Windows Sidebar

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The Windows Sidebar is a feature first seen in Windows "Longhorn" and later present in the Windows Vista and Windows 7 operating systems developed by Microsoft. It was designed to provide users with up-to-date information at a glance. Microsoft described it as "an evolution of the taskbar notification area in previous versions of Windows", but went further "by providing important information from applications and services that the user chooses to keep track of".[1]

Precursors

The Channel Bar included with the Windows Desktop Update, the MSN Dashboard, and the later Microsoft Sideshow application can also be considered precursors to the Windows Sidebar.[2]

A feature called Channel Bar was integrated with Internet Explorer 4 as part of the Windows Desktop Update, and was later included with the Windows 98 operating system. The Channel Bar was designed to be an information delivery system based on Microsoft's Channel Definition Format (CDF).[3] Users could subscribe to various channels—websites designed to deliver content—and receive updates from the channel provider.[4] Due to its integration with Active Desktop, information could also be displayed within Windows Explorer or in the Channel Screensaver.[3]

In the early 2000s, Microsoft Research developed an application called Microsoft Research Sideshow (see screenshot with splash screen below; not to be confused with Windows Sideshow which shipped in Windows Vista) to display dynamically updated information, such as news updates and weather forecasts, in a visually unobtrusive fashion on a user's desktop.[5] Sideshow would later be demonstrated during Microsoft's Professional Developers Conference of 2001.[6]

A build of Sideshow, 1.0.27, was leaked by WinBeta.org in 2002.[7][8] This build is compatible with Windows 2000 and Windows XP. It can also be run from Windows 98 SE by installing KernelEx, which adds MonitorFromWindow.[9] It also runs on versions of Windows after XP, but appears with a black background. The black background can be disabled by unchecking "Use Windows XP themes".[10]

  • "Screenshot: Desktop with Microsoft Sideshow enabled" (Source: Steven Parker, Neowin)[8]

    "Screenshot: Desktop with Microsoft Sideshow enabled" (Source: Steven Parker, Neowin)[8]

  • Sideshow with working tiles as of 2009 (Source: Emir214, BetaArchive)[11]

    Sideshow with working tiles as of 2009 (Source: Emir214, BetaArchive)[11]

  • Sideshow running on the Windows 8 Consumer Preview (Source: Emir214, BetaArchive)[12]

    Sideshow running on the Windows 8 Consumer Preview (Source: Emir214, BetaArchive)[12]

Windows "Longhorn"

Vision

The sidebar was introduced during PDC 2003 as:

I want to talk to you guys about that guy on the side there.  It looks pretty prominent, so we should address it.  Right now we're calling it the Sidebar.  We'll figure out what the final name is at some point.  But what's interesting about this is a couple of things.  First, it actually built in these common parts that show information, notification, services, that a user might really be interested in seeing when they're working on their main application, without popping up a window that covers it.  For example, the time or their buddy list or a slide show, which, of course, you can add and remove these tiles here -- or even an RSS-feed built right into the sidebar.  (Applause.)  And you want to hear blogging or about to blog when they get -- who is going to be the first person after the keynote to go and post on their blog.  Scobel, OK.  Well, we'll see.  It's going to be a race.  But the best part about this is not that we have this functionality built into Windows. The best part, like everything I'm going to show you today, is that this is part of the platform.  This is part of the SDK that you guys are going to get, you guys can write to it, and we think you can do great, great things with this.

— Hillel Cooperman, Professional Developers Conference 2003, [13][14]

Before the development reset, Microsoft intended that the sidebar would manage real-time information such as time of day, network connectivity, and battery level; information from an application or service, such as their schedule, stock prices, and sports scores; and quick access to important controls such the Play, Pause, and Volume controls for music. These information would be contained in tiles, which could be a single icon or a full tile. When the sidebar is minimized, all tiles will have an icon in the taskbar; clicking an icon lets the user access the related tile.[1]

Not all applications would need to use the sidebar, only applications containing dynamic information that is so important to users that they check it repeatedly throughout the day.[1] If the goal is to give users easy access to an application from Windows, a Start menu entry rather than a sidebar tile would be more appropriate.[1]

There would be two types of tiles: transient and non-transient. A Microsoft patent explained the difference:

Some of the tiles shown in the sidebar described above remain present in the sidebar and are not available outside of the sidebar. Other tiles, known as transient tiles may include applications that exist outside the sidebar and are only present in the sidebar upon user request. For instance, a user can request that an application appear in the sidebar when it is minimized. The minimized application in the sidebar can provide basic functionality of the application without consuming excessive space.

— David A. Matthews, Charles Cummins, Justin Mann, Judson Craig Hally, Mark Ligameri, System and method for providing rich minimized applications, [15][16]

An application with the capability described above is called a rich minimized application (RMA). To illustrate, a Windows Media Player tile would be an example of a transient tile, and WMP a rich minimized application (RMA):

FIGS. 9A-9C are screen shots showing examples of the use of RMAs. FIG. 9A shows a display 900 having a taskbar 920 and a sidebar 902. The taskbar 920 includes icons 908 and 910 representing open applications 906 and 904 respectively. FIG. 9B illustrates the screen 900 upon minimization of the application 904 from FIG. 9A. Instead of the open application 904, FIG. 9B includes the minimized application 912 in the sidebar 902. The minimized application 912 may include a restore button 934 for restoring the application window and hiding the application tile. As shown in FIG. 9C, the application 912 is a rich minimized application. A fly-out window 914 provides song options 916, a directory for further albums and artists 917, and other play options 918. Despite the fact that the application is minimized, since the application is an RMA, it continues to provide functionality while it appears in the sidebar 902.

— David A. Matthews, Charles Cummins, Justin Mann, Judson Craig Hally, Mark Ligameri, System and method for providing rich minimized applications, [15][16]

A simpler explanation was made using a Director demo as part of Get Users to Fall in Love with Your Software:

So this is an example of building a playback part right there in the Sidebar—and anyone could go build one of these—but the interesting thing about it is, wait until you notice what happens as I hover over. You get this visualization of the audio coming out of your system when I’m not hovering over, but when I hover, all of a sudden the controls and the text are there. Reducing the clutter on the screen—taking things away until the user is right there—is actually a very powerful thing. It’s one way, one technique that we use to go make things simple and powerful. Simple is "Hey, not a lot of stuff going on," powerful is, when I’m there, "Hey, everything’s there." And it’s just a tiny little example but I show it to you to illustrate the kind of things we’re talking about.

— Hillel Cooperman, Get Users to Fall in Love with Your Software, [17][18][19]

A flyout would be used to display additional information and functionality that does not appear in the tile. Flyouts display either single-step tasks that are related to the tile content, or overflow information from the tile (for example, a tile might show a list of most-used contacts and the flyout would show the complete list, plus commands for contacts). The flyout would appear when the user clicks the tile's background. The maximum size of a flyout would be approximately half of the screen width (depending on the screen resolution).[1]

Tiles would have an options menu, accessible through the flyout or by right-clicking the tile. The options menu would allow users to move the tile up and down, remove it from the sidebar, choose whether to allow the tile to be auto-sized, to access the Tile Properties dialog box, and additional tasks such as Refresh Content.[1]

A tile can have a properties dialog box so that the user can customize the tile's content.[1]

By default, the sidebar would only be 150 pixels wide. Because the sidebar is limited to the size of the screen, only a set number of tiles can fit in it. When the user adds tiles to an already full sidebar, tiles at the bottom of the sidebar shrink to icons and move to the overflow area. Users cannot see those tiles unless they click on an icon.[1]

  • "FIG. 9A is a screen shot showing an open application" (Source: US7669140B2 patent)[15][16]

    "FIG. 9A is a screen shot showing an open application" (Source: US7669140B2 patent)[15][16]

  • "FIG. 9B is screen shot showing the application of FIG. 9A minimized in the sidebar" (Source: US7669140B2 patent)[15][16]

    "FIG. 9B is screen shot showing the application of FIG. 9A minimized in the sidebar" (Source: US7669140B2 patent)[15][16]

  • "FIG. 9C is a screen shot showing important features available in the application minimized in the sidebar" (Source: US7669140B2 patent)[15]

    "FIG. 9C is a screen shot showing important features available in the application minimized in the sidebar" (Source: US7669140B2 patent)[15]

  • The Director demo used in Get Users to Fall in Love With Your Software during PDC 2003 to show the Media Player tile

    The Director demo used in Get Users to Fall in Love With Your Software during PDC 2003 to show the Media Player tile

Implementation

The earliest leaked "Longhorn" build, 3683, contained the sidebar. The version in pre-reset "Longhorn" builds was XML-based.[20]

The sidebar could be combined with the taskbar.[20][21]

From 3xxx to 403x builds, the appearance of the sidebar matched the Plex visual style, and was translucent without assistance from the Desktop Composition Engine. After Microsoft scrapped Plex in favor of Slate, the color of the sidebar became a glossy black. It could be made translucent by enabling the MILDesktop key in the Windows Registry.

Builds came with the following available and hidden tiles:

  • Clock, both analog[20] and digital[22]
  • Photo slideshow[20]
  • Multiple desktop manager[20]
  • List of most frequently used programs[20]
  • Quick Launch toolbar[20]
  • Internet search bar[20]
  • User tile, to quickly switch between users[20]
  • Notifications[23]
  • Internet Webcam[22][24] showing a live traffic camera image of Washington State Route 520 (SR 520) and 124th Avenue in Redmond, Washington, United States of America (see screenshot below). The link used by the tile in build 4008 is dead, but the camera remains active
  • Windows Media Player (WMP)[22][24]
  • RMA Test,[24] showing a stretched PNG of the clock in the Clock tile, to test the RMA and transient tile capabilities[16]
  • Longhorn Status[24]

The sidebar was one of the reasons for instability of "Longhorn" builds, crashing Windows Explorer (explorer.exe).[25][26]

  • The Sidebar was disabled by default in build 3683

    The Sidebar was disabled by default in build 3683

  • The Sidebar enabled in build 3683

    The Sidebar enabled in build 3683

  • Internet Webcam tile in build 4008

    Internet Webcam tile in build 4008

  • Image of Internet Webcam tile in build 4008

    Image of Internet Webcam tile in build 4008

  • The Windows Sidebar in Windows "Longhorn" displaying a contact list via a tile flyout.

    The Windows Sidebar in Windows "Longhorn" displaying a contact list via a tile flyout.

  • The Rules and Alerts window in Windows "Longhorn" build 4074.

    The Rules and Alerts window in Windows "Longhorn" build 4074.

  • The Contact sidebar tile (Source: Microsoft User Experience Group)[27]

    The Contact sidebar tile (Source: Microsoft User Experience Group)[27]

  • Build 4074 with the Sidebar

    Build 4074 with the Sidebar

Windows Vista

After the development reset of Windows "Longhorn", the Windows Sidebar was not seen until build 5219 of the Windows Vista operating system. This version of the Windows Sidebar was not integrated with the Windows shell but hosted graphical scripts on a vertical strip.[28] The applets hosted on the Windows Sidebar were renamed as "Gadgets" with variations of individual Gadgets being included in the operating system throughout its development.

The build of Windows Vista released to manufacturing includes a total of eleven Gadgets: Calendar, Clock, Contacts, CPU Meter, Currency, Feed Headlines, Notes, Picture Puzzle, Slide show, Stocks, and Weather.

Windows 7

During development of Windows 7 the user interface for Windows Sidebar was removed, which made the desktop the sole location for Gadgets.[29] Various improvements were made to Gadgets in Windows 7.[30]

In early builds of Windows 7, Gadgets could not be aligned properly. In build 6956, the Gadgets applet cannot be accessed if UAC is off.

Windows 8

Windows 8 included support for Windows Gadgets up to the Release Preview; support was discontinued in the RTM version of the operating system. According to Microsoft, this decision was made in response to potential security vulnerabilities discovered during development of Windows 8 which could allow arbitrary code to be executed while running compromised Gadgets.[31][32] Microsoft subsequently released a tool which would allow users to disable the feature in Windows Vista and Windows 7.[33]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 Microsoft User Experience Group (October 2003). Aero User Experience Guidelines - Sidebar. Microsoft Developer Network. Archived from the original on 30 October 2003. Retrieved on 16 May 2021.
  2. ↑ Microsoft Gadgets. GadgetNews : A Brief History of Windows Sidebar. Archived from the original on 15 September 2009. Retrieved on 16 May 2021.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Microsoft Developer Network. Introduction to Active Channel Technology. Archived from the original on 27 December 2010. Retrieved on 16 May 2021.
  4. ↑ Microsoft Developer Network. How to Create Channel Definition Format (CDF) Files. Archived from the original on 16 March 2011. Retrieved on 16 May 2021.
  5. ↑ JJ Cadiz, Anoop Gupta, Gavin Jancke, and Gina Danielle Venolia (September 2001). Sideshow: Providing Peripheral Awareness of Important Information. Microsoft Research. Archived from the original on 23 June 2011. Retrieved on 16 May 2021.
  6. ↑ Microsoft Research: Sideshow during PDC 2001., private video as of 16 May 2021
  7. ↑ butterfry (24 July (no date)). Sideshow Beta now available!. Archived from the original on 6 August 2002. Retrieved on 16 May 2021.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Parker, Steven (24 July 2002). Microsoft Sideshow (aka Longhorn Taskshelf) Shots!. Neowin. Archived from the original on 24 December 2004. Retrieved on 16 May 2021.
  9. ↑ spunker88 (20 March 2012). Re: The Sidebar before Longhorn: Microsoft Sideshow PDC 2001. Retrieved on 16 May 2021.
  10. ↑ Emir214 (26 March 2012). Re: The Sidebar before Longhorn: Microsoft Sideshow PDC 2001. Retrieved on 16 May 2021.
  11. ↑ Emir214 (2 September 2009). Tickets in Microsoft Sideshow. Retrieved on 16 May 2021.
  12. ↑ Emir214 (23 March 2012). Re: The Sidebar before Longhorn: Microsoft Sideshow PDC 2001. Retrieved on 16 May 2021.
  13. ↑ Nacsa, Sandor. Longhorn and Whidbey (staged information from compiled public sources by Sandor Nacsa, Microsoft Hungary). Microsoft. Retrieved on 30 March 2022.
  14. ↑ Thurrott, Paul (5 August 2013). pdc2003 sidebar. Retrieved on 30 March 2022.
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 15.2 15.3 15.4 David A. Matthews, Charles Cummins, Justin Mann, Judson Craig Hally, Mark Ligameri (21 August 2003). System and method for providing rich minimized applications. Google Patents. Retrieved on 31 March 2022.
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 16.2 16.3 16.4 True meaning of RMA. Longhorn.MS. Retrieved on 31 March 2022.
  17. ↑ Zheng, Long (13 April 2007). Hillel PDC 03 - AERO Demo. Retrieved on 30 March 2022.
  18. ↑ Chapman, Stephen (12 December 2018). Hillel Cooperman - PDC 2003 Windows Longhorn AERO Presentation (HD). Retrieved on 15 March 2021.
  19. ↑ BetaCollector (22 May 2021). Microsoft Windows Vista Codename Longhorn AERO Presentation - PDC 2003 - Hillel Cooperman. Retrieved on 30 March 2022.
  20. ↑ 20.0 20.1 20.2 20.3 20.4 20.5 20.6 20.7 20.8 Thurrott, Paul (13 November 2002). "Longhorn" Alpha Preview. Paul Thurrott's SuperSite for Windows. Archived from the original on 16 November 2002. Retrieved on 24 March 2002.
  21. ↑ Thurrott, Paul (6 October 2010). Longhorn Alpha Preview 2: Build 4008. Archived from the original on 8 September 2014. Retrieved on 16 May 2021.
  22. ↑ 22.0 22.1 22.2 Brooks, Lucas (12 December 2021). Longhorn build 4002 is the only leaked private Lab06 build of Longhorn. Left: Some hidden Sidebar tiles Right: Start Page with a reconstructed oobe.xml. Twitter. Retrieved on 31 March 2022.
  23. ↑ Microsoft User Experience Group (October 2003). Aero User Experience Guidelines - Notifications for Windows 'Longhorn'. Microsoft Developer Network. Archived from the original on 21 December 2003. Retrieved on 16 May 2021.
  24. ↑ 24.0 24.1 24.2 24.3 sebaz_ri (15 November 2012). Longhorn 4008 hidden sidebar tiles registry patch. BetaArchive. Retrieved on 31 March 2022.
  25. ↑ Windows Thunderstruck (8 August 2017). Re: What are the Most UNSTABLE/Worst Vista builds/versions?. Retrieved on 30 May 2021.
  26. ↑ BF10 (11 April 2018). Re: What are the Most UNSTABLE/Worst Vista builds/versions?. Retrieved on 30 May 2021.
  27. ↑ Microsoft User Experience Group (October 2003). User Experience (Aero): Contacts (Microsoft Access 2002 Technical Articles). Aero User Experience Guidelines. MSDN. Archived from the original on 4 April 2004. Retrieved on 10 April 2021.
  28. ↑ Thurrott, Paul. "Windows Vista Feature Focus: Windows Sidebar"
  29. ↑ Microsoft. "What happened to the Windows Sidebar?"
  30. ↑ Thurrott, Paul. "Windows 7 Feature Focus: Windows Gadgets"
  31. ↑ Microsoft Developer Network. "Desktop gadgets removed"
  32. ↑ Microsoft TechNet. (July 10, 2012). "Vulnerabilities in Gadgets Could Allow Remote Code Execution"
  33. ↑ Microsoft. "Microsoft Security Advisory: Vulnerabilities in Gadgets could allow remote code execution"

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