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Microsoft Gadgets
Microsoft Gadgets are Microsoft's implementation of widgets; small specialised applications that are designed to do simple tasks, such as clocks, calendars, RSS notifiers or search tools. They can run on the desktop and on the Windows Sidebar. Windows Sidebar and Desktop Gadgets are a feature of the forth-coming Windows Vista operating system, that will also be available for Windows XP. *
- Desktop Gadgets - run on the desktop or be docked onto, run on the Windows Sidebar.
- Web gadgets - run on a web site, such as Start.com and Live.com
- Device gadgets - run on auxiliary external displays, such as on the outside of a laptop or even on an LCD panel in a keyboard, and potentially mobile phones and other devices.
Windows Sidebar
The Windows Sidebar is a panel found in either the right side (default) or the left side of the Windows desktop. It will be integrated with the Windows Vista operating system, the upcoming version of Microsoft Windows and also available for the previous version, Windows XP.
The Sidebar is a widget engine for Desktop Gadgets, mini-applications which can be used to simultaneously display different information such as the system time, Internet-powered features such as RSS feeds, and to control external applications such as Windows Media Player. Desktop Gadgets can run on the Windows desktop and on the Windows sidebar.
Comparisons to Dashboard
The current version of Apple Computer's operating system Mac OS X v10.4, released in April 2005, features a desktop layer called Dashboard that uses similar widgets, causing many comparisons between the Sidebar and Dashboard. Microsoft initially demonstrated a preliminary "Tile"-based Sidebar [http://www.winsupersite.com/reviews/longhorn_alpha.asp in early builds of Windows Longhorn but has only recently adopted the "Gadgets" approach, which has led to accusations of Microsoft copying Apple's applications. Apple supporters cite the original Mac OS "Desk Accessories" as the first appearance of such miniature auxiliary programs as well as Docklings in NeXTStep, while others note similar widget layers like the Yahoo! Widget Engine available for Windows and Mac OS X and DesktopX on Windows.
Development
Gadgets can be written in one of two languages:
- Dynamic HTML
- Microsoft .NET languages like C# and VB.NET, using a subset of the Windows Presentation Foundation
According to Microsoft, it will be possible for the different types of gadgets to run on different environments. For example, web gadgets can also be run on the Windows sidebar and Windows desktop.
Other Widget products
Other products in the desktop widget market include:
- Apple's Dashboard widgets
- Google Gadgets as part of Google Desktop
- Stardock's DesktopX gadgets
- Yahoo!'s Yahoo! Widget Engine (Formerly Konfabulator) widgets
- KDE's SuperKaramba themes, and also "Plasmoids"
- Opera's Gadgets as part of Opera 9 Beta
- Samurize for Windows
- Kapsules for Windows
- AveDesk for Windows
- gDesklets for GNOME
- SuperKaramba for KDE
External links
"Microsoft Gadgets"