Silverlight  /  Version: Expression Blend 4

Updated: Microsoft Expression Blend Preview for Silverlight 5

We are making available an updated version of Microsoft Expression Blend Preview for Silverlight 5. This release is identical to the previously released Expression Blend Preview for Silverlight 5, with three exceptions:

  • The expiration date has been extended to June 30, 2013.
  • This release now comes with a go-live license that allows you to distribute the software that you create with this release to your customers, along with any components you might use from the Blend SDK for Silverlight 5. More information about this can be found in the updated End-user license agreement that comes with the product.
  • We updated the Silverlight 5 SDK that is installed with Blend to the RTM version of Silverlight 5.

Before installing this release, please uninstall any previous version of Blend Preview for Silverlight 5, or Blend SDK Preview for Silverlight 5. You do not need to uninstall the Silverlight 5 runtime, Silverlight 5 SDK, or the Visual Studio tools for Silverlight 5.

You can download this release from the Microsoft Download Center: Microsoft Blend Preview for Silverlight 5.

Update: A few of you have reported issues where the updated Expression Blend Preview for Silverlight 5 shows the expiration dialog, even after uninstalling the older release and updating to this one. We have resolved this issue, and updated the download site. There are no additional fixes in the release, so if your version of Blend Preview for Silverlight 5 is already working fine, no additional action is necessary on your end.

Thanks,
The Blend Team

  • Slava Pankov

    So for the last 6 months you did NOTHING to improve Silverlight5 support in Blend? And right now we have go-live for unfinished beta. What’s going on?

    • Dylan

      One would assume that silverlight support is pretty tight now in Blend and the team is focusing on WinRT support for the next version. I’d only complain if you find the beta giving you problems with SL5

      • http://twitter.com/paulovila pvila

        I might question the user experience inconsistencies of IE10 without plugins like Flash/Silverlight/ActiveX.
        To reach both markets (consumer and enterprise) is probably risky. WinRT it  would need  convince LAMP/javascript/html developers and the confidence of silverlight/wpf/.net developers.
        LAMP developers tend to runaway from propietary software… The more likely community that can embrace WinRT is Silverlight devs, but this devs are devoted to LOB apps or phone apps.

        Silverlight LOB/RIA Services app platform (enterprise market) seem to be deprecated, and WP7 developers (consumer market) might think about making money with Apple/IOS.

        These are very hard days for Microsoft developer platform

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  • Roger

    I had to clear my browser cache before the new version could be downloaded.

  • Butch

    who’s blend?  blend’s dead baby, blend’s dead…    :(

  • Anonymous

    Why not keep the Blend versions for Silverlight and WinRT separate like there is a separate Blend for Windows Phone?

  • http://twitter.com/paulovila pvila

    Does this silverlight 5 version works with C# async features?

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  • Kevin

    When I try to install this release I get an error; ‘Setup encountered an error: The signature of the file ‘BlendManifest.cab’ could not be verified and the file cannot be trusted.’

    Any suggestions would be appreciated.

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  • tawfiq injass

    after installing the new version, i still have the same problem, i uninstalled the previous copy. Is it just me?
     

  • Yuyong992

    “The prereleased version of this product has expired,you must update to a newer release”

    why????????????????????????????????    my version is newest

    • Anon

      Getting the exact same thing with the new version – tried uninstalling all blend related things with Total Uninstall and reinstalling but it still gives the same message. Using a 32bit Win XP.

      • Miim17

        me to. any ideas?

        • Blendinsider

           We have updated the download. (See the note above.)  Please download it again and install–it should resolve your issue.

    • tawfiq injass

      Same problem here

  • Xitiz

    Something is broken, I’ve uninstalled the old Blend 5 preview and installed the new one but it still says it expired. Anyone know of a fix?

    • JimB_007

       same MS check yourself…

    • Pete

      Same here, still “Expired”.

  • Miim17

    i found quick fix for the new blend5 install bug:
    1. uninstall prev version of blend5.
    2. reboot
    3. in regedit got to HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftExpressionBlend
    4. delete/rename the {somenumbers}..
    5. install the new version.

    • Anon

      Three cheers for you, it worked!

    • Pete

      Excellent! This worked for me too. I already installed the new version, didn’t uninstall/reinstall, just deleted the reg key and now it works.
      Many thanks!

    • Brad

      The 5 steps above do not work for me.  After several runs at it trying different sequenes, file version checking, register hacking, I still get the ‘Expired version” dialog when I run the Blend Preview for SL5.

      Any other suggestions out there?

      • Brian

        This did not work for me either.  I still get the ‘Expired Version Dialog’
        I am running Windows 7 64 bit

        • Jon

          I believe he’s referring to the reg Value, not Key(folder)

          • Brad

            Jon,

            On my attempts, I deleted the whole Key/Folder for 4.1 (I left my 4.0 Key intacts as I want to keep Blend 4 installed). When I rebooted and then reinstalled the Blend Preview for SL5 the Key for 4.1 was re-created. However, I still get the ‘Expired version’ defect.

            I have wasted way too much time to trying to work around this defect. For those planning a Silverlight 5 upgrade be warned that you may lose the ability to continue developing screens in Blend.

          • Jon

            Brad, it’s not the 4.1 Key, it’s actually the Value in the Blend folder above that. You can leave the 4.1 Key there. {somenumbers} refers to the GUID, {xxxxxxxx-xxxx-…..}

      • Jan

        Did you fix it after all?

    • Richardjklein

      Worked for me too. – much thanks

      • emk

        Thank you worked perfectly. uninstalled pervious preview, deleted reg key, installed new version.

    • Hossein Moradinia

      very good. it  worked for me …

    • Ulli

      Doesn’t work for me as well!
      It’s maybe a OS Version probne, I am sill on XP

      Ulli

  • Finec

    Thanks, this works :)

  • Mr Extremely Annoyed

    Great. I’m in the middle of a project for a client and this new version DOES NOT WORK. It still thinks it is expired.

    Registry hack does not work.

    When can we expect a fix please?

  • http://twitter.com/andyli_au Andy Li

    Is anyone in Microsoft looking after Silverlight developers anymore.

  • JasminDaguda

    can you please describe in detail the fourth step, what should i delete/rename, what kind of numbers???

    • Miim17

      there should be a reg key like {B079CC9C-3A9F-4570-909C-900D638AA038} (eche computer has  different number)
      remove that key (or rename it…)

      • Vidar Lund

        Yeah, but this key is registered under Blend 4, isn’t it? I don’t want to mess up Blend 4.
        Did the guys at Microsoft actually check the new release?

  • Sharon Hayes

    It STILL does not work. I now have to redo anything I was upgrading to Silverlight 5. When can we expect a fix to this issue?

  • Richard Mcsharry

    If you are still getting the EXPIRED notice, please vote on the Connect issue here:

    https://connect.microsoft.com/Expression/feedback/details/734979/blend-5-is-displaying-expired-even-after-beta-upgrade#tabs 

  • Zane Apps

    I am experiencing the same issue, there is no way to get this working even after rebooting after uninstalling the previous version. I have also tried deleting the following registry folders:

    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftExpressionBlend4.1
    HKEY_CURRENT_USERSOFTWAREMicrosoftExpressionBlend4.1

  • Sebastien Chandonnet

    o.k. its now fix for me.

    in Registry Editor :
    Go to ComputerHKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftExpressionBlendÂ
    and delete this DWORD value : {B079CC9C-3A9F-4570-909C-900D638AA038}
    or search in the registry for {B079CC9C-3A9F-4570-909C-900D638AA038} and delete it.

    Do not need to uninstall/re-install, works immediately after.

    • Richard Mcsharry

      Than you! That worked! FINALLY! :)

    • Zane Apps

      Thanks, that worked!

    • Rogier van der Hee

      Thanks, it works fine!

      Microsoft, get your act together!!!

    • Ganralf

      That fixed it for me too, thanks!

    • Michele

       Worked for me too.
      Thank you.

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  • Neerajkakkar4all

    thanks :) it worked 4 me :)

  • Michael Beeler

    So the next release is essentially a go live license and nothing new, what am i supposed to communicate to my customers that have invested in silverlight 5 as a development platform and blend is still in beta with no end in sight? Customers in some cases will NOT use beta tools to develop production code. We need a final ship date on this product…

  • Rogier van der Hee

    Another EXTREMELY annoying issue: I cannot have a Silverlight 5 project with a Silverlight 4 class lib. It gives an unsupported project type exception on the 4 project.

    What a rush half-ass done job this must have been…

  • Oscar Agreda

    Thank you Sebastien Chandonnet,Â
         That worked .!!!

  • Dean

    It looks like they’ve updated the installer to fix the “blendmanifest.cab could not be verified” error. If the registry hack didn’t work, try re-downloading the file. This has been fixed sometime since Monday (8/2/12) morning, even though the download link says 3/28/12 as the publish date.

  • Michael Johanson

    I am getting an error message still: Setup encountered an error: The signature of the file ‘BlendManifest.cab’ could not be verified and the file cannot be trusted.  Any idea what would be causing this. I downloaded it a few times, and tried on two different machines.

  • Marty Taylor

    Does this release of Blend support behaviors? My “Assets” tab doesn’t list any, and even if I create them manually in XAML, they don’t appear in the O&T tree (and therefore I can’t bring up properties about them either). Is the price of adopting Silverlight 5 that we have to hand roll our behaviors, or is it just me having this issue?

    Cheers,

    Marty

    • UnniR

      It should be fully supported, and available in your Asset library (I have double checked this on multiple machines).

      Something might be wrong with your setup. If you can reproduce this issue on another machine, can you please describe your install sequence for anything related to Silverlight (VS, previous releases of Blend, etc.)?
      Thanks,
      Unni

      • Anonymous

        Hi Unni,
        Our IT department are in the process of creating a new development PC for me as I type this, so I’ll keep note of the order I install my dev tools when I get it, and report back whether or not behaviors are available to me.
        My current machine also has Expression Studio 4 installed (with Blend), and I’ll need to install it on my new machine, as I need some of the other applications (Design, Encoder) too. Am I right in thinking that Blend Preview for SL 5 should work nicely with Blend 4 already installed?
        Thanks,
        Marty

      • Anonymous

        OK, so I have now discovered that behaviors appear as expected when I create a new project in Blend Preview for SL5, but not for the project I am working on. This project has quite a long history (SL3, SL4 and recently SL5) which may have something to do with behaviors not appearing as expected in Blend Preview for SL5. I’ll report back with my findings. In the meantime, any suggestions are greatly appreciated.

        Cheers,
        Marty

    • Anonymous

      OK, so I discovered that my project was still referencing the v4 version of Microsoft.Expression.Interactions.dll and having now swapped this out for the v5 version, behaviors are now working again.

      I’m still perplexed (as I see some of you are) that everything seems to be forked at the moment, i.e. Blend 4 for WPF work, Blend Preview for SL5 for SL5 work, and Blend for Metro for all things Win8…makes me wonder if the next major version of Blend will support non WinRT platforms at all?

  • monty

    Where is Silverlight and WPF support in Blend? It’s missing.
    So you want us to use Blend 4 for WPF, and Blend 4 Preview for Silverlight 5, and Visual Studio’s Blend for Metro. What a complete shambles.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Alexis-Coles/640981362 Alexis Coles

    Is there an install for just the SDK, want to install this on our build server, don’t really want to put the whole thing on there….