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Norton Security

Nigel — Sun, 29 Dec 2024 16:04:55 GMT

Hello all - Norton Security "Contact Us" sent me here & I apologise if I've selected the wrong "Board" for my question.

Norton just flagged up - Silverlight 5.1.50918.0 - & it says "This program has reached its end of life & may pose additional risks. You may want to uninstall this program or exclude it from future scans".

A search seems to tell me that it went end of life in 2021, so I'm wondering why Norton has flagged it now - it's the first time I've ever seen it mentioned.

I don't really understand what it does, nor do I know what to do - uninstall it or leave it alone? I don't want things to suddenly stop working. If anyone can help me, I'd be most grateful.

With thanks for your time & attention & my best wishes for a Happy New Year 🙂

Re: Norton Security

gg30340 — Sun, 29 Dec 2024 16:34:29 GMT

Silverlight is an old Microsoft add on which is no longer supported by Microsoft.

Unless you have a need for it and given that you were/are unsure what it is I doubt that you actually do need it so you can just uninstall it if you want.

The following links might give you a better idea about it and whether or not you want to uninstall it. Personally I would uninstall it.

https://malwaretips.com/blogs/microsoft-silverlight-what-it-is-should-i-remove-it/

https://interestingengineering.com/innovation/what-was-microsoft-silverlight

Re: Norton Security

WSH — Sun, 29 Dec 2024 17:05:00 GMT

That’s a name from the past.

We were taking it off systems before I retired, as it had become a notorious vulnerability, and I’ve been retired seven years now. That must be a really old system you’ve got there, mate. Not still running Shockwave and Flash Player are you?

Re: Norton Security

Nigel — Sun, 29 Dec 2024 17:16:40 GMT

Thank you for your very helpful reply, gg30340, I will uninstall it when I get back to the PC.

Re: Norton Security

Nigel — Sun, 29 Dec 2024 17:19:39 GMT

WSH - Recognised Expert - in sarcasm perhaps? Certainly not helpful answers.

Re: Norton Security

WSH — Sun, 29 Dec 2024 17:36:41 GMT

Oh, sorry. It geniuely wasn't intended to come across that way.

Actually, to clarify that a bit, Flash and Shockwave were found to be fundamentally insecure and so were removed from most sytems long ago. Silverlight was Microsoft’s own version and was removed for similar reasons. What I meant was, if you also have Flash (or Shockwave) still installed you ought to be thinking about removing those too.

Re: Norton Security

Nigel — Mon, 30 Dec 2024 12:43:21 GMT

WSH - then my apologies & for the late reply. The PC isn't that old (6 years-ish), certainly no Flash or Shockwave. I wondered why Norton has only now decided to mention Silverlight. I'll remove it shortly & fingers crossed everything still works afterwards.