Windows SideShow is a technology introduced in
Windows VistaWindows Vista is a line of operating systems developed by Microsoft for use on personal computers, including home and business desktops, laptops, tablet PCs, and media center PCs...
that enables Windows PCs to drive a variety of auxiliary display devices connected to the main PC. These devices can be separate from or integrated into the main PC (e.g., a display embedded on the outside of a laptop lid), enabling access to information and media even when the PC is (mostly) turned off. SideShow can also drive the display of PC data on mobile phones and other devices that are connected via Bluetooth or other wireless network protocols.
SideShow display devices can be updated with a number of different kinds of information, such as contacts, maps, calendar appointments, and e-mail messages.
Windows SideShow is a technology introduced in
Windows VistaWindows Vista is a line of operating systems developed by Microsoft for use on personal computers, including home and business desktops, laptops, tablet PCs, and media center PCs...
that enables Windows PCs to drive a variety of auxiliary display devices connected to the main PC. These devices can be separate from or integrated into the main PC (e.g., a display embedded on the outside of a laptop lid), enabling access to information and media even when the PC is (mostly) turned off. SideShow can also drive the display of PC data on mobile phones and other devices that are connected via Bluetooth or other wireless network protocols.
SideShow display devices can be updated with a number of different kinds of information, such as contacts, maps, calendar appointments, and e-mail messages. They can then be consulted when the PC is otherwise powered down. Since the underlying platform is so power-efficient, SideShow displays integrated into laptops can run for hundreds of hours without draining the laptop battery, while still providing always-on access to data and multimedia content.
SideShow is coupled to the
Windows SidebarThe Windows Desktop Gadgets is a widget engine for Microsoft Gadgets. It was introduced with Windows Vista, in which it features a sidebar anchored to the side of the desktop, but this was removed in Windows 7. Its widgets, called Gadgets, can perform various tasks, such as displaying the time and...
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Microsoft GadgetsMicrosoft Gadgets are light-weight single-purpose applications that can sit on the user's computer desktop, or are hosted on a web page. According to Microsoft, it will be possible for the different types of gadgets to run on different environments without modification, but this is currently not...
) and can easily be extended to be compatible with SideShow secondary displays. However, hardware and silicon providers can also provide native capabilities to allow for richer multimedia applications such as text, image, audio and video decode/playback. For example, a notebook with an in-lid display could be used as an MP3 player while powered down, with the notebook battery providing hundreds of hours of playback time because of the low power footprint that the SideShow platform maintains.
SideShow APIs
A Windows SideShow gadget is written by programming against the Windows SideShow Platform API, a native COM-based API available with the Microsoft Windows Vista operating system. A managed API for .NET developers has also been released, and includes Visual Studio 2005/2008 templates to demonstrate how to write gadgets.
Windows SideShow devices have different hardware characteristics than devices such as cell phones or PDAs. Windows SideShow devices have their own processor; they do not have to solely rely on the connecting computer for processing tasks. There are online and offline capabilities that allow the device to run larger components on the connecting computer. The following list contains typical device display types and technologies.
Display Types
| Type of Device |
Description |
| Enhanced display |
An auxiliary display device that renders full color content including text and images, e.g. a device running Microsoft's rendering code for the .NET Micro Framework. |
| Single line display |
An auxiliary display that is capable of displaying a single line or two lines of text and contains no image support. |
| Attached display / lid top |
An auxiliary display device that is physically located on the body of a notebook PC, desktop PC or server, e.g. on the top of a laptop's lid, or a media center's front panel. |
| Remote display |
An auxiliary display that is not physically located on the PC and talks to the PC through a wired or wireless network protocol. |
Hardware-specific, native applications that provide rich-media experiences like audio and video playback that can be accessed through the SideShow user interface require the SDK from the specific platform vendor. For example, PortalPlayer, Inc. provides the Preface platform that includes capabilities like MP3, AAC, MPEG-4 encode / decode and other digital media formats.
Market Acceptance
SideShow has been less-than-enthusiastically accepted by OEMs. Some see SideShow as an attempt to make them produce hardware which can be used only with Microsoft operating systems. (Other examples include
Windows keyThe Windows key - also known as the Windows logo key, the WinKey, the Start key, or rarely the Flag key or Go To Key - is a keyboard key originally introduced for the Windows 95 operating system...
,
Smart DisplayIn computing, Smart Display was a Microsoft initiative to use a portable touchscreen LCD monitor as a thin client for PCs, connecting via Wi-Fi....
and the Toshiba M400 laptop, which requires Windows to upgrade the BIOS). As of July, 2009, searches for "vista sideshow" or "windows sideshow" at amazon.com yield only two hardware items: a $349 remote control which is not yet actually released, and an identically priced ten-inch wireless digital photo frame. The only major-name computer with a SideShow display was a single product by Dell, the XPS 420 desktop computer, which is now discontinued.
See also
- Windows Sidebar
The Windows Desktop Gadgets is a widget engine for Microsoft Gadgets. It was introduced with Windows Vista, in which it features a sidebar anchored to the side of the desktop, but this was removed in Windows 7. Its widgets, called Gadgets, can perform various tasks, such as displaying the time and...
for Desktop Gadgets
- Live.com
Windows Live Personalized Experience is a customizable portal launched by Microsoft in early November 2005. It was one of the first Windows Live services to launch.- Features :...
for Web Gadgets
- Windows Live Toolbar
Windows Live Toolbar is a toolbar designed as part of Microsoft's Windows Live range of services. It is the successor to MSN Search Toolbar. It includes Windows Desktop Search which runs in the background and indexes all files and emails...
for Toolbar Gadgets
External links
Hardware and platform resources