How would the Vista gadgets look like on XP?

How would the Vista gadgets look like on XP?

Unni Ravindranathan - MSFT

2 Jun 2006 11:22 PM

Comments 16

The other weekend, I got some spare time to see how I could go in re-creating the sidebar experience that will ship with Window Vista on XP. I was amazed at how far I could get using Expression Interactive Designer. Here is the current status of my effort:

I only wish I could show some off some of the transition effects – in this case, a picture is not speaking the 1000 words they say it does. At some point in the near future (once an appropriate version of WinFX run-time ships) , I will post the source code for this project on CodePlex. If you download the code, you will be held responsible for contributing a gadget of your choice to this project J.

Not bad for a weekend’s worth of work ah?

Note: Contrary to some of the e-mails I have recieved, this project has nothing to do with the Vista Gadgets. This is only an imitation of them created as a Windows Presentation Foundation application using the Expression tools. The main goal of this project was to see how the Expression tools would scale up to a more real-world application, and to understand some of the usability issues of the tool so we could fix them.

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PatriotB

3 Jun 2006 1:49 AM

Gotta love gadgets: Active Desktop components that can be non-rectangular. :)
Vista Sidebar Ported Back To Windows XP » MSBLOG

3 Jun 2006 5:57 AM

PingBack from http://www.msblog.org/?p=737
Unni Ravindranathan - MSFT

3 Jun 2006 2:08 PM

Just to clarify, this project has nothing to do with Vista's Gadgets. This is only an imitation using Windows Presentation Foundation, creating using the Expression tools.

Thanks!
Foxfire

4 Jun 2006 10:26 AM

How do you create transparent non-rectangular Windows in WinFX? I seem to only get non-opaque Top-Level windows without using any Win32 calls, which you said you didn't use.
UnniR

4 Jun 2006 3:08 PM

There is a reason why I am not releasing the source code for some of my last few examples :).
BaFu

3 Aug 2006 6:53 AM

Why don't you release the source code for this cool sidebar sample?
Deepak_ancil

14 Aug 2006 5:07 AM

I can't wait to see your sidebar tools. If you don't mind can you post your sidebar tools atleast?

Thanks,
Deepak
ghead

13 Sep 2006 4:14 PM

Hi Unni,

I've had a lot of fun tearing this example apart and putting it back together in many different ways. Some of these experiments worked great, others not so much. One of my failed experiments was to rework the code to include the Gadgets as part of the main assembly and not be separate dlls. I think all my problems here boil down to namespace issues, plus a failure to understand Activator.CreateInstance. Could you show the implementation of a very basic Gadget - one that just displays a textbox for example - that could be compiled as part of the main assembly? I would also like to see how it would be created using Activator in the LoadGadgets method.
sandy

2 Nov 2006 1:39 AM

Thank you for sharing the project!
mpf_guy

2 Nov 2006 4:40 AM

hi,

how can i find the source code...

i want to see the implementation.
mpf_guy

3 Nov 2006 4:12 AM

Thanks i got it

http://blogs.msdn.com/unnir/archive/2006/09/02/737047.aspx
Mister2

11 Apr 2007 8:16 PM

So, why don't you just expand on google's skins and skills? its alot more well known and, no offence meant, but i don't really download from sites i don't trust. i think lots of people trust google and will look at that more. plus, it will give other people ideas... anyway i might not remember about this post, so if you get mad at me or something, then email: bennis44565@gmail.com

--mister2
vincent

26 Nov 2007 11:07 PM

How would the Vista gadgets look like on XP?
what does vinca look like

16 May 2008 8:04 AM

PingBack from http://douglas.availableview.info/whatdoesvincalooklike.html
gadgets for xp

26 Jun 2008 2:53 AM

PingBack from http://lawson.beststoriesxxx.com/gadgetsforxp.html