Windows Silverlight Installation Experience

I encountered a (Microsoft) site the other day that required Silverlight to be installed. Given I was using my work laptop (running Windows XP) I thought I’d give it a try. The first attempt at running the setup file I downloaded resulted in the following error message (which was opened in a browser window, not displayed by the installer):

The Microsoft Silverlight download was automatically extracted to a virtual drive. You should manually extract the download to a physical drive, and then run it from there. Please follow these steps to complete your installation:

 1. Create a new folder on drive C called SilverlightTemp.
 2. Save the Silverlight download to this folder.
 3. Click Start, click Run, type cmd.exe, and then click OK.
 4. In the cmd.exe window, type cd C:\SilverlightTemp\, and then press Enter.
 5. This step depends on which version of Silverlight you are installing.
      * For Silverlight 1.0 Beta:
        In the cmd.exe window, type Silverlight.1.0beta.exe /X, and then press Enter.
      * For Silverlight 1.1 Alpha:
 6. In the cmd.exe window, type Silverlight.1.1alpha.exe /X, and then press Enter.
 7. If you receive a User Account Control (UAC) prompt, click Continue.
 8. In the Choose Directory For Extracted Files box, type C:\SilverlightTemp, and then click OK.
 9. In the Extraction Complete box, click OK.
10. In the cmd.exe window, type install.exe, and then press Enter.
11. If you receive a UAC prompt, click Continue.
12. In the cmd.exe window, type cd.. and then press Enter.
13. In the cmd.exe window, type rmdir SilverlightTemp /S /Q, and then press Enter.
14. In the cmd.exe window, type exit, and then press Enter.

After recovering from the initial shock of the installation instructions for a very consumer oriented technology requiring use of the command line, I followed the instructions only to be shown another web based error message:

This installation is forbidden by system policy. Contact your system administrator for assistance.

Yes, that’s right I don’t have administrator privileges on my work laptop. Surely the installer could have worked this out at the start of the process.