# .NET and More > Silverlight >  what is silverlight ?

## moti barski

what is silverlight ? what does it offer the programmer ?
what is the simplest fastest way to learn it ?

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## techgnome

I took your first question and plugged it into google. Here's what it came back with: The Results

In short it's a framework based on .NET and ASP and AJAX and Javascript that allows for a rich user experience with web applications. And beginning with Silverlight 4 (or it might have been 3, I forget) you can build Silverlight apps that can be run outside of the browser...

-tg

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## MattP

> And beginning with Silverlight 4 (or it might have been 3, I forget) you can build Silverlight apps that can be run outside of the browser...


Silverlight 3 introduced that feature.

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As for what is the fasted way to learn it, that would depend on your learning style.  I'd go to http://www.silverlight.net/learn/ as a starting point.  There's videos, labs, documentation, tutorials, etc there that you can learn from.

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## moti barski

can i install it for vb.net express 2008 ? how ?

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## MattP

Yes.  http://www.silverlight.net/getstarted/  Click on the green 'Install' link at the top of the page.

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## DeanMc

It is also one of a pair of technologies that drive Windows Phone 7, the other being XNA (which is specifically for game or graphic intensive, tight loop apps).

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