Silverlight is a powerful development platform for creating engaging, interactive user experiences for Web, desktop, and mobile applications when online or offline. Silverlight is a free plug-in, powered by the .NET framework and compatible with multiple browsers, devices and operating systems, bringing a new level of interactivity wherever the Web works. Silverlight 4 adds a ton of new features, like webcam, microphone, and printing, to enable you to create incredible applications.

Get Started with Silverlight with One Install

Or, if you already have Visual Studio 2010 installed, and prefer not to use the Web Platform installer, you can still get everything you need by downloading the Silverlight 4 Tools for Visual Studio 2010.

Start Learning Silverlight

1. Watch the Getting Started Video

   Tim Heuer introduces the concepts and tools needed to get started with Silverlight development from a developers perspective. (13:02)

2. Read Tim Heuer's 8-part blog series on getting started

   Tim's blog posts will walk you through the fundamentals of Silverlight and will help you build a sample application along the way. Each step includes source code as well as C# and Visual Basic code for the completed application.

3. Watch How Do I Videos

   Over two dozen new Silverlight 4 videos including Jesse Liberty's new Silverlight 4 From Scratch series.

4. Read Jesse Liberty's Tutorials

   Learn more about Silverlight with Jesse's tutorial series.

5. Learn to use Expression Blend

   Read Adam Kinney's tutorials in “Through the Eyes of Expression Blend" to understand the key features of Expression Blend, then watch Jesse Liberty's 3-part video series on the same subject.

Develop for Phone with Silverlight

1. Windows Phone 7

   Windows Phone 7 enables developers to create interesting interactive out-of-browser applications in both Silverlight and XNA. Learn how to use your existing Silverlight skills to target this new and exciting device today.

2. Nokia Symbian

   Nokia Symbian is one of the most popular mobile operating systems in the world. The Silverlight team has been hard at work ensuring that Symbian users can run Silverlight applications in-browser on their mobile devices. Learn how to target Nokia Symbian for your own applications.

Expand Your Silverlight Toolset

Once you're up and running with Silverlight, you'll find these optional tools to be terrific additions.

1. WCF RIA Services

   Microsoft WCF RIA Services simplifies the traditional n-tier application pattern by bringing together the ASP.NET and Silverlight platforms. RIA Services provides a pattern to write application logic that runs on the mid-tier and controls access to data for queries, changes and custom operations. It also provides end-to-end support for common tasks such as data validation, authentication and roles by integrating with Silverlight components on the client and ASP.NET on the mid-tier. RIA Services is installed by default as part of the Silverlight tools for Visual Studio 2010.

2. Developer Runtimes for Windows and OSX

   If you’re debugging or testing on machines without the tools installed, you’ll want to use the windows developer runtime or the Mac OSX developer runtime for Silverlight 4. Developers with the tools installed already have these releases.

3. Microsoft Expression Blend 4

   Expression Blend allows designers to graphically create UI's for Silverlight applications.

4. Blend 4 SDK

   The Blend 4 SDK is included with the Blend 4 installation, but is available separately for those who wish to create behaviors without using Expression Blend.

5. Silverlight Toolkit

   This Toolkit is a Microsoft project containing Silverlight controls, components and utilities that can be downloaded and used in your Silverlight applications. It includes full source code, samples and tests.