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

Official Microsoft Silverlight logo

Why do you need

Silverlight was designed by Microsoft to be broader, safer, and more performant 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. Provides a platform for RIA applications.

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

Silverlight brings together 4 of the most important modern web components.

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

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 you need to install

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

To 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 unequivocal. No. In 2012, the technology was officially recognized as hopeless and outdated. And today, no modern browser supports it (except for Edge).

While there are several hundred powerful enterprise solutions on Silverligth, the number of applications is dwindling every month. Microsoft estimates that by 2021 there will be no Silverlight-based applications left.

The user does not need to worry about the fact that some web component will be inaccessible to him. Software vendors have either replaced components written in Silverlight long ago in their software products, or have implemented support for both Silverlight and Flash.

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

And here is an unexpected joke, that's what I learned. So I don’t know whether you know or not, but I’ll write - in 2015, support for NPAPI plugins was disabled in many browsers. And that's why Microsoft Silverlight no longer works in such browsers as Opera, Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome! Because of what there was a mountain of discontent 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 NPAPI can be enabled there! If interested, then I wrote about this.

Microsoft Silverlight debriefing

Some users write that they installed Microsoft Silverlight and their browser stopped lagging when playing a video. How true this is, I do not know, but I think it is quite possible. However, many users still write that there is zero sense from this thing, they downloaded, installed and did not 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 because of this, he hangs, that the site has something that the browser does not support. Well, it’s logical ..)

As far as I understand, Microsoft Silverlight only works in Internet Explorer at the moment. If you use this browser, you may not need to uninstall Microsoft Silverlight, and if you do not use it, then I think you can uninstall it. Well, think for yourself, this thing is no longer supported by popular browsers, but YouTube generally wants to switch to the format WITHOUT flash, using only HTML5 for video .. Here are the things ..

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

In general, I don't know about you, but I will 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, then open the system drive and where the search field is, well, that is, in the upper right corner, then write the word Silverlight there and you will see a lot, here's what I have:

Some thoughts out loud. Perhaps you should search not by the word Silverlight, but by the phrase Microsoft Silverlight. This I think so, because maybe Microsoft Silverlight is one thing, but there may be another one whose name includes the word Silverlight .. Therefore, to be more precise, it is better to use the full name, well, that is, Microsoft Silverlight!

How can I completely remove Microsoft Silverlight from my computer?

So now about the deletion. You can delete it both in a simple way and with the help of a certain remover. I mean with the help, its trick is that it will help to remove the program and will also help to remove the remnants of the program in Windows. In general, both removes and cleans afterwards. But today I will show you how to remove manually and then how to manually clean Windows from leftovers ..)

Now a moment of attention. 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, so to speak, it is a good insurance in case something goes wrong. I already wrote about how to do it in the article about, I advise you to look.

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

If you have Windows 10, then cool, no doubt about it, 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 with all installed programs will open, you can't just delete anything here! Well, that is, you can't delete anything, because there may be glitches and all kinds of jambs! In this list, find Microsoft Silverlight, right-click and select Uninstall:

Then such a message will pop up, then click Yes (well, if you haven't changed your mind, of course):

Then a window like this will appear:

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

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 any problems with this)

How do I clean Windows after uninstalling Microsoft Silverlight?

In general, you deleted Microsoft Silverlight, but it is possible that there are remnants of this program in Windows. You can clean Windows from these remnants, see how to do it. So first I will show you how to remove file junk. So you open the system disk and write the name of the program, that is, Microsoft Silverlight (if you just use the word Silverlight, then the results will be less accurate):

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

Well, here's everything that was found on your system drive, all this refers to Microsoft Silverlight and you can delete it. To immediately save yourself from problems, well, that one is removed and the other is not, then I suggest that you install the utility. This utility helps to remove even what the type does not want to be removed. But you can delete it in a simple way, just by choosing Delete from the menu. In general, I selected all the folders, well, I forgot to select all the bottom couple, and then right-clicked on them and selected the Unlocker item (the utility is already installed):

Then select Delete from the menu and click OK:

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

In general, it removed a lot of things, I just felt like all the roots of Microsoft Silverlight were being pulled out of Windows ... Fear still did not leave me, because I advised you to make a restore point, but I didn’t do it myself ... Well, business ...)

This is how it was removed for about five minutes:

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

So I'm not 100% sure, but deleting file junk seems to be safe!

Now I will show you how to remove the garbage from the registry, which is left 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. Here in it 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 that the search will start. Everything that will be highlighted later can be deleted. It can be both folders (on the left) and 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 click on it twice, you will see this:

That is, you see, even if there is not a word about Microsoft Silverlight in the title, it will still be inside! This I mean, what is searched not only by name, but also by content, so be sure that everything that will be found, this is all exactly Silverlight and can be deleted! In general, here's an example of how to delete a key:

I didn't find trash folders, but it's also easy to delete it, right-click on it and select Delete there!

As you can see, everything is simple. If you do everything clearly as I wrote, then there will be no mistakes. Well, if you are in doubt, it is better not to do anything at all, the stability of Windows is more important! But the most ideal option is to make a restore point! Let me remind you once again that I wrote about this!

By the way, in this way I also removed the Avast antivirus and cleaned the trash after it, if interested!

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

18.08.2016

• Translation

For reasons not clear to me at the moment, it seems that many of the developers who attended the recent PDC-2010 ( Microsoft's largest developer conference - Approx. translator) were very surprised that Microsoft decided to shift the focus of RIA development from Silverlight to HTML5. Although this surprise of the developers is no less surprising - at recent conferences and announcements ( for example, the announcements of the development of Internet Explorer 9 - Approx. translator Microsoft has made it clear, though not entirely clear, that priorities are shifting towards a more cross-platform solution. What's the secret?

When Microsoft released the first version of Silverlight in 2007, the plug-in was marketed by the press as a counterpart to Adobe Flash ( although there are a number of other similar solutions: Adobe AIR, JavaFX, Google Gears (the development of which is closed, some of the code became the basis for HTML5), OpenLaszlo, etc. - Approx. translator). Although there are still some differences. Silverlight is aimed at developers-programmers, while Adobe Flash is tilting towards web designers, although both platforms covered the same market for complex interactive applications delivered through a web browser.
The naive developers who came to listen to the MS Silverlight talks were disappointed. Bob Muglia ( President of Microsoft Server Division - Approx. translator) stated that Microsoft's development strategy for the RIA has shifted to HTML5.
In a statement on ZDNet in which CEOs Steve Ballmer and Bob Muglia announced that Silverlight will continue to evolve, but on the Web, HTML5 will take precedence.
It is quite understandable for developers who have been flattered by repeated reassurances from Microsoft in the recent past that Silverlight will knock Flash off the scene and become an incredibly promising powerful tool for project implementation. And now the developers who are going to create their projects based on Silverlight hear from the company that, they say, Silverlight is good, but we will forget it, because HTML5 is cool and cool. Yes, there is something to grind your teeth from, but you have to be objective - Microsoft has talked about this before ( During the development of the Gazelle browser, which has now transformed into a completely different project) and the first previews of IE9, some developers in their blogs and interviews indicated that HTML5 will be the basis - Approx. translator).

IE 9 development was supposed to be the first wake-up call for programmers targeting Silverlight. Microsoft trumpeted at every turn that the browser simply conforms to all web standards, that IE is the best at supporting CSS3 and HTML5 ( Then it was a pure lie, in which many Internet resources accused the corporation, although now it is a reality. IE 9 PP6 is in no way inferior to Chromium 9 on average. I tested Chromium 9 on W3C, so don't kick hard - Approx. translator). Now, Microsoft has almost created a high-performance, web-standards-compliant browser that is not just a bell for RIA developers in Silverlight, but a bell.
At the same time, it would be okay for the browser development team to keep repeating this, so the Silverlight developers, firstly, are mildly hinting that Silverlight will become just a small gadget for HTML5, because the new markup language, for example, is not yet able to transmit DRM-protected streaming video. That is, in the end, Silverlight is not even positioned as a competitor to HTML5, but remains a competitor to Adobe Flash, which still occupies a dominant position.
Second, the Silverlight developers talk about using the module offline. Apart from the browser, the plug-in can be used as a platform for desktop applications (Example Seesmic) or, more importantly, writing applications for Windows Phone 7. Games, of course, will be more convenient to write in XNA, but non-game applications for the new mobile OS are easier to write in Silverlight ( Much was said about this at the Student Day conference at Moscow State University on November 1, and will be discussed tomorrow in Kiev - Approx. translator).
Basically, Bob Maglia didn’t announce new strategies, but simply put everything on the shelves. Silverlight is leaving for Windows Phone, and everything else is at the mercy of HTML5. What is the reason? Here's what:

Apple problem

Despite Microsoft's best efforts to make Silverlight cross-platform, the task has failed. Windows was gripped, Mac OS X was supported with grief in half, Linux was handed over to Novell, which began to write a crutch in the form of Moonlight, only "parodying" the closed Silverlight. Difficulties began in the mobile market, namely iOS. As you know, Apple banned the execution of plug-ins in the mobile Safari environment, which caused a stir among the users of Adobe Flash applications, although it affected Silverlight, but in view of the low popularity of the module, this did not cause much resonance. It turns out that Microsoft is giving up the market for Internet tablets and wildly popular iPhones without a fight. ( Microsoft is trying to encourage manufacturers to release tablets for Windows 7, but against the background of Android, iOS, webOS, Jolicloud it looks pale - Approx. translator). Therefore, the only way to gain a foothold there is HTML5.
A similar problem overtook Flash, but Adobe wriggled out with a number of bypass tools ( as well as a number of third-party developments by fans and other developers, such as the SkyFire browser, which, in the image and likeness of Opera Mini with traffic compression, will process Flash content on its servers - Approx. translator).
Still, it is not clear what will be the main focus for Servelat: standalone applications for PCs, applications for Windows Phone 7, or a "gadget" over HTML5?

The new direction for Silverlight

Paradoxically, Silverlight has remained just as important as it used to be, although not in the direction originally intended.
All this clowning in the past, where Silverlight was positioned as a "Flash killer" did not look at all serious. Adobe has a convenient free open source framework, Adobe Flex, which is very difficult to supplant Visual Studio and Expression Blend, which, moreover, are paid or contain a number of restrictions. In this scenario, it is very difficult to supplant Flash. Therefore, giving the entire web segment to HTML5 is justified. Objectively, Silverlight had little chance of supplanting Flash.
Silverlight has a great potential as a platform for developing applications for Windows Phone 7. And this raises the big question: can Windows Phone 7 take a bite of the pie that Nokia, Google, Apple, Research in Motion and HP are furiously sharing with their webOS? If not, then all the money invested in Silverlight development will be wasted. But Microsoft has reasons to think positively - the smartphone market is a potentially promising market ( over the year, the share of mobile devices in Internet traffic grew by 2% - Approx. translator). If, in the dynamics of the market, Microsoft manages to bite off a piece of the pie and keep it in its teeth, then there will be chances for expansion into competitors' shares. With such a powerful application development platform as Silverlight, MS has a future in this segment ( And that's why at all conferences and blogs, Microsoft representatives are desperately chanting "Start coding for Windows Phone right now!" If there are no third-party applications, then WP 7 will die without really being born - Approx. translator).

Silverlight on the desktop

Silverlght is far from the worst framework for developing standalone applications for personal computers, given Expression Blend and Visual Studio are powerful development tools. Together with them, you can relatively easily create the design and code base for such applications in Silverlight. The problem is different - Microsoft's policy.
At the last PDC 2010, little was said about Silverlight, but there was no talk about desktop applications at all. Yes, there are excuses for this: this year Microsoft's main theme is Windows Phone 7 and Windows Azure, which were priorities, but Windows 7 has already been forgotten. We will most likely hear about the development of Windows 8 next year, and that is not a fact. Hence, it is clear that Microsoft "flew" to the "clouds", sending everything else to the back burner.
Desktop Silverlight is a special beast. It is inherently derived from the .NET Framework and Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF). It eliminates features that are not needed outside of web applications to get faster and more efficient execution. That is, if you can write applications in C # or WPF, then you can easily write in Silverlight, and vice versa.
However, the Silverlight module was originally intended as a browser plugin. Yes, developers can choose between .NET / WPF and Silverlight (it even has advantages for working on Mac OS X), but with the more powerful .NET / WPF there is a much wider range of applications being developed. In terms of functionality, WPF and Silverlight overlap in some respects.
This rivalry between the two products is indicative of some of the flaws in Microsoft's desktop application policy. Let's go back in time when the development of Windows Vista, then known as Longhorn, was just beginning. Back then, .NET code was seen as the future in Windows application development, and everything was clear: WPF was an application development platform, and Silverlight (then WPF / Everywhere) was a stripped-down version for multi-platform web applications. The first builds of Windows Vista even had the ability to write scalable WPF applications, which would prove to be a powerful leap forward to the modern three-screen concept.
However, as you know, the Longhorn project itself was relaunched, the notorious Windows Vista was released, and .NET was in deep shadow. It looked like Microsoft was afraid to use .NET, at least on the desktop. Instead of releasing a system based on WPF, WPF was ignored, and it wasn't until the launch of Visual Studio 2010 that Microsoft started making applications based on this technology. At the same time, in Windows Vista, that very smart scaling was removed when installing the first service pack. For what reasons, it is not clear.
Looking at all this tossing, it is not entirely clear what Microsoft is going to do (it seems even she does not really understand what to do). The basic principles of WPF are very impressive, and developing Windows applications in WPF is much preferable to developing under Win32, although there are still many doubts.
With Windows 7, the Redmond giant provided Direct2D technology that neither WPF nor Silverlight uses, but which underpins high-performance HTML5 processing in Internet Explorer 9. So WPF might die, although it might coexist with Silverlight, or vice versa. , both technologies can go into the shadows. Before Windows Phone 7, I thought the latter would happen, but now with the mobile OS and Visual Studio Lightswitch, I understand that WPF will go to the backyard, giving way to Silverlight.

Silverlight still makes sense on the web

Now that Silverlight has lost its priority in web development, and has an uncertain future for desktop applications, you can see the frustration of many developers who realize that their applications are no longer needed the way they were intended. The strangest and most perplexing thing is that Microsoft's strategy is not entirely clear, since they only state general phrases without revealing them in specifics.
I don't think there is any doubt that HTML5 will dominate the market ( Google's, Apple's policies and Adobe's actions really do not allow this to be questioned - Approx. translator), but not now. While Internet Explorer dominates the browser market, HTML5 support ranges from nil (Internet Explorer 6) to negligible (Internet Explorer 8)
Yes, Internet Explorer 9 significantly and qualitatively changes the existing support (or rather not support) for web standards by the browser, but it is absolutely unknown when it will be officially released. For 18 months of its existence, Internet Explorer 8 has won about 50% of the total share, while the remaining 50% are shared by morally and technically outdated IE 6/7. That is, even if Microsoft releases the "nine" right now, it will take about a year until it takes some significant share. Whereas Silverlight and Flash are available right now in any browser version.
Even if HTML5 now dominated the web technology market, development would be difficult. Many specifications exist, but are far from the final stage of development, browsers on different engines perceive markup in their own way, showing completely different results. It turns out that developers have two choices - to work with HTML5 and spend a lot of time tweaking, sawing, testing the markup in each browser, or taking a Silverlight plugin that looks the same in all supported browsers and systems. And do not forget that sensible HTML5 development and design tools have not yet been invented. Yes, Adobe has introduced a tool for converting Flash to HTML5, but this is a tool for the future, but not for today, while both Microsoft and Adobe have powerful development tools and add-ons for working with Silverlight and Flash, respectively. Therefore, you should not zealously bury both modules.
Also, don't forget that HTML5 doesn't do a lot. For example, the DRM-protected video used by the Hulu service. Streaming video is very difficult to create with HTML5, and working with webcams and microphones is far from ideal. In short, HTML5 doesn't do a lot of what Flash and Silverlight can do.
HTML5, or even something that may soon appear on its basis, will not be able to gain much popularity even in the next year and, possibly, in a year. There are still many areas where Flash and Silverlight are much preferable to HTML5 as plugins and development tools.
Against this backdrop, Microsoft's decision to start rolling back Silverlight's web focus looks odd to say the least. Yes, in a year it would be necessary, but now? The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is working hard to create the standard, but the work is so far from complete that killing technologies like Silverlight and Flash without a complete replacement is sheer madness.
But it's time for Microsoft to make a decision and stop messing with the brains of the developers. What will become the platform for writing applications on desktops? Win32 (with or without Direct2D doesn't matter anymore)? Silverlight? WPF? Or something else? Three ways to develop, sorry, but it's tough. The alternative is good, but if today there are three ways of development, and the developers are divided equally and start writing applications, and tomorrow Microsoft will bury two ways, what, then, should the developers sit at a broken trough? If the future belongs to Silverlight and WPF, then connect Direct2D to them so that they work fast and look the same with other applications, but if they are not the future on desktops, then let them declare this to the developers so that they are ready for change, and not lead them for nose.
Although you can guess the plans of Microsoft. Direct2D is by far the best way for developers to write high-performance user interfaces, and also the best way to work with HTML5 in IE9. Will Redmond be able to embrace all of HTML5 with its vision and capabilities, plug the holes along with the W3C that prevent HTML5 from "overpowering" Flash and Silverlight, and then use it all on Windows? Apple is starting to do something similar in iOS.
Strange things happen, strange things.

Silverlight applications

Silverlight uses the traditional browser extension technology - plug-ins .

The advantage of the add-in model is that in order to view content created by different people and companies, the user only needs to install a single component, the Silverlight add-in. To do this, the user only needs to download one small file from the Microsoft website for free and enter confirmation in a single dialog box. The whole procedure takes less than a minute. Once the add-on is installed, the browser will be able to render any content that is compatible with it without user intervention.

The figure below shows two views of a page that contains a Silverlight object. Above is the page that 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 go to the Microsoft site where they will be prompted to install the add-on. Below is the same page after installing the Silverlight add-in:

Currently, the Silverlight add-in is installed on 75% of computers connected to the Internet (including desktops and mobile devices). If only computers with Windows and Internet Explorer are included, the percentage of Silverlight is higher. These numbers are impressive, but Flash add-ons are still installed on more web devices (96%).

System Requirements for Silverlight

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:

Windows

Silverlight 5 runs on computers running Windows 8, Windows 7, Windows Vista, and Windows XP. The minimum browser versions 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) currently also support the Silverlight add-on, but it is not yet documented for them.

Macintosh

Silverlight add-ins run on Mac computers with OS X 10.4.8 or later. An Intel processor must be used (PowerPC hardware is not valid). For Silverlight, the minimum browser versions are Firefox 2 and Safari 3. On Apple mobile devices, including the iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad, Silverlight applications are not supported.

Linux

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

Windows Phone

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

Installing a Silverlight plug-in requires a small file (less than 10 MB) and is easy to download, so installing a Silverlight plug-in is as easy as installing Flash.

Silverlight and Flash

Currently, the most successful and popular browser add-on - Adobe Flash - is installed in over 96% of browsers worldwide. Flash technology has a long history - over ten years. Initially, Flash was 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 feels natural. However, Flash requires separate development tools - a completely different programming language ( ActionScript) and other programming environment ( Flex).

Worst of all, there are no easy ways to integrate Flash content with server-side .NET code. In particular, it takes a lot of work to reference a Flash object to a .NET component. Using .NET server-side code to render Flash content (for example, to create an ASP.NET control that manipulates Flash content) is even more daunting.

Compared to Flash, Silverlight makes manipulating .NET content much easier. Silverlight's primary goal is to enable the creation of applications that are as powerful and cross-platform as Flash, using the premier .NET programming framework. This allows developers to write client-side Silverlight code in the same language (C # or VB) as the server-side code. In addition, developers can use the same abstractions in Silverlight client code as they do in server code, including I / O streams, controls, collections, generics, and LINQ tools.

Silverlight and HTML5

When Silverlight was invented, it was assumed that its main purpose would be developing powerful web pages, and its main competitor was Adobe Flash technology. However, after the release of several versions of Silverlight, the world has changed. Adobe Flash applications are still supported by almost every desktop computer, but they have been excluded from popular Apple products such as the iPhone and iPad. As a result, the mobile niche began to gravitate towards other solutions such as single-platform specialized 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 sometime later, and when exactly is unknown). However, the tools 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 tools are not very necessary.

Without a doubt, HTML5 will gain strength over time. But until then, developers have had to choose between tools that are already supported now (Silverlight and Flash), but will never be supported by mobile devices, and tools that are not supported now, but will be supported by all devices, including mobile in the future. In the latter case, the developer will prefer HTML5. This is the 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 not convinced that this technology has a place in the future of the Internet. Since the future is rather uncertain at this moment, consider the following factors:

HTML5 implementation and support is not yet complete. In particular, not all HTML5 features are supported in Internet Explorer. In IE 10, some HTML5 features were promised but never made it. Many tools are available in IE 9, but IE 8 is barely available in HTML5. This is too bad, because IE 8 is still the most popular browser for the Windows XP operating system, and it never leaves the scene (it is still installed on most desktops). 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 lag far behind Silverlight in some key areas. They do not provide powerful tools for streaming video, hardware graphics acceleration, invoking Windows components, accessing files, running applications outside the browser, networking, etc. It's hard to imagine that the HTML5 platform will ever be able to compete with some special Silverlight features such as PivotViewer controls that combine animation, data filtering, and image scaling tasks in one easy-to-use package.

Silverlight relies on high-level APIs. You can create applications without using tools such as data binding, templates, and styles, but they can be done 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 the syntax does not support strong typing, making it nearly impossible to write large applications in JavaScript. In addition, in JavaScript, all animation routines have to be written by hand, and the multithreading support is extremely clunky, which prevents complex tasks from running in the background.

Silverlight is supported by high-level development tools. Visual Studio makes it as easy to develop Silverlight applications as regular desktop applications. Expression Blend makes it easy to create complex user interfaces that contain powerful graphic effects and animations.

Silverlight integrates seamlessly with ASP.NET. In particular. Silverlight allows you to pass requests to a back-end database through a web service. As a result, many experts believe that even after HTML5 conquers the Internet, Silverlight will remain the technology of choice for closed corporate networks.

The future of the Silverlight platform is pretty dim right now. It may remain the preferred platform for developers of .NET-based enterprise applications, or gradually evolve into a narrow-profile tool for creating powerful PC 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

Silverlight stalled when Microsoft announced Windows 8 based on a new powerful client programming model (called Metro). Many developers wondered if a new programming model would become the "killer" of Silverlight in the near future.

The answer to this question is a categorical "No!" Metro technology is designed to facilitate the creation of a completely different type of application: lightweight, touch-sensitive and data intensive. These applications are targeted at future generations of Windows 8 tablets. Metro (like its closest cousin WPF) competes with the iPad platform. Metro apps cannot run on non-Microsoft platforms, and even more so, on any version of Windows other than Windows 8. For this reason, Metro technology is not a competitor or of interest to Silverlight developers.

The Silverlight niche may shrink in the future. It seems to be caught between cross-platform HTML5 apps, which are gradually gaining market share, and Metro and iPad apps for mobile devices. For now, however, Silverlight occupies (and will continue to occupy) a vast amount of space between the two technologies.

Silverlight and WPF

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

WPF is designed for building complex Windows applications. WPF tools not only simplify the development process with convenient high-level tools, but also provide better performance by rendering any content directly through the DirectX pipeline.

Obviously, Silverlight cannot duplicate all WPF tools, as many of them depend on operating system capabilities, including Windows-specific drivers and DirectX tools. Yet, rather than inventing a whole new set of controls and classes for the client side, the Silverlight developers have adopted a subset of the WPF model. If you have experience with WPF, you will be surprised at how much Silverlight is similar to WPF. A few common features are listed below:

XAML markup is used to define the Silverlight user interface (the collection of elements that fill the content area), 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 engine from WPF (for changing the look of standard controls).

Silverlight uses shapes, paths, transforms, and brushes to paint 2D images. All of these tools are pretty much the same as in WPF.

The Silverlight runtime provides a declarative animation model based on a sequence of storyboards that works in the same way as the WPF animation model.

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

Silverlight development

Silverlight 1 was very "humble". It contained support for 2D drawing and multimedia playback. It didn't even have a CLR runtime driver or a .NET compiler, so developers had to write JavaScript code.

Silverlight 2 has been radically overhauled. It added the CLR, a subset of the .NET Framework classes, and a WPF-based UI model. As a result, Silverlight 2 has become one of the most anticipated technologies in Microsoft's history.

Future versions of Silverlight are not as ambitious as Silverlight 2. Silverlight 5 retains the Silverlight 2 development model and adds a few carefully selected new features. Let's list the advantages of the latest version:

Productivity increase

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

Vector print

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

Hardware accelerated 3D graphics

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

Flexible playback

The video clip can now be played faster or slower without changing the pitch of the soundtrack. This allows you to view content (such as a video tutorial) at a selected speed.

View pivot tables

Added a control that allows you to browse huge collections of data. Many features are combined in a single control, such as scaling pictures, filtering data, and animating transitions. Best of all, there is almost no need for a developer to write code when using this control.

Debug XAML

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

Child windows

Silverlight applications that run outside the browser can now display additional windows, just like Windows desktop applications. You don't even need extended permissions to do this.

File access and P / Invoke support

Applications that run with extended permissions can access any files on the hard disk that the user has access to (except those that require administrator privileges). On a Windows machine, you can use P / Invoke calls to access inherited C functions from Windows API libraries.

Silverlight 5 Backward Compatibility

Can an existing Silverlight application from a previous version run on a machine that has the Silverlight 5 add-in installed? This is not as easy a question as it might seem at first glance, because Silverlight 5 has made some subtle changes and fixed a number of bugs that can affect the application and even change its behavior.

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

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

Microsoft Silverlight is an XML and .NET-based technology originally intended to replace Adobe Flash. Another, similar, competing development is JavaFX launched almost simultaneously. So what allows Silverlight developers? Having experience with XAML in programming - use it to its fullest, allowing yourself to manipulate with vector graphics, animation and video. Silverlight itself is subset Windows Presentation Foundation with all of the above capabilities. 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.

While Silverlight and Flash have a lot in common, the functionality and capabilities of the two development environments differ markedly.

Silverlight is a cross-platform development environment implemented for Windows, Mac OS 10.4 and higher. The compatibility issue at the moment lies in 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 runs on the latest version of Opera 9.50 for Windows. But, of course, for full stability you will have to wait for the final version.
The first beta version of Microsoft Silverlight was released in December 2006. The first stable version- in the middle of 2007. Unlike most Microsoft products - Silverlight has a portion of the Dynamic Language Runtime available under the terms of Open source 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... About her below.

On March 5th of this year, the 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), reach controls were added ( TextBox, CheckBox, RadioButton, Slider, ScrollViewer, Calendar, DatePicker etc.).
'Rich networking' support: call support REST, WS * / SOAP, POX, RSS and other standard HTTP services. I will immediately mention, once again, about cross-domain access to various resources.
Rich Base Class Library, which includes gigantic 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 does 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 light of the Flash comparison, it's worth looking at what the differences are between these authoring tools. 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 devote a separate article to it someday. And here is a list of comparisons between Silverlight and Flash:

SilverLight does not require the installation of a video codec to play video format .WMF
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 - WPF, which is time-based rather than frame-based 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 in your project, and install it with object loading.
Working with fonts in Flash is pretty tricky.

Silverlight uses XAML and is still declarative.
Flash - ActionScript

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

Silverlight uses XAML which is text based and can be easily modified using simple XML objects.
Flash uses binary (binary) notation.

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

Using Silverlight Streaming you can create a complete video site using a free service.
No streaming service is available for free in Flash.

Today Silverlight is practically rid of its inferiority and is completely cross-platform application.

Despite the fact that the comparison of Silverlight and Flash is a very frequent occurrence, it does not seem correct to everyone. Indeed - Silverlight can be used for roughly the same purposes as Flash, but the former is more like a modern lightweight analogue of Java applets with support for progressive UI technologies. The general trend, let's call it a goal, 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 and, however, with some differences. If the main goal AIR & Prism is an " domestication of the internet", Then Silverlight tries completely tame the web.
Microsoft Silverlight itself is very elegantly implemented. When it was created, it was clear to everyone that it was not difficult to write a plug-in in a browser to support an analogue of Java applets, only based on .NET. Naturally - the framework itself, at the same time, has a rather big weight and is not installed by every user. Therefore, Microsoft programmers did the following - they implemented an applet that is responsible for Silverlight 2.0 in the browser, contains an impressive part of the framework required for the normal operation of Silverlight applications. And it has, at the same time, a weight of less than 5 mb, although the site 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 handy add-on that allows you to develop SL projects right in the Visual Studio IDE. The Express version is not supported yet, but this feature will be in the final version of the product.
Microsoft Expression Blend 2.5 March 2008 Preview is a cross 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 all 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 integrate it all into a social network (as part of the Live Spaces platform). In Live Spaces, in turn, you can team up with other users and app creators. In general, all-round communication. In addition, recently PopFly has been able not only to "make friends" services, but also to create "casual" games, and even those who have never been involved in such a thing can do this.
Initially for a beginner game builder 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 an understandable visual mode. You can also play there.

Interface - makes you freeze with amazement. Creation and management is done by dragging and dropping blocks, as shown in the screenshot:

Each block acts as a module using the web service API. Today there are several dozen such blocks, which provides ample opportunities for working with various services.

As promised - a few words about Moonlight... This is the result of joint cooperation Microsoft and Novell, last fall signed an agreement, the main idea of ​​which was: porting Silverlight applications to operating systems Linux.
And just recently the release of Moonlight 1.0 took place. It allows you to run applications written in Silverlight 1.0, but now, along 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 webcast based on this technology. From October 9, 2007, a wide audience can see the benefits of this solution. The order was executed by the company SMS Media Solution, which was assisted by the Russian representative office of Microsoft. Well, the last little 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 site that supports iframe by simply pasting a piece of code.

Editor of the reputable 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 considering the fact that Microsoft was not too 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 in the Nokia 770 and n8x0. The add-on is available as a plug-in for browsers on supported platforms.

Looking at some examples of Silverlight applications, 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 possibilities of Silverlight as a platform for the development of interactive business solutions.
For this reason, Microsoft has launched a website for hospital operations. Patient Journey Demonstrator Is a project by Microsoft UK, ready for public preview. 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 "a day in the life of a medical institution from the side of various users." The fully interactive interface guides you through the entire application, while the built-in “guide” will show you how to take advantage of all the possibilities.
There really is something to see, one can at least note the work with cardiograms using the technology Deepzoom- Lots of graphical information that is easy to use.

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