Windows SideShow
Don't be confused: a Windows Sidebar gadget sits on the desktop. A gadget for Windows SideShow sits on, well, the computer itself, along with many other devices. Remember how embedded applications target a specific hardware device? A SideShow device is one such bit of hardware. While you might also see gadgets for Windows SideShow running on devices like cell phones and remote controls, you may recognize its most publicized implementation, as an external display on the case of next-gen laptops.

Imagine shutting down and closing your laptop, but still having access to e-mail alerts, appointments, or whatever else you have set to display. New laptops that are SideShow-ready will have a display on the outside of the case which runs on .NET Micro Framework. It can access data from dedicated flash memory when the machine is off, or live data while Windows Vista is running. Through the Windows Vista Control Panel, users can even schedule the machine to wake up on a regular basis to update the data in the gadget's flash memory.

This could well be your first embedded spin-off of your company's product. Use Visual Studio with the .NET Micro Framework SDK. Create a SideShow-based app that runs independently of your client app, or tie them together. As an added incentive to leverage your code, you can also extend the core logic of your Sidebar Gadget to a SideShow gadget using the System.Gadget.SideShow namespace (see "Extending a Windows Sidebar Gadget to Windows SideShow").

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Visual Studio Extensibility
One more potential partner opportunity, not to be overlooked, is other partners. If your solution is the kind that can be integrated into other solutions, then you may be able to build a network of partners of your own through Microsoft Visual Studio Extensibility. Packaging core functionality with an add-in or solution will allow other developers to implement their own solutions based on your tech—for a small fee, of course. More important, you achieve greater market penetration, brand awareness, and positioning as a core resource for other solution providers.

Through Microsoft's Visual Studio Industry Partner (VSIP) program, you can find tons of additional extensibility products, for free or for a license fee. Check out the Microsoft Visual Studio Extensibility Center to:

• Become a partner
• Learn about what other partners are doing
• Download the Visual Studio 2005 SDK v4.0, which you'll need to develop extensibility products
• Learn how to create add-ins and packages—you'll find features, videos, Webcasts, tutorials, whitepapers, and downloads-a-plenty.

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Where to Go Next
This is a great time for Microsoft solution development in more ways than one. In addition to the market opportunities described here through managed code extensibility, new Microsoft partners also have access to programmatic offerings designed to give them a helping hand in a transition to the Microsoft stack from a non-Microsoft based technology platform; as a start-up ISV looking to build software; or as an existing Microsoft-based ISV that is looking to adopt the latest a greatest technology offered through Microsoft.

The NXT program offers ISVs that are on non-Microsoft technologies partner benefits like complementary licenses (through the Empower offering), instructor-led training, marketing support, even funding and services with a NXT delivery partner to help you with proof of concept and/or architectural design. Check out the Microsoft NXT initiative for ISVs for more information about the technical and business reasons for migrating or cross-platforming your code.

The Innovate On initiative from Microsoft also provides you with a full range of technical and business resources as you develop your solutions on Microsoft technologies—including Windows Vista, Microsoft SQL Server™ 2005, 2007 Microsoft Office, Windows Server 2008, and more. In each product portal, you'll find the steps you need to build your product and take it to market faster.

Microsoft also has another unique partner offering called Empower for ISVs. This program is specially designed to aid the ISV as they build their product with the Microsoft Platform. Empower isn't a partner level but it resembles one due to the benefits and support offered to the Empower members. The reality, however, is that Empower members are Registered-level partners seeking to have their software products certified for one or more Microsoft products.

For insight into all of these offerings, please visit the Platform Adoption Center at www.platformadoptioncenter.com.

* This article was commissioned by and prepared for Microsoft Corporation. This document is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY.