Can a Silverlight 4 out-of-browser app run other applications?

Question

I read in a few places it can run "desktop programs such as Office" but I haven't seen any other details or concrete confirmation of this. Anyone know? If so, how can it be done if SL4 OoB apps only have read/write access to User Special Folders.

Answer 1

As far as I have seen, Silverlight 4 can only interact with other applications through COM. Office uses COM and thus can be manipulated by SL4.

Answer 2

Using the WScript.Shell COM object you can do a lot including launching an arbitrary process. There is some info about it here:

http://www.silverlightshow.net/items/Silverlight-4-elevated-permissions.aspx