he Windows Sidebar is one of the most striking features of the new Vista desktop. It’s a sort of virtual “desktop appliance” which hosts DHTML applets in Windows Explorer. With Vista and its Sidebar, you can enhance the formerly static Windows desktop with myriad widgets and doodads, appropriately named “Gadgets.”
indows Desktop Search (WDS) 3.0, introduced with Windows Vista, gives your computer fast search capabilities, helping you find your documents, e-mail, music, photos, videos, and other items quickly. Microsoft implemented the search engine that powers WDS 3.0 as a Windows service that’s shared by applications such as Outlook 2007 and
ogging is a vital capability for enterprise-class applications! For example, consider some of the motivations for examining the logs generated by Internet Information Services (IIS): Usability: Which pages are the most popular? Which pages aren’t visitors finding? Reliability and supportability: For how long was the site down? How did traffic
ow often have you been cajoled into troubleshooting a performance issue on an older version of Windows, brought up Task Manager and been bewildered by the list of processes running? Did you suggest a reformat, and sheepishly walk away with your engineering credentials slightly tarnished? Windows Vista brings order to
indows Activation Service (WAS), introduced with Windows Vista, is the new process activation mechanism that ships with IIS 7.0. WAS builds on the existing IIS 6.0 process and hosting models, but is much more powerful because it provides support for other protocols besides HTTP, such as TCP and Named Pipes.
or IT professionals dealing with multiple, complex applications and systems, monitoring has always had a magical appeal: You flip on the monitoring software, put your feet up on the desk, and wait for the alarms to sound. With the flip of a switch, you can assure your boss that all
eally Simple Syndication (RSS) is a set of XML schema that define how providers can publish information destined for consumers. In its most common form, RSS holds the text and pictures you find on someone’s blog, but RSS can just as easily contain news headlines or multimedia files attached to
indows SideShow is a new feature in Windows Vista that supports secondary display(s) on your PC. While the “buzz” about this feature primarily discusses notebook computers, Vista supports SideShow secondary displays on desktop computers as well, and SideShow devices are beginning to appear in remote controls. Using Windows SideShow, you
Vista’s Bounty: Eight Suprising Features Take You Beyond .NET 3.0 There’s a lot more to Vista than the .NET 3.0 framework. The new OS offers interesting and useful new features for developers—and we’ve rounded them up for you. From new application types, to new OS-supported security, logging, and service-hosting features,