What is Windows SideShow?

The one line answer: Windows SideShow™ enables you to view useful data from your PC on devices. This platform allows users to have data available not just on the Windows desktop but also on their devices and peripherals, where it can provide more value. Currently the windows desktop provides most of your information from the PC. A display on the lid of your laptop PC will give you easy access to your calendar and contacts when you are in a hallway, similar to the secondary display on a cell phone which gives you your most important information very quickly. An existing device such as a cell phone could be used to show you some quick notes you have taken, save driving directions you've just searched for or even act as a remote control for media playback and presentations. A few pieces have to be in place for these scenarios: The user needs to have devices that support Windows SideShow and the user needs to have gadgets that are written for Windows SideShow.

Devices: For a device to support Windows SideShow, the hardware manufacturer needs to write a driver that is compatible with the platform. At Microsoft, we are designing this platform with extensibility in mind. We are providing a basic framework which device manufacturers can use to enable their devices with Windows SideShow functionality. We expect to see devices with this functionality as Windows Vista releases.

Gadgets: Gadgets run on the PC and provide data from an application or data source (such as a web site) to devices for Windows SideShow. The Windows SideShow APIs (a.k.a Auxiliary Display APIs) allow you to create these gadgets and are available in the Beta 1 and PDC release of Windows Vista. The APIs are documented in the Windows Vista SDK, which is available to MSDN subscribers.

One of the goals and benefits of this platform is that gadget writers do not need to program different devices. All the code for a gadgets runs on the PC and uses standard Windows APIs. We specify a simple XML data format that devices will understand. A gadget sends data based on this specification to the devices which the devices then render to create the appropriate view. Think of this as similar to sending HTML to a browser and having it show that data to the user. The platform will also extend to richer data formats such as the iCalendar standard where applications can send iCalendar data to a device and have it render the data appropriately.

I am going to take a shot at answering a few questions that we've gotten at PDC and over the last few months.
Q. When will displays appear on the lid of laptop PCs? When will devices start supporting Windows SideShow?
A. The platform is a part of Windows Vista and you will start seeing production models of devices or PCs that support Windows SideShow when Windows Vista releases. There is currently no plan to make this available down level since it builds on top of technologies available in Windows Vista.

Q.  How do I write a gadget for Windows SideShow?
A. Gadgets for Windows SideShow make use of the AuxiliaryDisplay APIs available in Windows Vista Beta 1 and the Windows Vista SDK. There are a few samples provided in the Windows Vista SDK that show case the APIs. We will get more resources up online so check back.

Q. What are the similarities or differences between gadgets for the Sidebar, Windows SideShow and Start.com?
A. The gadgets are similar in the sense that they provide quick glance information to the user. They differ in the location where they provide information to the user, relying on different platforms. At Microsoft, we're working to make it easier to write different types of gadgets so check back as we can share more details.

-Sriram