Are Windows Gadgets Gone for good?

[stduc]

A while ago Microsoft identified a security issue with gadgets and sent out an advisory about stopping the sidebar completely. However, I rather liked gadgets.

1. Does anyone know if that is that - or is there any chance they may come back?

2. If they are not coming back is there anything for Windows 7 that will do the same or a similar job?

3. Does anyone know where you can get the FTSE 100 gadget?


Thanks in advance.

 

[spamjim]

I thought that gadgets were only discontinued with Windows 8.

But they can still live on...

https://www.google.com/search?q=gadgets+in+windows+8

 

[micker377]

You have the Gadgets that came with Win 7 OS. If you try to "Get more gadgets online", you get a page that explains that Gadgets are suspected of carrying viri. The truth is that Win 8 discontinued "Aero", so that Gadgets are no longer supported! Why MS won't just tell the truth is beyond me. Has anyone seen, or read, of ANY virus carried by a Gadget?

 

[strongm]

Why MS won't tell the truth? They did. Months ago.

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/security/advisory/2719662

As you may or may not be aware, there are a number of benign hacking groups around who explore possible security risks on various platforms and with various applications. They then inform the software developers to give them a chance to mitigate or fix the flaw before hostile hackers find and exploit it. The gadget vulnerabilities were the subject of such an (in this case fairly simple) analysis, and Microsoft issued the fix in the wake of this

http://media.blackhat.com/bh-us-12/...nberg_Blackhat_Have_You_By_The_Gadgets_WP.pdf

white paper (issued after Microsoft were alerted and had issued their fix), not because gadgets don't appear in W8. And you can imagine the outcry there would have been if anyone HAD exploted this and Microsoft had been seen to do nothing. And Just becasue an viable attack does not exist does not mean that a fix for potential attacks should not be put in place.

Now, it also quite true that Microsoft were always planning to deprecate gadgets, and again they were pretty up fron about that. They closed the Windows Live Gallery for Gadgets over a year ago, with the following explanation (on the site, so not hidden away): "In order to focus support on the much richer set of opportunities available for the newest version of Windows, Microsoft is no longer supporting development or uploading of new Gadgets"

How much more truth do you want?

 

[stduc]

Thanks for the replies. I still feel miffed that gadgets are going. Apps just don't cut the mustard somehow - probably cos they all run full screen! Just like in the days of DOS and TSR progs.

If found this link to most gadgets that were available

http://www.thoosje.com/Windows-7-gadgets-gallery.html

Of course, they won't be developed now, so they will all slowly die.

On another matter - sorry I didn't reply sooner but I didn't get the notification emails. I suspect anti spam filters somewhere in the path.

 

[dilettante]

And who knows what else will change when Blue replaces Win8 in 2013, and when Win9 replaces blue in 2014 (yes, they seem to have decided to fast-track new Windows versions).

Frankly I've moved a lot of my work to Android to hedge my bets. So far it looks pretty promising. Tablets and docked tablets are handy, and you can even run it on x86 hardware such as desktops and laptops now. And Android is growing as an embedded (automotive, set-top box, game console, etc.) platform too.

Of course it depends on what your view of computing platforms is. For me they are where the software I write runs, for a PC tech they mean something else.


This comes to mind because the more recent versions of Android support "Home Screen Widgets" ("Home Screen" is sort of Android's "Desktop"). Simple example shown here:

Dual Battery Widget (video)

These are written very similarly to any other application, no funky tools or "holding your mouth right" required a la Metro/Modern/RT.