Do I Have Silverlight

[BillWilson]

Is there a way for me to tell if my Vista laptop is running Silverlight?

I chose to not add silverlight a good while back just because I didn't know what is was and I didn't see any reason to add something new that I didn't seem need. I've just received a notice that MS has a silverlight update for my PC. If this is trying to add silverlight I don't know that I want to do that. On the other hand, if I already have silverlight then I need to install the update.

Should I be running silverlight anyway? What would it do for me?

Thanks, Bill

[Deadeye81]

Hi Bill,

This Microsoft link answers the question of what Silverlight is.

If you want to know if Silverlight is currently installed on your computer, type 'silverlight' in the Start Menu search box. If it is installed, you should see it show in the search results list pretty quick.

I have it on my Windows 7 computer because Netflix requires it to watch their 'play now streaming movies.'

[JoeP517]

You can also go to Get Silverlight | Microsoft Silverlight. It will detect what version, if any, of Silverlight is installed.

Joe

[BillWilson]

Gerald: thanks for the info. Earlier, I had tried entering the name as you suggested and it does not bring up anything on my PC. I looked at the link you provided and I see one reason I had not installed it before; it uses .NET and I've kept .NET off my PC so far.

Joe: I went to that web site and it said it detected an older version of silverlight on my PC!

So, now I don't know if it is there or not but I guess it won't hurt anything to go ahead and let it be installed if it isn't there.

Thanks for the advice.
Bill

[JoeP517]

Unless you've modified the default search index settings in Vista, the folder containing Silverlight will not be indexed and thus not found. Note that Vista comes .net 3.0 installed. So, you've got .NET already.

If the Silverlight site detected a version then it is installed. It could've been installed by Windows Update depending on your automatic update settings and your attention to the detail of all the patches released each month.

Joe

[BillWilson]

OK, I've stopped resisting silverlight and .NET! I'll install the update today and go on from here.

Thanks for the advice.
Bill

[Toolooze]

Silverlight showed up in the add/remove programs of Revo Uninstaller. It may also show in Control Panel. I installed Silverlight because a website required it instead of Java. It immediately slowed my computer to a crawl. When I uninstalled it, it also uninstalled every Windows update on my computer.

Vista Home Premium, SP2