Silverlight Support

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  1. Silverlight will reach the end of support on October 12, 2021. Silverlight development framework is currently only supported on Internet Explorer 10 and Internet Explorer 11, with support for Internet Explorer 10 ending on January 31, 2020. There is no longer support for Chrome, Firefox, or any browser using the Mac operating system.
  2. Silverlight’s license is a perpetual license and is not tied to the continuation of support. While support will be ending in October 2021, this date does not affect the license, which continues in effect for as long as the customer is using the software and complies with the terms of the license.

For security reasons new builds of Microsoft Office for Microsoft 365 on Windows block activation of Flash, Silverlight, and Shockwave controls. Most users won't be impacted, but for some users this may cause one of the following issues:

  • When you click on an embedded Flash movie in PowerPoint Slide Show, nothing happens even though this worked before.

  • Power View in Excel does not work anymore (because it uses Silverlight). Lightroom 1 for mac. You may see an error message that says 'Activate method of OLEObject class failed'.

  • Flash content is displayed as a blank page with an X when you click a folder that has the folder homepage set in Outlook.

How to clean a corrupted Silverlight installation and then reinstall Silverlight Symptoms. When working with Microsoft Silverlight you may encounter the following scenarios: Install Microsoft Silverlight. Upgrade to another version of Microsoft Silverlight. Uninstall Microsoft Silverlight. Microsoft Silverlight does not work as expected.

Support

Unblock these controls by editing the registry

Caution: Follow these steps carefully. Serious problems may occur if you modify the registry incorrectly. Before you start we recommend that you have a known good backup of your registry. See this article for more information: How to back up and restore the registry in Windows.

  1. Exit all Microsoft Office applications

  2. Narrow aisle. Start the Registry Editor by tapping Start (or pressing the Windows key on your keyboard) then typing regedit and pressing enter.

  3. Locate the proper registry subkey. It will be one of the following:

    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftOffice16.0CommonCOM Compatibility
    (for 64-bit Office, or 32-bit Office on 32-bit Windows)

    or

    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREWOW6432NodeMicrosoftOffice16.0CommonCOM Compatibility
    (for 32-bit Office on 64-bit Windows)

    Note: The COM Compatibility node may not be present by default. If you don't see it, add it by right-clicking the Common node and choosing Add Key.

  4. Add a new subkey with the CLSID of the control you want to unblock as the value by right-clicking the COM Compatibility node and choosing Add Key.

    Control

    CLSID

    Flash

    {D27CDB6E-AE6D-11CF-96B8-444553540000}

    {D27CDB70-AE6D-11CF-96B8-444553540000}

    Silverlight

    {DFEAF541-F3E1-4c24-ACAC-99C30715084A}

    Shockwave

    {233C1507-6A77-46A4-9443-F871F945D258}

    Note: For Flash you'll need to add two subkeys, one for each of its CLSID's.

  5. Within that new subkey we're going to add two new values by right-clicking the new subkey and choosing New > DWORD (32-bit) Value.

    • A REG_DWORD hexadecimal value called Compatibility Flags with a value of 0.

    • A REG_DWORD hexadecimal value called ActivationFilterOverride with a value of 1.

  6. Exit Registry Editor and start your application. The control you need should be unblocked now.

Example

For example, to unblock Silverlight in order to get Power View working in Office 2016, 64-bit, on Windows you would locate this registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftOffice16.0CommonCOM Compatibility

Silverlight

Microsoft Silverlight Support

Note: Remember, if the COM Compatibility node doesn't exist yet you'll need to create it.

Then add a subkey with the value {DFEAF541-F3E1-4c24-ACAC-99C30715084A}.

Silverlight Support End

In this case, the resulting path is HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftOffice16.0CommonCOM Compatibility{DFEAF541-F3E1-4c24-ACAC-99C30715084A}.

Silverlight Support Dropped

To that subkey you'll add a REG_DWORD value called Compatibility Flags with a value of 0, and a REG_DWORD value called ActivationFilterOverride with a value of 1.

Silverlight Browser Support

See Also