Miffed perhaps by the dearth of Web sites buying into its Silverlight proposition, Microsoft has its sights on a Web site redesign centered around showing the world that not only is it capable of eating its own dog food but that it can force you, www.microsoft.com visitor, into eating it, too.According to a post on The NeoSmart Files blog, Microsoft is immersed in a beta trial of a new Microsoft Web site built around Silverlight, Redmond’s last-year-launched salvo vs. Adobe’s near-ubiquitous Flash. Soon, anyone looking to download, say, Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool to rid their system of infectious software they don’t want will just have to download some noninfectious software they might not want (read: Silverlight) to get to it. No HTML muss. No HTML fuss. Although the thought of Microsoft requiring visitors to wear a Silverlight suit to enter its cyberhouse does bring to mind certain William Trevor stories in which awaiting never-to-arrive dinner guests provides the kind of quiet melancholy that can linger for days, the forced-Silverlight-uptake gambit is likely to boost Microsoft’s Silverlight adoption rate, if only because the company’s Web site serves an estimated 60 million unique visitors per month, according to Compete Search Analytics (nod to NeoSmart on the stat tip).That’s a lot of systems to infect, er, penetrate. For a look at some screenshots, check out the NeoSmart gallery. Or, dare the beta yourself. In the meantime, let’s just hope that Microsoft remains sensible about access to the product support area of its site. After all, requiring users to download an “under-adopted” Microsoft product in order to figure out why an, um, “over-adopted” Microsoft product isn’t working would be the kind of torture Microsoft should be above. Or maybe not.In fact, perhaps this is part of Microsoft’s greater “frustration-detecting help system” plans. Of course, as far as technologies go, Silverlight isn’t a dog, as Martin Heller finds out in his comprehensive Test Center Review “Microsoft Silverlight rivals Flash, AJAX.” Additional resources Review: Microsoft Silverlight rivals Flash, AJAX Strategic Developer Silverlight archives Technology Industry