
Silverlight 2.0 is the first version of the platform to fully support Microsoft's .Net developer framework, allowing developers to write code in several different programming languages.
The new version will also include new features for Silverlight applications, such as a calendar function and the ability to zoom on images.
The Silverlight software will be supported on the latest versions of the Firefox, Safari and Internet Explorer browsers for Windows, Mac and Linux.
Microsoft hopes that the updated version of Silverlight will increase the platform's reach within the consumer market.
The company estimates that Silverlight has reached up to 25 per cent of the consumer market in just over a year, but it still lags far behind competing technologies such as Flash and Java, which are already installed on virtually every browser-enabled computer.