Microsoft Silverlight support ends October 12, 2021: here is what you need to know

Microsoft will end support for all versions of the Silverlight development framework on October 12, 2021. Silverlight applications, which are still supported by the company's web browser Internet Explorer 11, will continue to work after end of support but Microsoft won't produce updates of any kind for the technology anymore.

The official Silverlight hub on the Microsoft website has a banner at the top that reminds users visiting it about the upcoming end of support.

Silverlight is not available anymore already on Mac OS devices, and browser makers such as Google or Mozilla removed support for Silverlight in their browsers in 2015 and 2017 respectively.

Microsoft's Edge browser does not support Silverlight, but the integrated IE Mode of the browser supports it. Internet Explorer 11, which is set to be retired on June 15, 2022, is the only browser that supports it natively. After June 15, 2022, Microsoft Edge's IE Mode is the only official option that users have to run Silverlight applications.

Applications that rely on Silverlight will continue to function. Microsoft notes on the official FAQ page that it "is not planning to take any specific action to terminate Silverlight applications".  Companies can continue to run Silverlight assets legally after October 12, 2021 according to Microsoft, as the license is not tied to the continuation of support.

The official Silverlight website will remain available, but Microsoft will remove the Silverlight installer from the website after the end of support date.

Open Source Silverlight alternative

In 2020, the OpenSilver project emerged to provide companies with a modern Silverlight implementation based on modern technologies. The developers behind the project have relased OpenSilver 1.0 Beta recently and revealed plans to release the final version of OpenSilver 1.0 on October 12, 2021.

Designed specifically for companies that use legacy Silverlight applications, OpenSilver may be used to migrate legacy Silverlight applications without losing access to the application or the functionalities it provides.

Closing Words

Most Silverlight applications that are still in use today are used by organizations and companies. It is rare to find a Silverlight application on the Internet that is still maintained and used, and most Internet users have probably not encountered one in a long while, especially since support has been limited to Internet Explorer 10/11 and Microsoft Edge in IE Mode for a long time.

Microsoft Silverlight support ends October 12, 2021: here is what you need to know