How to Run Silverlight in Opera

By | May 12, 2009 | 11 Comments

How to Run Silverlight in OperaAs I still see some threads popping out on how to install Silverlight on Opera web browser, though will make it clear:

Despite the fact that it gives you an “unsupported browser” error message when trying to download it, ignore that. Just download and install, it will work (there are issues though).

Joe Stegman however, listed a few of them which you might want to consider before installing it:

1. The MS AJAX issue.
2. Silverlight does not work in Opera when using windowless mode (
). This will show a blank page with the Opera status area saying “Click to activate and use this control”. This is being investigated by the Silverlight team and has also been reported to the Opera development team. The only work-around is to not use windowless mode.
3. The Silverlight TextBox cannot receive focus (and therefore you cannot select/change text in the TextBox). There is no current workaround to this issue.

Download Silverlight: Windows | Mac
Close Opera
Install Silverlight
Open any page which requires Silverlight
Enjoy?

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About (Author Profile)


Vygantas is a former web designer whose projects are used by companies such as AMD, NVIDIA and departed Westood Studios. Being passionate about software, Vygantas began his journalism carrier back in 2007 when he founded FavBrowser.com. Having said that, he is also an adrenaline junkie who enjoys good books, fitness activities and Forex trading.

  • HaRT

    Or don’t install it at all and never miss anything.

  • Golden Boy

    its a well known fact that silverlight beats flash, especially in hd

    • http://none Stewart

      Sorry Golden Boy you are incorrect. SilverLight does not beat Flash in resolution. I subscribe to NetFlix. I went through the transition phase from Windows Media Player Plug-in platform to SilverLight. It was a half a year of aggrevation. Windows Media Player plug-in streamed extremely nicely and the resolution was Flawless…with SilverLight, if you have a scene with a very dark or black background, such as…a night sky in a movie, you can actually see the pixels that make up the images in the SilverLight Plug-in Player. When NetFlix Movie Server initiates the SilverLight Plug-in and starts the video stream the movie starts semi-pixelated because the resolution of typically 1500 is still catching up to the Buffer. Now…in regard to your assertion to the difference in HD and the Plug-ins. Your assertion with regard to SilverLight’s alledged advantage over Flash in HD is unfounded. The HD of 3200 is currently an impossibilty to view in any reasonable fashion because most people that watch NetFlix or any other lengthy video streams in HD don’t have the CPU Power or Graphics card to adequately present it smoothly… not to mention all the applications and Anti-Virus programs they have running, yes I said “Anti-Virus Programs” because most people run 2 to 4…typically 3 Anti-Virus Programs and the biggest is that most people have 5 to 7 year old Computers that aren’t Core Duo let alone Quad Core with…at minimum, 4 Gigs of RAM and preferably 8 Gigs. How can I say that? I work on other peoples computers everyday. I have a Data Recovery Company (6 years) and also do general repairs in the course of data recoveries…and let’s not forget about their ISP’s bandwidth issues..and they all have them…issues that is. Lastly, if what you say was true the SilverLight Platform would have already squashed the way the Movie Companies deliver their Trailers online. Ta Dahhh ! The End.

  • Ledz

    Add to that, silverlight is entirely free, whereas flash costs, what? 700 dollars?

  • Mandolin

    Can i run Siliverlight on linux?

  • nobody

    Well, what ive read here is that silverlight DOES NOT work in opera, and installing it isnt worth anyones while.

    If you cant edit any text (or to put it in broader perspective – it does not respond do keyboard input) you cannot call it ‘working’. Yes, it can initialize, it can render some images if requested, but it does not work.

    MS AJAX issue (ie, server side browser sniffing) is only a small part of a problem, and it can be avoided with rewrite-proxy. however problems with inputs etc show that opera Netscape plugin architecture is a) paranoidicaly strict b) non standard c) not up to the task

    it is opera who is guilty, not ms. somehow it does work no problems in safari..

    and yes, silverlight is better than flash, because of very tight .net integration. any developer out there knows what does that mean. (excluding blind anti-ms-idiots who criticise company while judging products)

  • http://www.favbrowser.com Vygantas Lipskas

    Mandolin,

    There is a Linux alternative called Moonlight.

    nobody, I agree. At least you can still load some videos (HD somehow doesn’t work though) :-)

    As for Opera’s fault, it’s probably true, as Chrome had few same issues as well which they managed to fix.

  • Mol10

    @nobody: You forgot that Safari is officially supported by Silverlight, while Opera isn’t. Which means, Microsoft tests Silverlight regularly with Safari, and solves the occurring problems. Chrome is based on WebKit, just like Safari, so maybe it is easier to work around issues with Silverlight for one flavor of WebKit (Chrome) when there is a fully working version for another flavor (Safari).

  • ps

    AFAIK Safari worked with Silverlight from the day one. It wasn’t supported, but it was functional even before MS decided to support it. My money is on ‘it is Opera’s fault’ this time.

  • diz

    Not sure about 1 but 2 and 3 are already fixed in Opera 10 snapshot builds.

  • nobody

    are you using some non-public builds? because latest builds have the same issues with SL as Opera 7. IT-DOES-NOT-WORK. no text input, no ability to watch HD (just checked), weird graphic filters behaviour etc etc. There are lots of tech demos on MS page, most of them DO NOT work in opera at all, others are non-functional.

    whad do you mean by ‘fixed’ anyway?

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