How do I tell Windows to shut up about Silverlight?

Question

The problem is described well here, so I won't repeat it; but basically, hiding the Silverlight update the naive way doesn't work.

So the question is -- how do I tell Windows to shut up about Silverlight and stop bringing it up on the list?

Solution 1

So, problem is there are 7 different versions of Silverlight. Some are older, some are newer.

You can manually Hide, "Check for Updates", Options, Hide them in a loop 7 or more times. I don't want to do that manually so I wrote a WSH js, save as WUA_xSilverlight.js:

var wu_Session = WScript.CreateObject("Microsoft.Update.Session");
var wu_Searcher = wu_Session.CreateUpdateSearcher();
wu_Searcher.Online = false;

do {
  WScript.echo("Searching...");
  var silverstreak = false;
  var searchResult = wu_Searcher.Search("IsHidden=0 And IsInstalled=0");

  for(var i=0; i<searchResult.Updates.Count; i++){
    var wupdate = searchResult.Updates.Item(i);
    if ( ! wupdate.Title.indexOf("Microsoft Silverlight") ) { // if -1
    wupdate.IsHidden=1;
    WScript.echo("   Hiding update: " + wupdate.Title);
    silverstreak = true;
    }
  }
} while ( silverstreak );  // repeat search

Execute the saved file: cscript.exe WUA_xSilverlight.js. I could have optimized the search and so the code, but it works so blah.

Solution 2

The issue became clear to me when I hid Bing Desktop v1.3 and Bing Desktop 1.2 showed up next. Upon careful inspection I had noticed that the Silverlight updates are each with a different date.

So lets say there are 10 Silverlight versions released. V10 will obsolete v1 through v9 and only v10 will show up. Choosing to hide v10 will cause v9 to show up, hiding v9 will show v8 the next time you check for updates, and so on and so forth.

If you are persistent about it you can hide every single version of Silverlight and it stops showing up (until the next version is released by MS).

Solution 3

I recently had this issue also, after installing a Windows 7 VM for work. Having not used Windows for quite some time this was very annoying to me as well.

I had a clean installation of Windows 7, upgraded to whatever the latest service pack is as of this writing and I'd refused to install Silverlight. However, it appears that Windows 7's service packs now "preload" portions of Silverlight, making it show up in Windows Update even when not technically fully installed. Highly irritating.

To fix this issue, I followed the removal directions in the following article from Microsoft's Support website: How to clean a corrupted Silverlight installation and then reinstall Silverlight.

After doing the complete removal from the "Let me fix it myself" section, Silverlight has not once showed up in my Windows Update.

Update (2015 09 17): If you have Microsoft Office installed, this won't work. It works on Windows 7 as described. Upon installing Office 2013, Silverlight gets installed and the updates in Microsoft Update persist. I haven't yet found a way to stop it with Office installed. Without Office, maybe only Office 2013, these instructions still work.

Solution 4

If the fixit solution doesn't work (like it did not for me), here is a bit more detailed solution.

1. Click right mouse button on it, select Hide.
2. Press ALT + Up or the up arrow next to the address bar
3. If there is again a Silverlight update available, repeat steps 1. and 2.

View more solutions

Comments

[Bon Gart]

explain "it's not installed". What's not installed? Microsoft Office? He was simply giving you an example of another Microsoft Product that you would ALSO not get update notifications about, if you follow that recommended solution. So, you disable the update notifications for Microsoft products (not Windows) and you don't get update notifications for Silverlight or any other Microsoft product.

[user276648]

You may think that the same "update" appears over and over again, but it's not. I just installed a new system. As I don't need Silverlight (or more precisely the Silverlight plugin for my webbrowsers) I chose to hide the "update" (which is actually not an update as Silverlight is not installed). When I click "Check for updates" again, the same Silverlight "update" seems to appear again, except it's not the same: it has a different ID. After hiding and checking for new updates several times, Silverlight doesn't appear anymore. The next time a new version will be out, it will reappear though.

[nope]

its freaking annoying, I've repeatly for the last 3 days selected "hide this update" and it keeps popping up each day.

[Admin]

There are only about 10 Silverlight updates as of right now, so once you have no other updates you can just keep checking for new updates, hide the Silverlight one, then again and again until you hid them all.

[Diego Queiroz]

Just keeping the information updated: currently there are 10 Silverlights to hide.

[Adamantus]

I have the same problem. There is an "optional" update for Windows. I look through the list and it's Silverlight, which I don't want. So I click hide and install the other ones. Then the next day there is another "optional" update. There's nothing optional about having something rammed down your throat every day. Malicious software removal tools are also pretty annoying.

[Bryson]

This is a terrible non-solution. The issue is not that he does not like Windows Update updates, it's that Windows Update continues showing him an "optional" update for Silverlight which he hasn't installed. Disabling Windows Update completely may be the worst security advice you can give any Windows user, for any reason.

[nope]

Indeed terrible, you dont disable windows update, thats crazy - you only need to remove 1 single item you dont want installed on your computer. Its like, okay - I dont like the amount of gas my car uses, so remove the engine.

[nope]

so you installed the plugin after all? the idea here is to GET RIDE of the plugin and keep it from popping up in Windows update.

[tiaga]

Like @Ohto below - I tried this (ran all the deletes in a batch file), but WU kept moaning until I hid every update as he suggested. Maybe I missed something? EDIT: I wonder if clearing the WU Download directory (%windir%\SoftwareDistribution\Download) would have negated the need for hiding?

[Bryson]

I had to attempt this like 4 or 5 times last time I reinstalled my Windows 7 VM in VMWare Fusion. It eventually worked, but they're changing things apparently. Not sure what or why.

[Admin]

That key doesn't exist on my system. I assume it's only created once you already installed Silverlight, but in this case we don't want to install it at all.

[Ben Voigt]

@Bryson: Moab did not recommend disabling Windows update, but unchecking the box marked "Microsoft Update - check for new optional Microsoft software when I update Windows" (unfortunately, it's the same checkbox that controls updates for non-OS Microsoft products you do have installed). Unchecking that won't stop OS updates the way that disabling Windows Update completely would.

[user541686]

+1 Whoa, this is really cool! I didn't know such a thing was even possible, thanks for that!

[Tony Marques]

After writing this, this has become one of my favorite scriptlets, forget about optimizing the search... to see everything it finds (really useful in windows 10 where you see less) -- you can make a small adjustment: after "silverstreak = true;" and before the "}\n}\n}", add: "} else { WScript.echo(".............. " + wupdate.Title);" ......... this displays all the available updates, so even in windows 7 on a domain computer it will show you that windows 10 is waiting and in windows 10 it displays optional updates like for drivers.

[bpiec]

The most important information from your answer is that there are several updates called "Microsoft Silverlight" (with different KB number) and they get actually hidden but you need to repeat the process several times.

[chiliNUT]

there's at least 16 ATOW

[iBug]

For the record, I have hidden 15 Silverlights now. They are KB2512827, KB2617986, KB2636927, KB2668562, KB2977218, KB3056819, KB3080333, KB3106614, KB3126036, KB3162593, KB3182373, KB3193713, KB4013867, KB4017094, KB4023307.

[cdlvcdlv]

How could the script check admin permissions and ask for them if necessary?