Microsoft Corporation is a multinational corporation computer technology corporation that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of computer software products for computing devices.... Internet Explorer 4.0
Internet Explorer 4
Microsoft Internet Explorer 4 is a graphical web browser released in September 1997 by Microsoft, primarily for Microsoft Windows, but also with versions available for Apple Macintosh, Solaris , and HP-UX.... 's optional Windows Desktop Update
Windows Desktop Update
Microsoft's Windows Desktop Update was an optional feature included with Internet Explorer 4, which introduced several updated Shell features to the Windows 95 and Windows NT 4.0 operating systems.... that allows the user to add HTML content to the desktop
Desktop metaphor
The desktop metaphor is an interface metaphor which is a set of unifying concepts used by graphical user interfaces to help users more easily interact with the computer.... , along with some other features. This function was intended to be installed on the then-current Windows 95
Windows 95
Windows 95 is a consumer-oriented graphical user interface-based operating system. It was released on August 24, 1995 by Microsoft, and was a significant progression from the company's previous Microsoft Windows products.... operating system. It was also included in Windows 98
Windows 98
Windows 98 is a graphical operating system released on 25 June 1998 by Microsoft and the successor to Windows 95. Like its predecessor, it is a hybrid 16-bit application/32-bit application monolithic product based on MS-DOS.... and higher Windows operating systems until Windows Vista
Windows Vista
Windows Vista is one member in a family of operating systems developed by Microsoft for use on personal computers, including home and business Desktop computer, laptops, Tablet PCs, and media center PCs.... , where the feature was discontinued. This corresponded to version Internet Explorer
Internet Explorer
Windows Internet Explorer , commonly abbreviated to IE, is a series of graphical user interface web browsers developed by Microsoft and included as part of the Microsoft Windows line of operating systems starting in 1995.... 4.0 to 6.x, but not Internet Explorer 7
Internet Explorer 7
Windows Internet Explorer 7 is a web browser released by Microsoft in October 2006. Internet Explorer 7 is part of a long line of versions of Internet Explorer and was the first major update to the browser in more than 5 years.... .
Users can add HTML both in place of the regular wallpaper
Computer wallpaper
The terms wallpaper, desktop picture and desktop background refer to an image used as a background on a computer screen, usually for the desktop metaphor of a graphical user interface.... and as independent resizable desktop items.
Microsoft Corporation is a multinational corporation computer technology corporation that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of computer software products for computing devices.... Internet Explorer 4.0
Internet Explorer 4
Microsoft Internet Explorer 4 is a graphical web browser released in September 1997 by Microsoft, primarily for Microsoft Windows, but also with versions available for Apple Macintosh, Solaris , and HP-UX.... 's optional Windows Desktop Update
Windows Desktop Update
Microsoft's Windows Desktop Update was an optional feature included with Internet Explorer 4, which introduced several updated Shell features to the Windows 95 and Windows NT 4.0 operating systems.... that allows the user to add HTML content to the desktop
Desktop metaphor
The desktop metaphor is an interface metaphor which is a set of unifying concepts used by graphical user interfaces to help users more easily interact with the computer.... , along with some other features. This function was intended to be installed on the then-current Windows 95
Windows 95
Windows 95 is a consumer-oriented graphical user interface-based operating system. It was released on August 24, 1995 by Microsoft, and was a significant progression from the company's previous Microsoft Windows products.... operating system. It was also included in Windows 98
Windows 98
Windows 98 is a graphical operating system released on 25 June 1998 by Microsoft and the successor to Windows 95. Like its predecessor, it is a hybrid 16-bit application/32-bit application monolithic product based on MS-DOS.... and higher Windows operating systems until Windows Vista
Windows Vista
Windows Vista is one member in a family of operating systems developed by Microsoft for use on personal computers, including home and business Desktop computer, laptops, Tablet PCs, and media center PCs.... , where the feature was discontinued. This corresponded to version Internet Explorer
Internet Explorer
Windows Internet Explorer , commonly abbreviated to IE, is a series of graphical user interface web browsers developed by Microsoft and included as part of the Microsoft Windows line of operating systems starting in 1995.... 4.0 to 6.x, but not Internet Explorer 7
Internet Explorer 7
Windows Internet Explorer 7 is a web browser released by Microsoft in October 2006. Internet Explorer 7 is part of a long line of versions of Internet Explorer and was the first major update to the browser in more than 5 years.... .
Users can add HTML both in place of the regular wallpaper
Computer wallpaper
The terms wallpaper, desktop picture and desktop background refer to an image used as a background on a computer screen, usually for the desktop metaphor of a graphical user interface.... and as independent resizable desktop items. Items available on-line can be regularly updated and synchronized so users can stay updated without visiting the website in their browser.
Active Desktop works much like desktop widget technology in that it allows users to place customized information on their desktop.
Turning Active Desktop off saves a bit of memory and improves the performance of low-memory PCs. There is a checkbox in Window's Display Properties dialog box to do this. Two TweakUI
TweakUI
Tweak UI is a free user interface customization Application software first released by Microsoft in 1996 to aid end users in customizing the Microsoft Windows operating system.... settings can disable Active Desktop completely or disallow changes to it.
History
The introduction of the Active Desktop marked Microsoft's attempt to capitalize on the short-lived push technology
Push technology
Push technology, or server push, describes a style of Internet-based communication where the request for a given transaction originates with the publisher or central server .... trend led by PointCast
PointCast (dotcom)
PointCast was a company founded in 1992 by Christopher R. Hassett in Sunnyvale, California, California.... . Active Desktop placed a number of "channels" on the user's computer desktop
Desktop metaphor
The desktop metaphor is an interface metaphor which is a set of unifying concepts used by graphical user interfaces to help users more easily interact with the computer.... that provided continually-updated information, such as news headlines and stock quotes, without requiring the user to open a Web browser
Web browser
A Web browser is a application software which enables a user to display and interact with text, images, videos, music, games and other information typically located on a Web page at a website on the World Wide Web or a local area network.... .
Active Desktop debuted during the 1997 release of Internet Explorer 4.0 for Windows 95 and Windows NT 4.0, as a feature of the optional Windows Desktop Update
Windows Desktop Update
Microsoft's Windows Desktop Update was an optional feature included with Internet Explorer 4, which introduced several updated Shell features to the Windows 95 and Windows NT 4.0 operating systems.... offered to users during the upgrade install. While the Windows Desktop Update is commonly referred to (improperly) as Active Desktop itself, it is actually an entire Windows shell upgrade from v4.0 to v4.71, or v4.72, with numerous changes to the Windows interface, resulting in an appearance and functionality level nearly indistinguishable from the then yet-to-be-released Windows 98. Features include the option to allow uppercase filenames (the old v4.0 desktop would forcibly display uppercase filenames in title case), configurable one-click hot-tracking file selection, customizable per-folder HTML display settings, QuickLaunch mini-buttons on the Task Bar next to the Start button, upgraded Start Menu allowing drag and drop item reordering and allowing right-click context menus for item renaming, etc. With the update, Windows Explorer now features an Address bar in which Internet addresses can be entered and seamlessly browsed.
Active Desktop was largely considered to be a failure, with one of the main problems being its high use of system resources and reduction in system stability. Although little used, the availability of Active Desktop was key to Microsoft's legal argument in the United States v. Microsoft antitrust suit that Internet Explorer was a feature of Windows rather than a separate product.
Windows Vista is one member in a family of operating systems developed by Microsoft for use on personal computers, including home and business Desktop computer, laptops, Tablet PCs, and media center PCs.... has replaced the Active Desktop with Windows Sidebar
Windows Sidebar
The Windows Sidebar is a widget engine for Microsoft Gadgets, which is anchored to the side of the desktop . The Sidebar is included with Windows Vista and is available on Windows Server 2008 as an optional component.... , which also allows components to be added to the desktop. Windows XP
Windows XP
Windows XP is a line of operating systems produced by Microsoft for use on personal computers, including home and business desktops, laptop, and media centers.... is the most recent Microsoft operating system to support Active Desktop. It appears that the 64-bit of windows XP no longer supports Active Desktop. It still provides the option to display Web pages and channels built with Microsoft's Channel Definition Format
Channel Definition Format
Channel Definition Format is an XML standard used in conjunction with Microsoft Active Channel and Smart Offline Favorites technologies. Its use is to define a website's content and structure.... (CDF) on the desktop.
The HTML displaying capabilities are now mainly used for creating original wallpapers and adding search boxes to the desktop. For example, a user could copy the following code to display Wikipedia's search-box on the desktop:
Active Desktop was later compared to WebSlices introduced in the Internet Explorer 8
Internet Explorer 8
Windows Internet Explorer 8 is the next version of Internet Explorer, succeeding Internet Explorer 7. Beta 1, targeted at web designers and developers, was released to the general public on March 5, 2008.... beta that came out over a decade later in early 2008.
Active Channel is a website type which was introduced by Internet Explorer 4 in 1997. It allows synchronizing website content and viewing it offline....
External links
Internet Explorer 4.0 Desktop Gallery (Defunct, Now redirects to the Internet Explorer page.)
Detailed technical documentation of Internet Explorer 4.0 features/changes
