NationMaster - Encyclopedia: Active Desktop

Active Desktop is a feature of Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0's optional Windows Desktop Update that allows the user to add HTML content to the desktop, along with some other features. This function was intended to be installed on the then-current Windows 95 operating system. It was also included in Windows 98 and higher Windows operating systems until Windows Vista, where the feature was discontinued. This corresponded to version Internet Explorer 4.0 to 6.x, but not Internet Explorer 7. Microsoft Corporation, (NASDAQ: MSFT, HKSE: 4338) is a multinational computer technology corporation with global annual revenue of US$44. ... Internet Explorer, abbreviated IE or MSIE, is a proprietary web browser made by Microsoft and currently available as part of Microsoft Windows. ... Microsofts Windows Desktop Update was an optional feature included with Internet Explorer 4, which provided several updated shell features introduced with the Windows 98 operating system for older versions of Microsoft Windows. ... In computing, HyperText Markup Language (HTML) is a markup language designed for the creation of web pages and other information viewable in a browser. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Desktop_environment. ... Windows 95 is a consumer-oriented graphical user interface-based operating system. ... Windows 98 (codenamed Memphis) is a graphical operating system released on June 25, 1998 by Microsoft and the successor to Windows 95. ... Windows Vista (pronounced ) is a line of operating systems developed by Microsoft for use on personal computers, including home and business desktops, laptops, Tablet PCs, and media centers. ... Windows Internet Explorer (formerly Microsoft Internet Explorer abbreviated MSIE), commonly abbreviated to IE, is a series of graphical web browsers developed by Microsoft and included as part of the Microsoft Windows line of operating systems starting in 1995. ... Windows Internet Explorer 7, commonly abbreviated IE7, is a web browser released by Microsoft in late 2006 for Windows Vista, Windows XP and Windows Server 2003. ...

Users can add HTML both in place of the regular wallpaper and as independent resizable desktop items. Items available on-line can be regularly updated and synchronized so users can stay updated without visiting the website in their browser. A screenshot of Ubuntu 6. ...

Active Desktop works much like desktop widget technology in that it allows users to place customized information on their desktop. In computer software, a widget engine is host software system for physically inspired applets on the desktop (desktop widgets). ...

Turning Active Desktop off saves a bit of memory and improves the performance of low-memory PCs. There is a checkbox in Window's Display Properties dialog box to do this. Two TweakUI settings can disable Active Desktop completely or disallow changes to it. TweakUI is a free user interface customisation application released by Microsoft to aid end users in customising their Windows operating system. ...

History

The introduction of the Active Desktop marked Microsoft's attempt to capitalize on the short-lived push technology trend led by PointCast. Active Desktop placed a number of "channels" on the user's computer desktop that provided continually-updated information, such as news headlines and stock quotes, without requiring the user to open a Web browser. Windows 98SE Desktop This is a screenshot of copyrighted computer software. ... Windows 98SE Desktop This is a screenshot of copyrighted computer software. ... Windows 98 (codenamed Memphis) is a graphical operating system released on June 25, 1998 by Microsoft and the successor to Windows 95. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Push media. ... PointCast Media is a leading pay per click search feed and keyword advertising company founded in 1996. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Desktop_environment. ... An example of a Web browser (Mozilla Firefox) A web browser is a software application that enables a user to display and interact with text, images, videos, music and other information typically located on a Web page at a website on the World Wide Web or a local area network. ...

Active Desktop debuted during the 1997 release of Internet Explorer 4.0 for Windows 95 and Windows NT 4.0, as a feature of the optional Windows Desktop Update offered to users during the upgrade install. While the Windows Desktop Update is commonly referred to (improperly) as Active Desktop itself, it is actually an entire Windows shell upgrade from v4.0 to v4.71, or v4.72, with numerous changes to the Windows interface, resulting in an appearance and functionality level nearly indistinguishable from the then yet-to-be-released Windows 98. Features include the option to allow uppercase filenames (the old v4.0 desktop would forcibly display uppercase filenames in title case), configurable one-click hot-tracking file selection, customizable per-folder HTML display settings, QuickLaunch mini-buttons on the Task Bar next to the Start button, upgraded Start Menu allowing drag and drop item reordering and allowing right-click context menus for item renaming, etc. With the update, Windows Explorer now features an Address bar in which Internet addresses can be entered and seamlessly browsed. Microsofts Windows Desktop Update was an optional feature included with Internet Explorer 4, which provided several updated shell features introduced with the Windows 98 operating system for older versions of Microsoft Windows. ...

Active Desktop was largely considered to be a failure, with one of the main problems being its high use of system resources and reduction in system stability. ^[1] Although little used, the availability of Active Desktop was key to Microsoft's legal argument in the United States v. Microsoft antitrust suit that Internet Explorer was a feature of Windows rather than a separate product.

Later usage

Windows Vista has replaced the Active Desktop with Windows Sidebar, which also allows components to be added to the desktop. Windows XP is the most recent Microsoft operating system to support Active Desktop. It still provides the option to display Web pages and channels built with Microsoft's Channel Definition Format (CDF) on the desktop. Windows Vista (pronounced ) is a line of operating systems developed by Microsoft for use on personal computers, including home and business desktops, laptops, Tablet PCs, and media centers. ... An example group of Gadgets, each attached to the sidebar Add Gadgets window The Windows Sidebar is a panel for Desktop Gadgets that is anchored to the side of the Windows Vista desktop. ... Windows XP is a line of operating systems developed by Microsoft for use on personal computers, including home and business desktops, notebook computers, and media centers. ... Channel Definition Format (CDF) is an XML standard used in conjunction with Microsoft Active Channel and Smart Offline Favorites technologies. ...

The HTML displaying capabilities are now mainly used for creating original wallpapers and adding search boxes to the desktop. For example, a user could copy the following code to display Wikipedia's search-box on the desktop:

Active Desktop was later compared to WebSlices introduced in the Internet Explorer 8 beta that came out over a decade later in early 2008. ^[1] Internet Explorer, abbreviated IE or MSIE, is a proprietary web browser made by Microsoft and currently available as part of Microsoft Windows. ...

References

2008 (MMVIII) is the current year, a leap year that started on Tuesday of the Common Era (or Anno Domini), in accordance with the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 71st day of the year (72nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...

See also

Active Channel is a website type which was introduced by Internet Explorer 4. ...

External links

Windows Internet Explorer (formerly Microsoft Internet Explorer abbreviated MSIE), commonly abbreviated to IE, is a series of graphical web browsers developed by Microsoft and included as part of the Microsoft Windows line of operating systems starting in 1995. ... Internet Explorer, abbreviated IE or MSIE, is a proprietary web browser made by Microsoft and currently available as part of Microsoft Windows. ... Internet Explorer, abbreviated IE or MSIE, is a proprietary web browser made by Microsoft and currently available as part of Microsoft Windows. ... Internet Explorer, abbreviated IE or MSIE, is a proprietary web browser made by Microsoft and currently available as part of Microsoft Windows. ... Internet Explorer, abbreviated IE or MSIE, is a proprietary web browser made by Microsoft and currently available as part of Microsoft Windows. ... Internet Explorer, abbreviated IE or MSIE, is a proprietary web browser made by Microsoft and currently available as part of Microsoft Windows. ... Windows Internet Explorer 7, commonly abbreviated IE7, is a web browser released by Microsoft in late 2006 for Windows Vista, Windows XP and Windows Server 2003. ... Internet Explorer, abbreviated IE or MSIE, is a proprietary web browser made by Microsoft and currently available as part of Microsoft Windows. ... IE Mobile (named Pocket Internet Explorer or PIE before Windows Mobile 5. ... Internet Explorer for Mac (also referred to as Internet Explorer:mac, IE:mac or Internet Explorer Macintosh Edition) was a proprietary web browser developed by Microsoft for the Macintosh platform. ... Internet Explorer Internet Explorer for UNIX is a proprietary graphical web browser that was produced as a free-of-charge product by Microsoft for use in the X Window System on Solaris or HP-UX. // Development history May 29, 1996: it was reported that Steven Guggenheimer, product manager for Internet... Internet Explorers original logo This article is about Internet Explorer for Microsoft Windows. ... The idea of removing Internet Explorer from a Microsoft Windows operating system was first proposed during the United States v. ... Some of Microsofts early products included hidden Easter eggs. ... The difference between the World Wide Web Consortiums width and Internet Explorers width of a block-level element The Internet Explorer box model bug is one of the best-known bugs in a popular implementation of Cascading Style Sheets (CSS). ... This is a list of Internet Explorer extensions, software add-ons designed for Internet Explorer web browsers. ... An Internet Explorer shell is computer software that uses the Trident rendering engine of Internet Explorer. ... Trident (also known as MSHTML) is the name of the layout engine for the Microsoft Windows version of Internet Explorer. ... Microsoft XML Core Services (MSXML) is a set of services that allow applications written in JScript, VBScript, and Microsoft development tools to build Windows-native XML-based applications. ... Windows RSS Platform, included in Internet Explorer 7 and Windows Vista is a platform that exposes feed handling and management to Windows applications. ... JScript is the Microsoft implementation of the ECMAScript scripting programming language specification. ... XMLHttpRequest (XHR) is an API that can be used by JavaScript, and other web browser scripting languages to transfer XML and other text data to and from a web server using HTTP, by establishing an independent and asynchronous communication channel between a web pages Client-Side and Server-Side. ... ActiveX is a component object model (COM) developed by Microsoft for Windows platforms. ... Microsoft provides the Internet Explorer Administration Kit (IEAK), as an add-on to Internet Explorer to let an organization customize IE for their needs,. IEAK can be used by organizations to customize the settings for the browser, integrate add-ons, change branding of the browser to use customized logos, and... IE Developer toolbar showing the accesskeys, source and CSS selector matches in a Wikipedia article Microsoft made available the Internet Explorer Developer Toolbar (sometimes shortened to IE Developer Toolbar), on May 7, 2007,[1] as an add-on for Internet Explorer 6 and Internet Explorer 7 that aims to aid... An HTML Application (HTA) is a Microsoft Windows application written with HTML and Dynamic HTML. The ability to write HTAs was introduced with Microsoft Internet Explorer 4. ... HTML+TIME (Timed Interactive Multimedia Extensions) was the name of a W3C submission from Microsoft, Compaq/DEC and Macromedia that proposed an integration of SMIL semantics with HTML and CSS. The specifics of the integration were modified considerably by W3C working groups, and eventually emerged as the W3C Note XHTML... MHTML stands for MIME HTML. It is a standard for including resources that in usual HTTP pages are linked externally, such as images and sound files, in the same file as the HTML code, based on RFC 2557. ... In Internet Explorer 7+, Mozilla Firefox, Opera, and Konqueror, favicons are displayed in all available tabs, the bookmark toolbar/menu and the location bar. ... Vector Markup Language (VML) is an XML language used to produce vector graphics. ... Integrated Windows Authentication (IWA), formerly know as NTLM (NT LAN Manager), is a computer networking security protocol which operates in a variety of Microsoft Windows network protocols for authentication purposes. ... Temporary Internet Files is a directory on Microsoft Windows computer systems. ... In the Microsoft Windows operating system, index. ... Add-on Manager from Windows XP SP2 Internet Explorer A Browser Helper Object (BHO) is a DLL module designed as a plugin for Microsofts Internet Explorer web browser to provide added functionality. ... The Web Proxy Autodiscovery Protocol (WPAD) is a method used by clients to locate a proxy auto-config file automatically and use this to configure the browsers web proxy settings. ... For the personal information manager included in the Microsoft Office suite, see Microsoft Outlook. ... Internet Mail and News Microsoft Internet Mail and News was a freeware e-mail and news client and antecessor of Outlook Express. ... Comic Chat is an IRC client created by Microsoft bundled with some Internet-aware versions of Microsoft Windows. ... Screenshot of NetMeeting for Windows XP Microsoft NetMeeting is a VoIP and multi-point videoconferencing client included in many versions of Microsoft Windows (from Windows 95 OSR2 to Windows XP). ... Windows Media Station file (*.nsc) is the session description file for Microsofts Media Stream Broadcast (MSB) protocol. ... Logo of the DirectX Media SDK DirectX Media was an external API set that was used for media streaming applications. ... Windows Address Book is a component of Microsoft Windows that lets users keep a single list of contacts that can be shared by multiple programs. ... Microsofts Windows Desktop Update was an optional feature included with Internet Explorer 4, which provided several updated shell features introduced with the Windows 98 operating system for older versions of Microsoft Windows. ... Active Channel is a website type which was introduced by Internet Explorer 4. ... Channel Definition Format (CDF) is an XML standard used in conjunction with Microsoft Active Channel and Smart Offline Favorites technologies. ... There are very few or no other articles that link to this one. ... Smart Tags (Microsoft) This article refers to a feature of MS Office and Internet Explorer. ... Wikipedia on MSN Explorer MSN Explorer is a web browser, developed by Microsoft, which comes with Windows XP that integrates MSN features such as Hotmail and MSN Messenger with a web browser. ... Spyglass, Inc. ... Tasman is the name of the layout engine introduced with version 5 of Internet Explorer for Mac. ... The term browser wars is the name given to the competition for dominance in the web browser marketplace. ... United States v. ... In computing, Download. ... Eolas (an acronym for Embedded Objects Linked Across Systems, and Irish for knowledge) is a United States company, and patent troll. ... The term browser wars is the name given to the competition for dominance in the web browser marketplace. ... The following tables compare general and technical information for a number of web browsers. ... A rough estimation of usage share of layout engines/web browsers This article aims to be an unbiased historical record for the usage share of web browsers, based on statistics and articles published by well-known websites. ... Timeline representing the history of various web browsers. ... Graphical timeline representing the development of various web browsers. ...

Contents

History GA_googleFillSlot("encyclopedia_square");

Later usage

References

See also

External links

History