- Look for Install Silverlight in the lower-right section of the window. If you are running an Intel processor, click Mac Runtimefound next to Silverlight 3. If not, click Runtime for Mac PowerPClocate next to Silverlight 1.0. Once the download is complete, installation will automatically begin. Follow the steps outlined in the installation wizard.
- Silverlight 4 on MAC? After bad expiriance with Linux my clients will not able to use my web site. Can Silverlight used from business or is JUST FOR FUN.
- RECOMMENDED: Use Silverlight in the 32-bit Internet Explorer process on x64 systems. Most browser plug-ins (including Silverlight, Flash, Java and almost all ActiveX controls) only work in 32-bit browsers currently.
To see a table of compatible browsers and operating systems, select your version of Silverlight below (or click here to go to Microsoft's Silverlight Homepage and select Silverlight-compatible operating systems):
Note: Currently, only version 4 of Silverlight will run in Google Chrome on a Mac OS X; and only version 5 of Silverlight will run in a 64-bit version of Internet Explorer.
Browser & Version Ø Operating System Ú | Internet Explorer | Firefox | Safari | Chrome | ||||
11 | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 12 + | 4 + | 12 + | |
Windows OS | ||||||||
8.1 Desktop | Yes* | |||||||
8 Desktop | Yes* | Yes | Yes | |||||
Server 2012 | Yes* | Yes | Yes | |||||
7 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ||||
7 SP1 | Yes* | Yes* | Yes | Yes | Yes | |||
Vista | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |||
XP w/ SP2 or SP3 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ||||
Server 2008 R2 SP1 | Yes* | Yes* | Yes | Yes | ||||
Server 2008 SP2 | Yes | Yes | Yes | |||||
Server 2003 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ||||
*= Supports 64-bit mode | ||||||||
Mac OS 10.5.7+ | ||||||||
Intel-based | Yes | Yes |
Minimal Computer Requirements
- To download Silverlight specifically for *64-bit Internet Explorer in Windows, you can go to http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=229321, or select End-User Runtime for Windows (64-bit) at www.silverlight.net/downloads .
- To download Silverlight specifically for Mac OSX (32-bit), you can go to http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=229322, or select End-User Runtime for Mac OSX (32-bit) at www.silverlight.net/downloads .
Browser* & Version Ø Operating System Ú | Internet Explorer | Firefox | Safari | Chrome | |||
9 + | 8 | 7 | 6 | 3.6 + | 4 + | 4 + | |
Windows OS | |||||||
7 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |||
7 SP1 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |||
Vista | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ||
XP w/ SP2 or SP3 | Yes | Yes | (Yes) | Yes | Yes | ||
Server 2008 R2 SP1 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ||
Server 2008 SP2 | Yes | Yes | Yes | ||||
Server 2003 | Yes | Yes | (Yes) | Yes | Yes | ||
2000 SP4+ | (Yes) | Yes | |||||
Mac OS 10.4.11+ | |||||||
Intel-based | Yes | Yes | (Yes) | ||||
Linux or Unix/X11 OS (uncertain) | Moonlight | Moonlight | |||||
*All browsers in 32-bit mode |
Minimal Computer Requirements
![Silverlight Silverlight](/uploads/1/1/8/8/118803370/872113781.png)
Compatibility Add-on for Chrome or Firefox
- Download Selected Version of Silverlight:
- Silverlight 5 for Windows (32-bit) (See compatibility issues note 1 above)
- Silverlight 5 for Mac OSX 32-bit (See compatibility issues note 1 above)
- Microsoft Support for Silverlight (currently no charge for install or uninstall issues)
{rev 11.01.2013}
![Mac Mac](/uploads/1/1/8/8/118803370/360040076.png)
Cross Platform? What’s that?
Previous .Net UI frameworks like WPF & WinForms were mostly limited to running exclusively on Windows machines.
Silverlight differs from WinForms & WPF in that it runs primarily in the browser and works on multiple operating systems.
From the history of web development (especially from Javascript) we all recognize the importance of writing code that runs on multiple browsers and operating systems.
The Misconception – Silverlight is 100% Cross Platform
It’s quite easy to see why when first introducing Silverlight speakers don’t immediately go “Well, sort of Cross Platform” or reserve themselves by saying “mostly cross-platform that is.”
- “[…] capability of software to run identically on different platforms […]” – Source
- “Of software, etc., designed to work on various operating systems” - Source
In that strict sense of the definition, Silverlight does have some places where it behaves differently for different operating systems.
There’s a small, yet important, list of differences in how code executes on a Mac and on a Windows machine.
This article is only sourced from MSDN
I’ve compiled this list based on the following Bing search: site:msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library Silverlight AND ('Mac' OR 'Macintosh' OR 'OS X')
Difference #1: WindowLess is always True
“For Windows, you can display a browser-hosted Silverlight content area in either a windowed mode or a windowless mode. For Windows, the default is a windowed mode.
Which sounds pretty harmless, until we run into issues like this one:
Silverlight 4 For Mac Download
While on a Windows machine, the background would look perfectly solid.
That would cause a performance hit on a Mac, while leaving Windows machines completely unaffected.
Difference #2: Different System.Net.Sockets Stack
On Apple Mac OS X, the System.Net.Sockets namespace provides a managed implementation of the sockets interface based on Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD) UNIX.” - MSDN
Perfectly sensible approach, but that might cause some divergent coding differences between Mac and Windows. Like this one:
Pioneer xdj rx. This should cause developers to revaluate how you use the SendBufferSize property, and BeginSendTo & BeginSendToGroup methods.
Difference #3: Different source for HighContrast mode
When providing instructions to end-users on how to enable HighContrast mode for an application, it’s important to remember these differences.
Difference #4: Different Exception details
However, if the exception arises from a Macintosh the Line number and Column positions might be all wrong.
Difference #5: HtmlPage.Window doesn’t equal itself
Difference #6: MessageBox will always have an Icon
While Windows machines will not show any icon.
This may be an important difference for applications when visual consistency is an important factor.
Difference #7: Cross-Zone networking security restrictions
The concept of security zones and cross-zone access is not currently supported for Silverlight applications running on the Apple OS X.” – MSDN
1) Cross-Domain: The famous restrictions developers know and love from clientaccesspolicy.xml. Based on a comparison of site-of-origin and the location of the remote networking resource.
2) Cross-Zone: A restriction based on the zone-of-origin (internet, intranet, trust or local) an application was downloaded from and which zone a network resource is located in.
However, on a Mac the cross-zone restrictions don’t take place, either by being fully blocked or by being fully allowed.
If an application uses Cross-Zone networking it is important to make sure those work in a Macintosh environment.
Difference #8: Silverlight 4 Drag & Drop
There is special HTML & Javascript code that needs to be included to assure that Silverlight 4 Drop support in enabled on a mac.
Difference #9: Uris
Difference #10: BCL classes
Silverlight 4 Para Mac
Difference #11: Exiting Full Screen Keystrokes
If an application provides guidance for users on how to exit full-screen mode, it might be best to limit it to “Press ‘Esc’ to exit full screen mode” or some such similar message.
Difference #12: Silverlight 4 COM Automation
While going from Silverlight 4 Beta and Silverlight 4 RC the class has been renamed from “ComAutomationFactory” to “AutomationFactory”. Signalling that Macintosh might be supported for this feature in the future.
“A ha! A Microsoft Conspiracy!”
These same differences would realistically have to exist in one form or another in other RIA platforms such as Flash and JavaFX.
Remember that .Net at it’s core is just a framework abstraction on top of the O/S.
And as anyone who’s ever written a framework knows, some differences cannot be abstracted away.
Most of these differences aren’t in the Silverlight UI rendering itself, but more towards O/S integration or Browser integration.
Be aware of these issues and work to avoid them.
What can Microsoft do? Option #1 - Developer Education
It always saddens me to see YetAnotherConference(TM) that doesn’t mention this topic at all.
While it’s definitely not in anyone’s best interest to point out Silverlight isn’t fully cross-platform, it’s better to educate developers then pretend it is.
While there is a MSDN article titled Silverlight Differences on Windows and the Macintosh it is minimal and does not contain most examples found elsewhere on MSDN and others that must surely exist. It is imperative that Microsoft properly documents these non Cross-Platform issues in a central location.
What can Microsoft do? Option #2 - Visual Studio Warnings
What should developers do? Option #1 – Educate ourselves
If up until you’ve read this article you’ve thought Silverlight is 100% cross-platform, maybe your colleagues do to?
What should developers do? Option #2 – Report bugs to Microsoft
The “Connect” system allows you to report bugs to microsoft and follow up to make sure they’re fixed.
Report bugs on Connect @ http://tinyurl.com/SilverlightBug
What should developers do? Option #3 – Automated Nightly Tests
There’s quite a bit of infrastructure work involved, and if you don’t know how to test there’s a steep learning curve.
But having automated tests that execute nightly is the best thing we can do to help ourselves spot these issues early.
As of November 2009 it is possible to execute Silverlight Unit Tests from the command line prompt, see Jeff Wilcox’s post @ Walkthrough: The power of the November 2009 Silverlight Toolkit testing tools
Fin
Silverlight 4.0 Download
We’ve seen many examples from MSDN that clearly state Silverlight is not fully Cross-Platform.
And we’ve gone over what we as Developers should do to overcome this issue, and what Microsoft can do to help.
I’d also like to thank David Gadd, Chris Walsh and Kelly White for providing feedback on this article before it was published.