What is Microsoft Silverlight and why do I need it?

What if you never Configured it in the 3 years of running the PC it' on?

Do I really want some unknown and unconfigured program taking up space?

lige- i know im replying to ur comment 2 1/2 yrs later, but i just read it... and it made me laff, hard.  i know the frustration u must have endured to say "basically all of microsoft sucks!"  laff, its still funny.  microsoft wasnt always that bad.  in 2001 (when there were no smartfones, only cell fones) i built a computer for my 6 yr old daughter, that ran windows xp.  if you had an issue w/the program you could go online to have microsoft analyse the problem.  and i can honestly say that they were very attentive.  however, where they attempted to solve ur problems w/links, the solution to my issues 15 yrs ago was having to go out & buy bug fixers called sp1, 2, or 3 on floppy disks.  now, THAT sucked!  there werent any forums or communities back then, only, but barely, the book "computers for idiots."  consider this, computers are still relatively young.  oh sure, theres the know-how for this technology, and more & more people r being educated these days to utilise this knowledge, but ur still fighting big businesses that give u a number to call and talk w/people that dont speak english well enuff.  if u wanna make a difference, start an android movement.  seriously, android may not have the numbers that microsoft & apple does, yet, it has google in its pocket and a more loyal following the world around than any other os.  if they made an os for computers theyld be #1 w/out a doubt.  the only reason people use microsoft & apple is because they have to settle for it, because theres no android.  i bought a slatebook & a chromebook and returned both because all they had were mobile os's.  im sad in saying that my android fones (b4 being rooted) were more computer than the android laptops.  anyway, heres a tip, u may find better help for windows issues in an android forum because most of the advice there comes from ex apple & microsoft users.

i installed microsoft and my computer crashes a lot and it frezz up so i unstalled microsoft silverlig and my computer is working grate now.....just saying