Silverlight End of Support

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Microsoft Silverlight will reach the end of support on October 12, 2021.
Note also that support for Internet Explorer 10 ended on January 31, 2020.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4511036/silverlight-end-of-support

On permanent hiatus {with backup and coffee}
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jburk07, Nathan Parker, Microfix, Elly, Charlie, SueW, Cybertooth

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I still have Silverlight on my Win 7 but was never quite sure what it was for.  Am I right in assuming I don’t need it and should uninstall it?  I never use IE 11 for Web surfing anymore.

Being 20 something in the 70's was far more fun than being 70 something in the insane 20's

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SearchingForParadise, RamRod

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Silverlight was Microsoft’s add-on like FlashPlayer. You don’t need it.

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Charlie, Nathan Parker

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[ECWS]

I uninstalled Microsoft Silverlight but continue to receive updates.  As  soon as I hide one update, I get another.  These are the updates I have received so far:

Any idea why I continue to get them and how I can stop them.

Still have registry entries that have Microsoft Silverlight in them

• This reply was modified 4 years, 4 months ago by ECWS.

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When you say you uninstalled it, what process did you use?

Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher

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I used the Windows uninstaller under Programs and Features (Windows 7)

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Depends, some browsers may still need it for DRM-restricted playback, eg. Netflix. If you’re fine installing/running Chrome it shouldn’t make a difference.

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Charlie, wavy, OscarCP, Microfix

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I’ve often wondered why Microsoft opted to ship ‘Flash’ instead of ‘Silverlight’ in W10. Edge may have been the answer on W10 introduction, or so they thought at the time. With the IE browser being ‘unsafe’ to a certain extent, there may be something in the new Chredge that will supercede silverlight for backward compatibility, who knows..

Windows - commercial by definition and now function...

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I have never run into anything on the Internet (or otherwise) that wouldn’t work without Silverlight. Flash – many times requests to enable Flash, but never Silverlight. Maybe b/c I don’t use IE(?).

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Charlie, Nathan Parker

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‘the internet’ being askwoody of course 😉

Windows - commercial by definition and now function...

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I’m stuck with Silverlight for SaaS cloud software… 😰

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Nathan Parker

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I needed Silverlight to stream video from Netflix when using IE 11 as browser, because the Win 7 version (unlike the one for Win 8.1) did not have an HTML5 client. There was no other reason. Now, I don’t use browsers when running Windows 7, because I no longer connect to the Internet with it. I use Linux, in dual boot with Win 7, instead, where I have Chrome and FireFox as browsers, both of which now use an HTML5 client and allow streaming of Digital Rights Management (DRM) restricted video. So: goodby, Silverlight, you served me faithfully while I needed you, now is time for you to retire; go and live out your days in peace and contentment after a job well done.

Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).

MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV

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Charlie

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I uninstalled Silverlight years ago, but am still being offered an update for it – KB4481252, which I have hidden in wushowhide.  Hopefully with end of support, it will go away.

Windows 10 Pro 64 bit 20H2

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Only one hidden Silverlight update for Windows 10?

Behold the joys of Windows 7:

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firemind, satrow

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Never encountered Silverlight update for Windows 10.

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The sig on @bundaburra’s post shows Windows 10 but I may have misunderstood.

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That’s a lot of un-necessary steps to avoid Silverlight..here’s mine 🙂

illegitimi Non Carborundum

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Aargh! i hated this about Silverlight in Win 7. You could hide important much needed updates in WU and not see them later but this optional one never went away.

Nag tactics like this make people avoid using/buying products. And after all that nagging I never was told by a site or program I needed to install Silverlight.

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Bundaburra wrote:

KB4481252

… that is one of the 2019 Japanese eras updates. Maybe it was triggered prior to your uninstallation?

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Any advice on how to uninstall Silverlight on Windows 7, 8.1 and 10 without breaking the operating system?

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It isn’t part of the OS, it shouldn’t break anything in Windows.

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Elly

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In my Win 7 I went to Control Panel / Programs & Features, and there it was, Microsoft Silverlight ready to be uninstalled.  Not a problem with Win 7.

Being 20 something in the 70's was far more fun than being 70 something in the insane 20's

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[SearchingForParadise]

satrow wrote:

It isn’t part of the OS, it shouldn’t break anything in Windows.

Good! But there is no uninstall option. Silverlight isn’t listed under Control Panel > Programs and Features > Uninstall.

• This reply was modified 4 years, 9 months ago by SearchingForParadise.
• This reply was modified 4 years, 9 months ago by SearchingForParadise.

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Nothing under Microsoft Silverlight?

Or Installed Updates?

Or under Plugins in any of your browsers options/preferences/… ?

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Silverlight, if I remember correctly, at least in Windows 7, had and may still have a folder in one of the “Programs” or “Windows” directories containing its executable and associated libraries, etc. Deleting the folder will remove it. Not sure why anyone will bother to remove it, unless the Hard Disk or SSD is really small and seriously needs to be freed from useless clutter. The updates are a separate issue. Hiding new ones is a good practice, to later on  delete them. Older updates can also be deleted by hand, but finding them is more of a hassle. I am all for forgiving and forgetting (when it comes to Silverlight, that is.)

Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).

MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV

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Portable BleachBit will uninstall Silverlight

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Great, we’ll all learn something from that suggestion…

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Microfix

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From BleachBit FAQ:

While it does not delete software such as the operating system or web browsers, it deletes specific information produced by software.

(emphasis mine)

Perhaps you are suggesting that after Silverlight is uninstalled, using Bleachbit to remove the silverlight.xml file that remains, may result in no longer receiving Silverlight updates through Windows Update?

I really like BleachBit… and that may be a valid step in completely removing traces of Silverlight from one’s system… but BleachBit does not uninstall programs.

One caution… you can remove too much, resulting in programs failing to work as expected. BleachBit allows fine control of what is removed… so educate yourself, before making changes, and select accordingly.

Non-techy Win 10 Pro and Linux Mint experimenter

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Alex5723

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The .xml file is for Bleachbit, it’s the license, notes and tests made, description and cleaning options, as well as paths searched for files to delete…

Silverlight
Multimedia viewer
Cookies
Delete cookies, which contain information such as web site preferences, authentication, and tracking identification



Temporary files
Delete the temporary files

EDIT: …most of which is ‘lost’ by the Blog software here – open the .xml file in Notepad to see the raw data, or a browser to see something that should be more humanly readable.

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Elly

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The Silverlight Program on my Win 7 is 845 Megabytes.

Being 20 something in the 70's was far more fun than being 70 something in the insane 20's

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Just checked my Windows 10 1909 Pro June updates.
I do have Silverlight 5.1.20913.0 installed by Logitech MyHarmony software in
C:\Program Files (x86)\Logitech\MyHarmony\AppFiles\PlugIns\Silverlight_5.1.20913.0
and
C:\Users\USER\AppData\LocalLow\Microsoft\Silverlight

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One thing not mentioned here in removing Silverlight completely from Windows 7, is the vast amount of remnant registry entries left behind once uninstalled. There is NO cleaner (reg cleaners or otherwise) that will remove them so don’t be fooled into believing otherwise.The dead keys do no harm anyway.

illegitimi Non Carborundum

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CCleaner usually gets most of my leftover registry entries.  So we’ll see.

Being 20 something in the 70's was far more fun than being 70 something in the insane 20's

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Charlie wrote:

CCleaner usually gets most of my leftover registry entries. So we’ll see.

Look forward to a report on your findings for all to see and read.

Once you have removed what has been reported ‘cleared’ by ccleaner, run ‘regedit’ and search for ‘silverlight’ and ALL will be revealed, press F3 to find the next redundant entry and so on.

illegitimi Non Carborundum

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Or use something like Nir Sofer’s RegScanner. This lets you search and display ALL found results in a list rather than having to use F3 to move from ‘found’ result to the next.

(Just remember to download the right ‘bitness’ version for your device and to use ‘Run as administrator’.)

Hope this helps…

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Charlie

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MrChaz wrote:

Once you have removed what has been reported ‘cleared’ by ccleaner, run ‘regedit’ and search for ‘silverlight’ and ALL will be revealed, press F3 to find the next redundant entry and so on.

Yep, I’ve done that many times before MrChaz. It will be interesting to see now that you’ve sparked my interest.

🙂

Being 20 something in the 70's was far more fun than being 70 something in the insane 20's

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Just for the heck of it I checked the registry with Silverlight still installed.  I found a total of six registry entries.  I was a bit surprised myself.  When I uninstall it I’ll see how many CCleaner gets and report in again.

Being 20 something in the 70's was far more fun than being 70 something in the insane 20's

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MrChaz wrote:

Look forward to a report on your findings for all to see and read. Once you have removed what has been reported ‘cleared’ by ccleaner, run ‘regedit’ and search for ‘silverlight’ and ALL will be revealed, press F3 to find the next redundant entry and so on.

Okay, I uninstalled Silverlight and the Win 7 uninstaller left two out of the six registry entries.  I ran CCleaner and it did not detect those two entries.  So I went into the registry and deleted the two entries.  All is okay.

Being 20 something in the 70's was far more fun than being 70 something in the insane 20's

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What were the entries?
Did they cause some problem that required you delete them?

cheers, Paul

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They weren’t anything special, just plain old default on one and I forget what the other one was.  No, they weren’t causing any problems, just thought I’d get rid of all two of them.  This should conclude my report on the registry entries I’d have to track down and get rid of.  It wasn’t really a big deal.

Being 20 something in the 70's was far more fun than being 70 something in the insane 20's

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Paul T, Elly

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I haven’t seen REVO uninstaller mentioned, that may be an option to get rid of Silverlight.

Don't take yourself so seriously, no one else does 🙂
All W10 Pro at 22H2,(2 Desktops, 1 Laptop).

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Find its directory and delete it. You don’t need special software to do that. Just point and click your way to “Programs” using whatever you like to find the program directories. It used to be Windows Explorer.

Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).

MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV

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I used REVO to uninstall Silverlight (it did show up in the list of installed programs), and I did tell REVO to delete any leftover files and registry entries, hence I was surprised to be offered that KB4481252 update later.  I searched the registry for any “Silverlight” entries (also SilverLight) but there weren’t any.  But I took a clue from Alex5723 in #2279816 above.  There was nothing in Program Files (x86), but sure enough, in C:\Users\USER\AppData\LocalLow\Microsoft\Silverlight there was something.  In that Silverlight folder was a file called “mssl.lck” (77 bytes), and then another subfolder called “is”, which was empty.  So I have deleted the “Silverlight” folder, and will wait to see what happens.

 

Windows 10 Pro 64 bit 20H2

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Charlie

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Silverlight has received a number of updates over many years, at a fairly low rate of roughly one update every other year. I know, because I have IE 11 in Win 7 and for years, so I needed to have Silverlight up and running properly to stream Netflix videos, as IE 11 for Win 7 does not have an HTML5 client. As it runs out of support in October, it is very unlikely it will receive yet another update. If this happened, all one needs to do is to deselect the update when updating Windows, and then hide it. As to making space in a disk that has either too little free space left or is a really small disk, deleting the Silverlight folder should clear most of it. I really don’t see the problem with just letting things be after that. I am willing bet whatever good reputation I may have left by now here that those Silverlight remains won’t bite.

Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).

MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV

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So far in this long-lasting discussion, it is easy to conclude that removing Silverlight may be more trouble than letting it be. I really don’t understand why even to bother with Silverlight these days, unless one is still using IE 11 on Windows 7, but obviously it is a real big deal for some people. Particularly the removal, considering that it does not take whole gigabytes of disk.

Perhaps someone could explain why this is such an issue? So far in previous comments it has been assumed all along that it is an issue without giving a good reason why.

And, if one keeps getting updates, the question is whether to hide them or install them. I am partial to hiding, in case the patch is flawed. Although I’ve never had a problem with Silverlight patches, but that was years ago, when finally HTML5 players in browsers became the standard way to do things such as streaming videos and when enough browsers enforced DMR, so I could stream from Netflix.

Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).

MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV

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