First Floor Software

Silverlight Spy and Silverlight 3 RTW

As of today (July 10, 2009) Silverlight 3 RTW is available. See this blogpost by Timmy Kokke for a complete list of download links related to Silverlight 3.

I am close to releasing a preview version of Silverlight Spy 3 that fully supports all the candy of Silverlight 3. In this post I want to provide some insight in the compatibility of Silverlight Spy 2 & 3 and the various public releases of Silverlight.

Silverlight Spy 2

Silverlight Spy 2 works fine if you have Silverlight 2 RTW (2.0.31005.0) or Silverlight 2 GDR (2.0.40115.0) installed. Silverlight 3 Beta (3.0.40307.0) and Silverlight 3 RTW (3.0.40624.0) applications may work, but are officially not supported. All versions released before Silverlight 2 RTW do not work with Silverlight Spy 2.

Silverlight Spy 3

Silverlight Spy 3 entirely focuses on Silverlight 3 RTW and beyond. You need to have Silverlight 3 RTW installed locally to use Silverlight Spy 3. With Silverlight 3 RTW installed, you can still run and inspect applications that have been built using Silverlight 2. Silverlight 3 Beta and all versions before Silverlight 2 RTW do not work with Silverlight Spy 3.

Your situation

I have a Silverlight version installed that is older than Silverlight 2 RTW
Neither Silverlight Spy 2 nor 3 will work for you. Upgrade your Silverlight installation to 2 and preferably 3 to get all the good stuff of Silverlight Spy 3.

I have Silverlight 2 RTW (or GDR) installed and I am not planning to install Silverlight 3
Stick to Silverlight Spy 2, Silverlight Spy 3 will not work for you. Please keep in mind that Silverlight Spy 2 is frozen, no new features will be added to this version and support will be limited. Silverlight Spy 2 will be phased out eventually.

I have Silverlight 3 Beta installed
Upgrade to Silverlight 3 RTW as soon as possible. Get your copy of Silverlight Spy 3 (once available) and have fun.

I have Silverlight 3 RTW installed
Good for you! Please give me some time to finalize the first preview of Silverlight Spy 3 and you will see some awesome new features. Teaser: my favorite feature in Silverlight Spy always has been the integration with Reflector. Guess what, I have a new favorite feature and I am sure you will love it too. Has something to do with dynamic stuff. Go figure!