Updated! - Vista Sidebar – What does everyone think?

One of the new concepts in Windows Vista, the sidebar, has been a topic of a lot of discussion. Some people really like it, while others hate it. Me personally, I actually love it, but that being said, I do have my disappointments.

Yes, I am going to start off by talking about the Windows Media Player gadget. Yes, yes, we’ve all heard that it was built only for the PDC 05’ show for Gates keynote address…..? Does that make sense to anyone? To put in all this development time to create a really great gadget, in fact I think it would be the most commonly used and favorite gadget in Vista to only throw it away? Also, this gadget wasn’t just in Gates keynote, it was in the 4000 series Longhorn builds, before they scrapped it all and started over. So what happened to this elusive gadget?

Microsoft had originally based the Windows Vista code on Windows XP code for the 4000 build series. The design concepts apparently were just going to be too difficult to pull off and be reliable so they scrapped the entire build series and started over using Server 2003 code. When they did this, sidebar got revamped as well. Gone were the ‘overhanging’ gadgets as the new sidebar code no longer permitted it. And, sadly enough to say, gone was Windows Presentation Foundation layer support.

This Microsoft is my biggest disappointment. (Yes, you are about to hear me rail against Microsoft on something, don’t be too shocked.) Windows Vista’s main selling point, especially to your home and average consumer is the new interface. At the heart of that new interface is WPF. (Windows Presentation Foundation, also previously known as Avalon.) WPF allows for beautiful 3D accelerated GUI’s (graphical user interface) and effects rendered directly on the GPU, making your OS seem futuristic, more pleasant on the eyes, and almost fun to use. WPF is a huge leap forward in Windows and something that I have hoped for, for many years. The sidebar is something that I absolutely loved in the 4000 series of builds and I really looked forward to it working better. (The 4000 builds I worked with, sidebar had a memory leak and thus you couldn’t really keep it open long.) Now, in the 5000 build series, sidebar no longer supports WPF. That means those cool 3D effects can’t be applied to any gadgets, at least with-out hammering the resources of the PC. So, one of the coolest new GUI features of the OS, won’t support what the entire OS is based on, or is about.

This is where I think the Windows Media Player gadget went. With-out WPF, they knew they couldn’t create a gadget anywhere as impressive as the original one, at least without putting a huge resource hit on the system. (The entire concept of sidebar is for subtle background information with no impact on performance.) So, they decided just not to build one all together because all they would hear is complaints about how cool the original one was, and why does this one suck so bad?

So, in conclusion Microsoft I ask you, please still create a Windows Media Player gadget. Of course we’re all going to be disappointed that it’s not as cool as the original one, but it’s still a must have gadget if you want people to use sidebar. I know that I would constantly use it, and anything I can get off my taskbar, the better. And please, PLEASE get WPF back into sidebar, even if it’s in a service pack. I think you owe us that much.

Update!  Not really knowing where these screenshots were taken, but it looks like they come from an RTM tree build.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/95457049@N00/show/

Is it just me, or does that look like a 'Windows Media Player' gadget?  Still no WPF, but a nice looking gadget.... I've got my fingers crossed!

So, what do you think?