Microsoft says Edge browser will not support Silverlight

Gabe Carey

Posts: 51   +0

With Microsoft finally replacing the age-old crime to web fashion that is Internet Explorer, a number of changes are being made to its replacement, the much trendier-sounding Edge browser. Most significant of these is the recently noted omission of ActiveX-based extensions, and as a result, Microsoft confirmed today that its own Silverlight media player plugin will be left in the past too.

"Support for ActiveX has been discontinued in Microsoft Edge, and that includes removing support for Silverlight," writes the Microsoft Edge development team on its official blog.

"The reasons for this have been discussed in previous blogs and include the emergence of viable and secure media solutions based on HTML5 extensions. Microsoft continues to support Silverlight, and Silverlight out-of-browser apps can continue to use it. Silverlight will also continue to be supported in Internet Explorer 11, so sites continue to have Silverlight options in Windows 10. At the same time, we encourage companies that are using Silverlight for media to begin the transition to DASH/MSE/ CENC/EME based designs and to follow a single, DRM-interoperable encoding work flow enabled by CENC. This represents the most broadly interoperable solution across browsers, platforms, content and devices going forward."

From this, users still dowdily sporting Internet Explorer 11 need not worry. Support for Microsoft Silverlight will remain ever-present in the hands of legacy browser applications. For those optimistically seeking to adopt the new Edge browser upon release, you shan't hesitate either. Most websites have dropped Silverlight anyway, moving on to more ubiquitous platforms like HTML5.

Most notably, Netflix dropped support for Silverlight in favor of HTML5 in 2013. The most recent addition to the Silverlight family was Silverlight 5 all the way back in 2011 which, while receiving consistent updates from Microsoft, has not undergone a significant overhaul in over four years.

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That is the best news I have heard in a while. Finally, Microsoft is ditching all the legacy crap it once created.

Now all the corporations will be forced to throw away use of ActiveX from their internal products. And once they have done it, they will see that there is no more reason left to continue using Microsoft browsers any more.
 
I work for the TDSB (Toronto District School Board) as a teacher/librarian... Showing their fantastic IT acumen, they just purchased a brand new library system (February 2015) using... wait for it... SILVERLIGHT!!

I love seeing the popups on my browser saying it won't be supported for much longer... at least it won't be too much of a problem as I'm sure we won't be upgrading any PCs for 10 years anyways...
 
Silverlight was pretty much dead on arrival anyway and only really pushed on the major MS run websites.
 
I work for the TDSB (Toronto District School Board) as a teacher/librarian... Showing their fantastic IT acumen, they just purchased a brand new library system (February 2015) using... wait for it... SILVERLIGHT!!

I love seeing the popups on my browser saying it won't be supported for much longer... at least it won't be too much of a problem as I'm sure we won't be upgrading any PCs for 10 years anyways...

I'm sorry but not surprised at all.

I see dumb decisions like this made everywhere from people that are suppose to be getting paid a lot of money...

No shortage of them at the government level either.
 
Just to put a contrary view... This is very much a case of throwing the baby out with the bath water. Silverlight as a technology is actually very good, keeping in mind that most web sites tended to grossly under-utilize its capabilities and use it just as a video plug in alternative to Flash.

I find it interesting that MS is killing it in Edge when one of their major products, SharePoint, takes advantage of Silverlight in a number of places. I guess the next version of SharePoint will ditch it too.
 
I work for the TDSB (Toronto District School Board) as a teacher/librarian... Showing their fantastic IT acumen, they just purchased a brand new library system (February 2015) using... wait for it... SILVERLIGHT!!

I love seeing the popups on my browser saying it won't be supported for much longer... at least it won't be too much of a problem as I'm sure we won't be upgrading any PCs for 10 years anyways...
Our main product frontend uses XBap which is a derivative of Silverlight. I knew we should have gone for HTML5 frontend which would work cross platform and browser rather than an IE only thing. Oh well, those in charge get the final say... *sigh*
 
Silverlight was built on a flawed premise to begin with. It wanted to be a "better flash". The world would be better off without flash or any likenesses.
 
Silverlight was built on a flawed premise to begin with. It wanted to be a "better flash". The world would be better off without flash or any likenesses.

aghhh, Adobe flash can die as well.
on a similar note, is java dead yet?
 
Microsoft always stop only the best parts, the bullshits are growing, Windows 10 not else than a bullshit hill.
 
Microsoft always stop only the best parts, the bullshits are growing, Windows 10 not else than a bullshit hill.

OK... now this is difficult to interpret... but I'm ASSUMING you're stating that Silverlight is the best part?? Of what?!?! Silverlight is old, and while it performed decently years ago, has clearly been superseded by other platforms - HTML5 being the main one...

And why does Windows 10 become a bullshit hill?? If you're going to troll, try English - and maybe add some proof?
 
The underlying technology issue is ActiveX which 1) has always been an infection vector and 2) used only by widows platforms. No mobile device supports it either. So if all others can get by without ActiveX, so can Windows, IE, Edge, Silverlight, et al.
 
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