Silverlight Uninstall Problem

  • Thread starter Thread starter Stefan Patric
  • Start date Start date
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Stefan Patric

A couple of weeks ago, a friend inadvertently installed the Silverlight
browser plug-in on his system. After he realized what he'd done, and not
really liking it, he uninstalled it using the included uninstaller, which
mostly worked except for a couple of pay-per-view web sites that stream
movies. They now will only play through Silverlight, and there seems to
be no way to change that. They originally defaulted to RealPlayer, which
my friend prefers. He called and asked for my help.

I first contacted by phone the affected sites' tech support, and they
said they don't store user configurations for players on their servers,
but read it off the user's system. I cleaned up his system removing all
the references to Silverlight I could find. I deleted all the cookies to
the affected web sites for the 3 browsers installed on his system. I set
the default multimedia player for the whole system to RealPlayer. No
joy. The sites (and only those sites) still request Silverlight be
installed whether Netscape 7.2 (the default), IE 6.0 or Firefox 2.0 is
used. None of the browsers report that the Silverlight plug-in is
installed. I've obviously missed something.

So, any suggestions on correcting the issue?

FYI: Rolling back his system to before this all happened is an option (as
is a complete reinstall), but since the machine is used for business as
well as personal, and too many important files have been changed and new
ones added since this happened, I'm reluctant to use these options right
now until I can completely back up all his data. (He like most people
never backs up.)

He uses Windows XP Home version 5.1.2600 SP2. (Yeah, I know, the system
should be updated to SP3, etc., but that's not my call.) He has Norton
virus protection installed as well as an anti-sypware/malware app.

Thanks in advance.


Stef
 
Stefan Patric said:
A couple of weeks ago, a friend inadvertently installed the Silverlight
browser plug-in on his system. After he realized what he'd done, and not
really liking it, he uninstalled it using the included uninstaller, which
mostly worked except for a couple of pay-per-view web sites that stream
movies. They now will only play through Silverlight, and there seems to
be no way to change that. They originally defaulted to RealPlayer, which
my friend prefers. He called and asked for my help.

I first contacted by phone the affected sites' tech support, and they
said they don't store user configurations for players on their servers,
but read it off the user's system. I cleaned up his system removing all
the references to Silverlight I could find. I deleted all the cookies to
the affected web sites for the 3 browsers installed on his system. I set
the default multimedia player for the whole system to RealPlayer. No
joy. The sites (and only those sites) still request Silverlight be
installed whether Netscape 7.2 (the default), IE 6.0 or Firefox 2.0 is
used. None of the browsers report that the Silverlight plug-in is
installed. I've obviously missed something.

So, any suggestions on correcting the issue?

FYI: Rolling back his system to before this all happened is an option (as
is a complete reinstall), but since the machine is used for business as
well as personal, and too many important files have been changed and new
ones added since this happened, I'm reluctant to use these options right
now until I can completely back up all his data. (He like most people
never backs up.)

He uses Windows XP Home version 5.1.2600 SP2. (Yeah, I know, the system
should be updated to SP3, etc., but that's not my call.) He has Norton
virus protection installed as well as an anti-sypware/malware app.

Thanks in advance.


Stef
Click to expand...

Rolling the system back will not affect any of his files as long as they
weren't from newly installed programs. For instance, if he changed a Word
document today and you restored the system back to last week, the Word
document is not going to revert to the state it was then. If you and he are
worried about that, save the documents to an external/server drive, then
roll it back.

Have you tried reinstalling RealPlayer by uninstalling it first, then
installing it again?

SC Tom
 
Stefan Patric said:
A couple of weeks ago, a friend inadvertently installed the
Silverlight browser plug-in on his system. After he realized what
he'd done, and not really liking it, he uninstalled it using the
included uninstaller, which mostly worked except for a couple of
pay-per-view web sites that stream movies. They now will only play
through Silverlight, and there seems to be no way to change that.
They originally defaulted to RealPlayer, which my friend prefers. He
called and asked for my help.

I first contacted by phone the affected sites' tech support, and they
said they don't store user configurations for players on their
servers, but read it off the user's system. I cleaned up his system
removing all the references to Silverlight I could find. I deleted
all the cookies to the affected web sites for the 3 browsers
installed on his system. I set the default multimedia player for the
whole system to RealPlayer. No joy. The sites (and only those
sites) still request Silverlight be installed whether Netscape 7.2
(the default), IE 6.0 or Firefox 2.0 is used. None of the browsers
report that the Silverlight plug-in is installed. I've obviously
missed something.

So, any suggestions on correcting the issue?

FYI: Rolling back his system to before this all happened is an option
(as is a complete reinstall), but since the machine is used for
business as well as personal, and too many important files have been
changed and new ones added since this happened, I'm reluctant to use
these options right now until I can completely back up all his data.
(He like most people never backs up.)

He uses Windows XP Home version 5.1.2600 SP2. (Yeah, I know, the
system should be updated to SP3, etc., but that's not my call.) He
has Norton virus protection installed as well as an
anti-sypware/malware app.

Thanks in advance.


Stef
Click to expand...

Silverlight changed the File Associations to Silverlight from WMP. Just
set them back to WMP. If you don't know how to set file associations,
just ask. No need to uninstall/reinstall anytyhing until you've tried
this; it's highly likely all you need to do. Tech support should have
jumped right on that one.

HTH,

Twayne`
 
Stefan Patric said:
A couple of weeks ago, a friend inadvertently installed the Silverlight
browser plug-in on his system. After he realized what he'd done, and

[big snip]
Click to expand...
Rolling the system back will not affect any of his files as long as they
weren't from newly installed programs. For instance, if he changed a
Word document today and you restored the system back to last week, the
Word document is not going to revert to the state it was then. If you
and he are worried about that, save the documents to an external/server
drive, then roll it back.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately, I don't know if any new apps, etc. have been installed,
but probably not. Anyway, he's finally chosen to back up his data on an
ongoing basis to an online service, which I'll set up for him in a couple
days. Plus, I'm taking over an external drive of mine to copy his
Documents folder to, so, if all else fails and we have to do a rollback,
and everything gets ****ed, nothing important is lost.
Have you tried reinstalling RealPlayer by uninstalling it first, then
installing it again?
Click to expand...

No. Didn't try that, but will put it on the list-of-things-to-try.

Thanks for the suggestions.


Stef
 
Stefan Patric said:
A couple of weeks ago, a friend inadvertently installed the Silverlight
browser plug-in on his system. After he realized what he'd done, and
not really liking it, he uninstalled it using the included uninstaller,
[big snip]
Click to expand...

Silverlight changed the File Associations to Silverlight from WMP. Just
set them back to WMP. If you don't know how to set file associations,
just ask. No need to uninstall/reinstall anytyhing until you've tried
this; it's highly likely all you need to do. Tech support should have
jumped right on that one.
Click to expand...

I'm pretty sure I checked that after I set RealPlayer as the system
default multimedia player. No Silverlight associations that I saw, but
I'll double check the next time I'm over there. Won't be the first time
I've missed something important.

Also going to recheck the Registry.

Thanks.


Stef
 
Stefan Patric said:
Stefan Patric said:
A couple of weeks ago, a friend inadvertently installed the
Silverlight browser plug-in on his system. After he realized what
he'd done, and not really liking it, he uninstalled it using the
included uninstaller, [big snip]
Click to expand...

Silverlight changed the File Associations to Silverlight from WMP.
Just set them back to WMP. If you don't know how to set file
associations, just ask. No need to uninstall/reinstall anytyhing
until you've tried this; it's highly likely all you need to do.
Tech support should have jumped right on that one.
Click to expand...

I'm pretty sure I checked that after I set RealPlayer as the system
default multimedia player. No Silverlight associations that I saw,
but I'll double check the next time I'm over there. Won't be the
first time I've missed something important.

Also going to recheck the Registry.

Thanks.


Stef
Click to expand...


Just thinking off the top of my head:

If those don't show anything, something like CCleaner might help point
out something. Or possibly AutoRuns to see what's trying to start and
from where.

Look at the file associations again: Be SURE there are no SilverLight
entries left & delete them if there are, then be sure there are no
others that associate SL to open/use something. For that you can just
use the down-arrow to go thru them and watch the descrips of each one;
not as much of a pain as it sounds.

Did you backup the registry changes you made? You might have deleted
when you should have revised, too. BTDT myself. When it's going to be
many, many changes as Silverlight probaby was, I actually export the
entire registry for later comparisons should I need it. NOTE: You can
NOT use an Exported Registry for IMporting! Only use such a thing for
reference!

Unless you're bound determined to learn the cause, this is a case where
a repair install might take care of the issue. IF it'll run. Sometimes
you can't without fussing because of SP3, etc..

If you do backups properly, you might re-image the drive (or maybe
instead use System Restore Points first) and start over. Depending on
what else has been done on the drive, you might even want to simply
back up to just prior to the installation of SL. The small losses might
be easier to fix than the SL problem.

Have you checked the KB for SL problems fixes? Maybe it's a common
issue.

Like I said, just thinking out loud,

Twayne`
 
Stefan Patric said:
A couple of weeks ago, a friend inadvertently installed the
Silverlight browser plug-in on his system. After he realized what
he'd done, and not really liking it, he uninstalled it using the
included uninstaller, [big snip]

Silverlight changed the File Associations to Silverlight from WMP.
Just set them back to WMP. If you don't know how to set file
associations, just ask. No need to uninstall/reinstall anytyhing
until you've tried this; it's highly likely all you need to do. Tech
support should have jumped right on that one.
Click to expand...

I'm pretty sure I checked that after I set RealPlayer as the system
default multimedia player. No Silverlight associations that I saw, but
I'll double check the next time I'm over there. Won't be the first
time I've missed something important.

Also going to recheck the Registry.

Thanks.


Stef
Click to expand...


Just thinking off the top of my head:

If those don't show anything, something like CCleaner might help point
out something. Or possibly AutoRuns to see what's trying to start and
from where.
Click to expand...

I installed CCleaner, but used it only the clean unneeded and temp files
off the drive. I prefer it over the one that comes with XP.
Look at the file associations again: Be SURE there are no SilverLight
entries left & delete them if there are, then be sure there are no
others that associate SL to open/use something. For that you can just
use the down-arrow to go thru them and watch the descrips of each one;
not as much of a pain as it sounds.
Click to expand...

I'll put all that at the top of the list.
Did you backup the registry changes you made? You might have deleted
when you should have revised, too. BTDT myself. When it's going to be
many, many changes as Silverlight probaby was, I actually export the
entire registry for later comparisons should I need it. NOTE: You can
NOT use an Exported Registry for IMporting! Only use such a thing for
reference!
Click to expand...

I didn't do anything to the registry other than check it quickly to see
if there was anything in it about Silverlight. There didn't seem to be,
but I could have missed something.

I always back up the registry before working on it. Learned that the
hard way. ;-)
Unless you're bound determined to learn the cause, this is a case where
a repair install might take care of the issue. IF it'll run. Sometimes
you can't without fussing because of SP3, etc..
Click to expand...

Unfortunately, my friend hasn't a clue to where his XP install CD is or
where any of his app disks are for that matter: "In a box somewhere...."
So, doing a repair or a clean install is not possible at this time, and
would only be a last resort if it were. Although, I think a clean
install is due. The system is four or five years old and is still
running on the original XP install updated only as far as SP2.

I also noted that the system is a little sluggish compared to the last
time I worked on it. Don't know what the cause is. It has 1GB RAM and a
2.3 GHz CPU, so it should be pretty snappy, and in the past it was.
If you do backups properly, you might re-image the drive (or maybe
instead use System Restore Points first) and start over. Depending on
what else has been done on the drive, you might even want to simply
back up to just prior to the installation of SL. The small losses might
be easier to fix than the SL problem.
Click to expand...

The system has never been backed up. Important files, yes, but not the
system itself. A System Restore would be a next to last resort.
Have you checked the KB for SL problems fixes? Maybe it's a common
issue.
Click to expand...

No, I haven't.

Thanks for the suggestions.


Stef
 
You missed two things.
1. Your cache settings are accessed when you have silverlight installed, by
right clicking on any silverlight video (not) playing or started and left
click on the word silverlight.
Those types of programs have their own cache. Flash and sun Java have
(Globle Cache.) Same thing right click and left click on stopped video.
2. Windows live Suite contains an old version of silverlight that is not
compatible with NetFlicks.
You can get the latest version 3 form http://silverlight.net
Also you can uninstall Real Player then install the latest Real Player and
re-associate media files to it and check to protect change.
Make sure you have all the Code-C to play eny type of video.
VLAN contains free ones.
Div-X contains some free ones.
 
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