Windows Vista Team Blog : Sidebar Gadgets

10 Things - Maximizing Sidebar Gadgets

Nick White — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 23:25:00 GMT

Many PC OEMs ship Windows Vista computers with Windows Sidebar enabled, usually only displaying the simple clock, photos and RSS feed gadgets. You may've found that they install their own home-grown gadgets to show off additional features or apps installed on the PC, or as sales tools for other products. You may even have turned off the Sidebar because you already have a clock in the systray and you use other ways to check RSS feeds.

If so, you're missing out, as there's a Windows Sidebar gadget for almost anything you might want: PC utilities, music, messaging, traffic reporting, searching or just a quick game can be yours with a click of the mouse. If you haven't taken the time to explore gadgets beyond those loaded by default, take a minute to right-click the Sidebar and select 'Add Gadgets.' From there, click 'Get More Gadgets Online' -- you’ll find over 1000 different gadgets available for download.

There are still other ways to find gadgets: visit the Microsoft Gadgets Gallery, Windows Live Gallery and Code Project for hundreds more. In addition, you'll find links to resources for developers and a way to submit your own gadgets for others to use.

This isn't the first time we've mentioned Windows Sidebar and accompanying gadgets: MS held a contest challenging developers to create new gadgets to do any number of things. And in January during the consumer market launch of Windows Vista we kept readers updated as to our whereabouts as we toured the East coast of the US in a branded bus. Brandon even found a gadget that alerts users to changes in targeted airfares on Expedia's site!

We have a gadget we use internally to train employees in fielding and responding to customer feedback; it's called the "Dear Steve" gadget, and it displays anonymized contents of emails our customers have sent directly to Steve Ballmer with their personal product feedback. This is what it looks like on the Sidebar:

...and here it is maximized on the desktop:

Windows Sidebar is definitely worth another look.

Windows Vista Gadgets Competition on Code Project - final results

Nick White — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 06:17:00 GMT

Last month we posted an update to the Windows Vista Gadgets Competition on Code Project. Now that the competition is complete, the team behind it would like to thank everyone who entered. The goal of the contest was to deliver 20 quality Sidebar Gadgets; we surpassed our goal considerably with a total of 29 gadget entries. The source code for the top 10 gadgets was downloaded by about 159,000 developers.

Join us in congratulating the winners, and give their gadgets a whirl and let us know what you think:

Soapbox Video Gadget

and

.NET Interop for Gadgets – A C# GMail Inbox Reader Example

An Honorable Mention was earned by A Virtual Earth slide show Gadget for Windows Vista.

This contest was certainly a success in encouraging developers to create interesting and quality Windows Vista Sidebar Gadgets. Thanks to everyone who entered!

The Windows Vista Gadgets Competition on Code Project

Nick White — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 23:33:00 GMT

We're only one month into the Windows Vista Gadgets Competition on Code Project, and already developers have exceeded our expectations in finding new ways to enhance the Windows Vista Sidebar experience via Gadgets. Some of the cooler gadgets include a daily Dilbert cartoon display and a tool that places your email Inbox at your fingertips. At this point we've already received dozens of contest entries and we're expecting even bigger things to come. It's pretty easy to make a gadget if you're a professional -- or even an amateur -- developer, and prizes ranging from cash to Zune player (not to mention promotion on the Code Project site) provide good incentive to take the plunge and try your hand.

If you're interested in building an innovative creation for Windows Vista Sidebar, check out the how-to articles here. And if you want to offer your opinion on contest entries, you can join the site and post your thoughts to the forums.

Here's a sampling of who've been recognized for their creations thus far:

.NET Interop for Gadgets – A C# GMail Inbox Reader Example by Acoustic

How to call absolutely any .NET code from your Windows Vista Sidebar Gadget.

A Vista sidebar gadget to provide weather information by bodrick

This article will show the different capabilities of the Windows Vista sidebar, including settings, fly-outs, different states when docked and undocked, and pulling in live data feeds over the internet.

Daily Dilbert 1.0*: A Sidebar gadget for Windows Vista by Quartz...

Daily Dilbert is a simple Windows Vista sidebar gadget which delivers the daily dilbert cartoon on your desktop.
(*Note that there’s already an updated, improved version of this gadget posted.)

A Gadget for Browsing the Astronomy Picture of the Day by Michael Dunn

This article shows a Windows Vista Sidebar gadget that you can use to browse the APOD site and view previews of each day's picture.

Windows Vista Weather SideShow by Dr.Luiji

WeatherSideShow - A SideShow application that communicates with a weather Web service.

This contest runs for the next two months -- keep an eye on the entrants and their innovations!

New Microsoft Outlook Gadgets for Windows Sidebar

Nick White — Tue, 05 Dec 2006 17:21:00 GMT

Ryan Gregg, Program Manager for Microsoft Outlook, has announced on his blog two new Outlook Gadgets for Windows Sidebar, both of which bring Outlook to your desktop for easy, real-time access. Go here to download the Outlook Upcoming Appointments Gadget, and here for the Outlook Tasks Gadget.

These two gadgets are a great example of Windows Vista and 2007 Office System working in tandem -- both patch into your Outlook 2007 settings to use the same display theme you're currently using in Outlook, and also allow you to open the respective task or appointment simply by double-clicking it in the gadget.

Countdown gadget now appearing live on the blog

Nick White — Tue, 28 Nov 2006 20:14:00 GMT

Last week we'd mentioned the Windows Vista Countdown Gadget -- now we've gone and added it to our site so that it appears on every page !

Go here to get the gadget for your site, Live.com page and Windows Live Space.

Counting Down to the Consumer Launch of Windows Vista

Nick White — Wed, 22 Nov 2006 19:37:00 GMT

On 30 January 2007, Microsoft will be making Windows Vista available to the world at large. This event goes by different monikers: "general availability," "GA" and "retail availability" are some of them. But no matter what it's called, lots of people -- I for one -- are looking forward to that day. As excitement builds, we've seen that some enthusiasts are marking the occasion in different ways; one to just recently hit our radar is Donavon West's design of a Windows Sidebar Gadget that counts down the days, hours and seconds until midnight of GA Day.

Donavon has created three similar versions of his gadget: one for Live.com pages, another for Windows Live Spaces, and a third for installation to the Windows Vista Sidebar.

Why not join Donavon and us in the countdown to retail availability by placing the gadget on your own website? Just add the following code snippet to your site to display the Windows Vista Countdown Gadget, just as it looks on Live.com:

<div style="position:relative;width:130px;height:142px;">

<script src="http://download.gallery.start.com/d.dll/1~1~485~4304/VistaCountdown.js" type="text/javascript"></script>

</div>

Have we ever got some exciting things planned for retail availability ... stay tuned !