out to the public, Microsoft’s Silverlight application framework was touted as being a Flash killer. That’s because Silverlight was very much similar to Flash as far as functionality was concerned and because Microsoft was hoping to dethrone Flash with Silverlight. Microsoft has not been able to do this so far. In terms of penetration, Flash continues to be the market leader. According to figures from July 2010, Flash was installed on 95.36% of browsers, while Silverlight was installed on 53.54%. And according to data from August 2011, site usage of Adobe Flash was around 27% while 0.3% sites used Silverlight.

As Silverlight and Flash offer similar functionality, it is up to the developer to choose which one to choose. Should said developer choose Silverlight, he will have access to a powerful means of creating rich internet applications.
From a regular user point of view, Flash is a tool you just need to have on your machine – just like Silverlight. If you want to access a rich internet application that uses Silverlight, you won’t be able to do so unless you have Silverlight. This makes Silverlight a must have on your PC.

Silverlight is compatible with the following operating systems: Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 7 SP1, Windows Server 2008 SP2, Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1, Windows server 2003, Windows XP SP2 and SP3, Mac OS 10.5.7. And it is compatible with the following web browsers: Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, and Chrome. The minimal system requirements for running Silverlight on a Windows-powered machine are: 1.6GHz 32 or 64-bit processor, 512MB of RAM. Getting Silverlight up and running is a very simple process – a standard setup process as a matter of fact that will take little of your time.

You will find several tabs at the top of Silverlight interface:
About – presents the Silverlight version you’re currently using.
Updates – pick how Silverlight installs updates. The recommended option is to let it automatically install updates.
Playback – enable download and updates to components needed for protected content playback, enable hardware-accelerated playback.
Webcam/Mic – pick the default capture devices.
Permissions – allow, deny, remove permissions for sites.
Application storage – enable application storage, thus allowing websites to store data on your PC.

As a regular user, you don’t need to do anything special to use Silverlight. The application runs in the background and does its thing automatically whenever you access a website or rich internet application built with Silverlight.
As a developer, you can use Silverlight to come up with and run rich internet applications. As Microsoft put it, “Silverlight is a powerful development tool for creating engaging, interactive user experiences for Web and mobile applications.”

Silverlight is one of those must have tools for Windows users.

Pros

Getting Silverlight up and running takes little time and effort. The tabbed interface is easy to navigate. Silverlight is offered for free. The system requirements for running Silverlight are quite low.

Cons

Not as popular as Flash.

Microsoft Silverlight
5.1.50901

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Microsoft Silverlight Awards


Microsoft Silverlight Editor’s Review Rating

Microsoft Silverlight has been reviewed by George Norman on 29 Nov 2012. Based on the user interface, features and complexity, Findmysoft has rated Microsoft Silverlight 5 out of 5 stars, naming it Essential

5

out of 5