A Couple of Gadgets for Windows® SideShow™, Using VB.NET

The initial idea behind SideShow is to have small, low-powered, second display that provides content when a PC is turned off. The display will be able to show the latest e-mails and calendar activity, and it can have its own local applications. The original name was the Auxiliary Display, but the name was changed to SideShow. You may see references in various APIs that call out the old name. You may also see references to Windows Sidebar that is part of the Vista Operating Systems. Gadgets are also created for Sidebar as well, but we are going to focus on SideShow in this article.

SideShow itself is simply a shell application that runs on the Microsoft® .NET Micro Framework. Using the Windows SideShow Device SDK. OEMs can modify the SideShow shell application to create a different look and feel, as well as, create custom applications that run in SideShow.

To download data from a PC to the device, there needs to be an application that sends the data, a driver to support data transport , and a client that receives and processes the data. The application that sends the data is known as a Gadget. The client that receives and processes the data is known as an Endpoint. The Endpoint is simply a .NET Micro Framework application that is running in SideShow. A Windows driver acts as the transport, when the device is connected to the PC. Typically, this is USB but it could be any wired or wireless connection means, like Bluetooth for example. You can think of Gadgets as nothing more than a web server providing content to a connected device.

Note: SideShow is only supported in Vista Ultimate and Vista Business Editions. To develop Gadgets you will have to be using one of these platforms.

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