If Silverlight 2 is Microsoft's shining new addition to the family (and deservingly so) then gadgets, both Windows Vista Sidebar and web gadgets are the all but forgotten middle children. In this article I pose the question: Has Microsoft all but...

You've heard me stress in the past the importance of writing good JavaScript, especially when it comes to the complex code that makeup a Windows Vista Sidebar gadget. You've also heard me preach that you should always lint your code . In the August...

OK, it's formally called the Live Search Maps gadget, but that's a mouthful so most people simply call it the "traffic gadget". The traffic gadget was taken off the market for a few months for "security reasons" (not unlike...

Wrox is about to release a book by Jon Arking titled "Professional Windows Live Programming". As a Microsoft MVP, I was fortunate to get a pre-release copy. The book does a good job highlighting the many services that makeup Windows Live, including...

Are you Canadian? Do you have a cool idea for a gadget, whether it be a sidebar gadget or web (live.com/spaces) gadget? Does it involve a Windows Live service? Would you like to own a nice new 40" Widescreen LCD TV, and XBOX 360 or a 24" Dell Monitor...

The Windows Dev blog posted last week about a new project that has appeared on CodePlex called " Live In A Box ". First thing to note about this project is that although it's been made by people who work at Microsoft, it's not actually an official offering...

The Soapbox Team Blog have posted about a new gadget created by ToddOs that will allow you to browse videos on MSN Soapbox . "This gadget allows you to easily search Soapbox Videos. Search results are displayed 9 thumbnails at a time, organized by page...

In this article, I will show you how to develop a web gadget (i.e. a gadget designed to run on Live.com or Windows Live Spaces) that will run on Windows Vista Sidebar without modification to the JavaScipt or CSS! This is something that Microsoft has hinted at ever since Sidebar gadgets were first announced. Using techniques described in this article, that dream could become a reality.

Of the two environments, a web gadget places the most requirement on your JavaScript. You must design your code to be encapsulated into a JavaScript class and use Atlas bindings, etc. So lets start off by first writing a simple web gadget.

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Today I submitted another gadget to Microsoft's gadget gallery that works on both Sidebar AND Live.com/Spaces. Its a sample digital clock gadget to accompany an upcoming article that I'm writing titled " Gadgets: Write Once, Run Everywhere "; an article...

As Nick has shown over on Windows Vista Blog , not only can you add the Windows Vista Countdown gadget (talked about here on LiveSide.net ) to your Live.com/Spaces web page and Windows Vista Sidebar, you can also add it to any website. Here is what Nick...

Windows Vista is almost here! (January 30, 2007 to be exact.) Help celebrate the arrival date of the most anticipated OS release in history with the Windows Vista Countdown gadget.

You can now have a countdown to the launch of Windows Vista in your Windows Live Messenger status message too.

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Is the Live.com team working on support for Google's universal gadget manifest format? You can't load a Google gadget manifest yet, but there are signs that it's not far off. If I'm right (and I'm sensing that I am) you should be able to use any of the plethora of gadgets available at http://www.google.com/ig/directory?synd=open on your Live.com or Windows Live Spaces page not too far down the road.

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From time to time I receive emails with questions about my gadgets and gadget development. For example, "How do I create a fly-out in a Sidebar gadget?" or, my favorite, "How do I remove your iTunes gadget from my Live Space?" I recently received an email from someone who, aware of my work in the gadget community, was looking for my perspective on the future of gadgets - Sidebar gadgets in particular. He sent me the following questions and, with his permission, I am answering them here because he raised some interesting issues about where gadget technology might be headed....

Microsoft's Gadget Gallery today made their "featured gadgets" section open to third party gadgets. Up to now, this space had been populated by Microsoft authored gadgets. Bruce Kasrel, Senior Product Manager at Microsoft said " We are really energized...

A few years ago, if you wanted your own search engine, you would have had to work very hard in a garage creating algorithms and all sorts of crazy stuff. Now, thanks to Live Search you can create your own search engine with ease, without having to know...