30
9
I have Silverlight 5 installed on my Windows 8.1 64-bit computer. When I try to watch Amazon Instant Video I get a prompt telling me to install Silverlight for better quality. I also can't get Silverlight tests to run.
There's nothing wrong with my installation. I just have to use Internet Explorer for Silverlight.
Louis
Posted 2015-05-11T04:56:21.197
Reputation: 18 859
12
With Chrome 43 I find that using the enable-npapi flag no longer helps to enable NPAPI plugins.
While the flag remains in the chrome:// settings for version 43, and despite Google saying that from "Chrome version 45, you’ll need to use an alternate web browser to load content that requires a NPAPI plugin"1, it seems the move has already taken effect.
Louis
Posted 2015-05-11T04:56:21.197
Reputation: 18 859
2But are you really surprised that Google lied and did whatever the hell it wants regardless of user feedback? If not, then you clearly don’t have much experience with Google (lucky you). – Synetech – 2015-08-21T14:00:34.110
30
In September 2013, Google announced its decision to move away from support for NPAPI (the Netscape Plugin Application Programming Interface). In Chrome 42 NPAPI is disabled by default, disallowing plugins like Silverlight and Java. Threat Report explains, "NPAPI’s 90s-era architecture has become a leading cause of hangs, crashes, security incidents, and code complexity."
There are other APIs that companies like Microsoft and Oracle can use to modernize their web-plugins and one can expect them to be updated to support these alternative options, but for now, as per this article from Microsoft Microsoft Silverlight may not work in recent versions of Google Chrome, you'll need to do the following:
chrome://flags/#enable-npapi
td512
Posted 2015-05-11T04:56:21.197
Reputation: 4 778
Silverlight is not present even though I've reinstalled it many times. (Why laught at Amazon, btw?) – Louis – 2015-05-11T05:10:20.513
answer updated, let me know if that doesn't work – td512 – 2015-05-11T05:17:54.827
1enable-npapi did the trick, thanks! – Louis – 2015-05-11T05:22:48.600
Awesome. BTW, IE is insecure, and should never be used, hence why IE is being culled by MS – td512 – 2015-05-11T05:23:48.350
Eh, I don't think that's why. They could cull ActiveX and keep Trident. I think they just don't like Trident anymore. – Louis – 2015-05-11T05:26:32.720
1True. Shall we agree to say IE was a failure on MS's part, and hopefully Edge will be better – td512 – 2015-05-11T05:28:02.353
Haha, it was definitely slow to embrace the possibilities of the web. I guess there's a reason I was using Firefox and later Chrome. +1, sure would be nice to not have to install a browser as one of the first TODOs :) – Louis – 2015-05-11T05:30:53.083
4I think Edge is still using Trident. I've personally taken to calling it "Internet Explorer 12" for that very reason. Also, IE wasn't a total failure. At one point it was considered the best browser out there, cutting short the life of Netscape. – TSJNachos117 – 2015-05-11T07:26:06.400
1Until mozilla came along – td512 – 2015-05-11T07:40:38.037
The alternative method is required for Java to work on Google Chrome. They did a somewhat bad decision... – Ismael Miguel – 2015-05-11T08:47:37.397
1@TSJNachos117 - Edge will not be using Trident, Microsoft has made it clear, Edge is using a forked version of the Trident engine without any of the legacy support. – Ramhound – 2015-05-11T12:40:19.733
@IsmaelMiguel - Why? npapi is a security risk and any plugin that still uses it needs to die in a fire. – Ramhound – 2015-05-11T12:40:46.570
@Ramhound They broke compatibility without any warning to the end-user. And the plugin makers didn't had that (much) time to think about it. If I'm wrong, please, gently correct me. – Ismael Miguel – 2015-05-11T12:46:32.337
6
@IsmaelMiguel - Google annouced they were going to do this since 2013 which they originally annouced their plan. They later changed it to 2015 in Nov 2014. This has been a long been planned. Sept 2015 cannot come soon enough. Google was more then public about their plans with npapi
– Ramhound – 2015-05-11T12:49:31.240@Ramhound Then how come that Java8 won't work without it? (Silverlight is expected, because, well, it's Microsoft) – Ismael Miguel – 2015-05-11T12:56:05.433
3@IsmaelMiguel - Java is a npapi plug-in. Silverlight is a npapi plug-in. Did you read those links I provided before you asked that question? Flash and Silverlight will either become non-npapi plug-ins or stop working with Chrome come Sept 2015. – Ramhound – 2015-05-11T12:59:11.440
4I should point out IE doesn't even support npapi. So your underhanded comment about Microsoft is sort of funny. – Ramhound – 2015-05-11T13:02:57.377
1@TSJNachos117 Edge is using EdgeHTML, a fork from Trident, but the changes are so drastic that it'd be as hard to say EdgeHTML is still Trident, as it would that Edge is the still IE. – Louis – 2015-05-13T00:16:54.670
1Apparently, this option no longer exists since version 47 – Zl3n – 2016-01-08T22:55:17.163
@Zl3n Dully noted. – td512 – 2016-01-09T02:17:17.610
This only works for Chrome 42 to 44 -> https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3058254
– John Slegers – 2016-02-22T00:46:51.05726
Great answer above, utilizing the override option in Chrome Flags. However, this will only work until September 2015
See Chromium Blog they write as follows;
In September 2015 we will remove the override and NPAPI support will be permanently removed from Chrome. Installed extensions that require NPAPI plugins will no longer be able to load those plugins.
Aron Einhorn
Posted 2015-05-11T04:56:21.197
Reputation: 396
3Good bye Silverlight and Flash. Welcome to the age of HTML5 – Phuc Nguyen – 2015-07-27T08:17:21.163
3Too bad you can't selectively block (click-to-play) HTML5 elements, so welcome to the age of wasted bandwidth, memory, CPU cycles, and the land of no peace and quiet with more and more damned big, long, loud autoplaying HD videos everywhere (especially ads) and no way to prevent it. – Synetech – 2015-08-21T13:59:38.460
@Synetech I strongly doubt such tactics will return as most end users will simply not accept them as a good part of their experience. Your own reaction is proof of that. The will of the market (eventually) governs the producers. – OneHoopyFrood – 2015-09-14T15:11:11.703
@Synetech There are addons to block that, like this one for Firefox.
– Cees Timmerman – 2015-10-08T13:24:11.197
2Silverlight is EOL. Amazon, too, will probably soon(-ish) completely switch to Flash or maybe HTML5 with MSE and EME. – Daniel B – 2015-05-14T21:46:02.847