Silverlight is Microsoft's cross-browser, cross platform plug-in for media experiences and rich interactive applications. The latest Silverlight version available is Silverlight 5.
Microsoft Silverlight is a powerful tool for creating and delivering rich Internet applications and media experiences on the Web. Silverlight 5 builds on the foundation of Silverlight 4 for building business applications and premium media experiences. Among other capabilities, the Silverlight 5 highlights dramatic video quality and performance improvements, and features that improve developer productivity.
Download Silverlight 5 from http://www.silverlight.net/downloads
Top Release Candidate Features
Binding and Related
- ICustomTypeProvider
- Custom Markup Extensions
- Ancestor RelativeSource Binding
- Implicit Data Templates
- Binding in Style Setters
- DataContextChanged Event (new since beta)
- PropertyChanged now an UpdateSourceTrigger option (new since beta)
Graphics
- XNA 3D API
- Improved Graphics Stack
- 3D Render targets (new since beta)
- XNA 3D built-in effects (new since beta)
- 3D surface composition settings (new since beta)
- 3D multi-sample anti-aliasing (new since beta)
Media
- Low-Latency Sound using XNA SoundEffect and SoundEffectInstance
- Hardware decoding of H.264 media
- Variable Speed Playback and Trick-play (new since beta)
- Remote Control and Media Command (Keys) Support (new since beta)
Text
- Text Tracking and Leading
- Linked and Multi-column Text
- OpenType Support (new since beta)
- Pixel Snapped Text and TextOptions (new since beta)
Operating System Integration
- P/Invoke (new since beta)
- Multiple Windows
- Unrestricted File System Access in Full Trust
- Full Trust in-browser
- Default Filename in SaveFileDialog and OpenFileDialog (new since beta)
- 64 bit browser support (new since beta)
- Power awareness for media apps (keep the PC alive while a movie is playing, for example) (new since beta)
Productivity and Performance
- Network Latency Improvements
- Databinding Debugging
- Parser Performance Improvements
- Multi-core JIT for improved start-up time
Controls
- Double and n-click support
- PivotViewer (new since beta)
- ComboBox type-ahead/incremental search
Other
- In-browser HTML
- PostScript Vector Printing (new since beta)
- Tasks from TPL (new since beta)
- C# Covariance and Contravariance
More on this list at Pete's Blog.
See also: