Silverlight is Microsoft’s equivalent of Adobe’s Flash and is a web browser plug in that is used to display graphics and provide playback of several media formats. It means that developers of browser-based applications don’t have to create multiple versions for different browsers since Silverlight provides a consistent runtime environment.
However, Silverlight is relatively recent and therefore is not as well-established as Flash, meaning that there are fewer applications that support it. It is also a browser-only solution, whereas Flash can also be deployed on the desktop.
Why You Need to Uninstall Silverlight
There are reported instances of Silverlight causing Internet Explorer to crash, particularly when installed with Internet Explorer 7. If you have experienced problems with Internet Explorer closing down for no apparent reason and have Silverlight browser extensions installed, you might want to try to remove them to see if this cures the problem.
Installing a later version of Silverlight requires that any previous version is first uninstalled. If this is not done, the installation will fail until you delete Silverlight.
Errors may also result from seemingly unrelated software installations. Later versions of Visual Studio, for example, will install the Silverlight runtime and software developers’ kit as part of the package. If these are already installed, problems will result and so you should firstly uninstall everything relating to Silverlight.
Of course, you may simply find that there are insufficient applications that support Silverlight and that Flash is a better prospect. However, this situation may change as Silverlight continues to develop.
Uninstall Silverlight
Microsoft’s recommended method to delete Silverlight is to use the standard Windows uninstaller. At the Control Panel, select Add or Remove Programs or Programs and Functions (depending on your version of Windows) to list all installed programs. Select the non-required versions of Silverlight, choose to uninstall and follow the prompts.
In case Silverlight does not show up in the list of installed programs, the best option is to download and install Silverlight again. This should correct any corrupt installation settings and restore the uninstall entry.
As with many uninstallations, this may not delete Silverlight entirely. In particular, it will probably leave behind some registry entries and you may be able to remove these using a specialist registry cleaner. However, if you do this, be careful which one you choose because some cause more problems than they solve. To be safe, backup your registry and create a restore point before starting so that you can get back to a situation that worked.
If you have a problem when trying to uninstall Silverlight, you may be able to resolve this by downloading and running the Windows Installer Cleanup Utility. You must be logged in as an administrator to run it and will select Silverlight from the list of installed products.
The utility does not remove any files or folders but instead clears the installer configuration so that, as far as Windows is concerned, the installation of Silverlight no longer exists. You can then reinstall the application or manually delete the program folders for Silverlight.
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12 Comments to “How to Uninstall Silverlight”
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Software Tip
I have tried to uninstall Silverlight and every time I try an update pops up, should I say yes update or no?
@cgh – What is the update showing? Is it about Silverlight? If so, say no. You can simply ignore the Silverlight related updates.
Yes it is about Silverlight, I have Windows7 so it says:
Do you want the following program to update software on this computer?
Program name: Silverlight
Verified publisher: Microsoft Corporation
File origin: Hard drive on this computer
Yes No
Well, I have found that Silverlight let in the registry many and many raw that must be handy deleted. This is very stupid and I don’t understand why MS have created this kind of software without using a simple way to uninstall silverlight.
@PerniceRossa – Consider the fact that Silverlight is MS’s way to try and compete with software like Adobe Flash, which is kind of the de facto standard for animations already. So they don’t really want users to uninstall Silverlight…
Microsoft was going to call me about a issure and never did I am not happy with your silverlight program and am afraid to try and get it out of my machine as I am afraid that something will happen that I cannot handle at all I have the Adobe installed and do not see why you did put t his in my machine and all the up-dates are trouble to my machine a tech was to call me this last week on thursday I waited and he never did call case no 8667272338 so all one does is wait an you do not call I wanted to have them take care of this Silverlight thing too but no help well have a good day
I have been trying for a couple of weeks to remove Silverlight because each night when I shut off my computer it shows updates for silverlight which can never load. I try to remove it from my programs and get advised that I have to prove that it is a valid patch program. I’m supposed to prove to Microsoft that the program they installed is valid? What kind of nonsense is this? I have tried every way I can find on the net to remove this but am certainly not computer literate enough to understand all these instructions. I get told to go to regedit which I can do with no problem but then am told to navigate to HKLM/etc and there is no place to navigate from regedit and no HKLM category. Seems I either have to accept this cancer on my computer or buy a new hard drive. WONDERFUL HUH?
This video is totally useless for the situation where silverlight wants to access a non-existant file named
99aa61d68c2b93a297cf on my drive g:
Silverlight updates also keep looking for this file. It does not exist on any of my drives.
Solve problem cannot uninstall silverlight
After several problems with update requests and debugs during updates not possible at all to uninstall it.
Solve the problem once for ever!
- Download the freeware IObit Uninstaller (standalone)
- Run it
- Be sure you make a backup
- Select Silverlight
- Klick UNINSTALL Button
- Let IObit scan the registry
- Select all Silverlight’s
- Delete them
… Thats it …
Have fun
@cgh and others seeing the same message
This is not asking about an update, this is asking for permission to remove Silverlight (which is an “update” of your computers settings from Silverlight to no Silverlight). You have to say yes to uninstall Silverlight, saying no keeps Silverlight.
The moron who chose the words for that UAC dialog obviously was not thinking straight about the confusion his/her misuse of the word “update” would cause.
The dialog should really have said “Do you want this uninstaller to make changes to your computers settings?”.
@Santa ; thanx dude ! Finally got wrid of it !!!
I just a got a new laptop (Windows 7) which came with all kinds of junk preloaded. And of course, it has SilverLight installed as well. My laptop and browser work fine. But I noticed that there were (already!) several installer key entries in the registry for the SL (all with different strings of numbers). I made a point of checking this because the same issue was there in my old laptop with Vista on it. How can I remove these redundant SL version keys (painlessly) from the registry? Why doesn’t MS build an auto uninstaller to remove older version along with the updates?