Unveiling Windows SideShow

Windows SideShow enables users to use PCs even when they are turned off. SideShow allows users to remotely control PCs and servers. It allows PCs to create interactive output on devices other than monitors so users can view useful data stored on their PCs when they are away from it. It enables users to interact with their PCs in scenarios that would previously have been very cumbersome, and allows for the creation of secondary display and interaction devices that would previously have been cost-prohibitive.

The basic idea of Windows SideShow is straightforward: provide a way to interact with a PC when it is off, or when the user does not have access to keyboard, mouse, and monitor for some reason. Imagine a scenario where you have your notebook in a bag and want to check whether you received e-mail. You need to get your laptop out of the bag, open up the lid, wait for the device to boot, launch your e-mail application, and wait for it to download mail from the mail server. It’s a cumbersome and time-consuming task, just to check for new e-mail.

With SideShow, the scenario is drastically different: Pull the computer out of the bag and glance at a display built into the outside of the lid of the notebook (see Figure 1) to see how many new e-mails you have received and read them right there.

This auxiliary display (also known as aux display) is really a tiny computer that is always on, even if the main computer is turned off. (And don’t worry: It only consumes a minute amount of precious battery power). It can choose to periodically power up the computer to perform tasks such as mail synchronization and then shut it down again. These devices can also act completely autonomously. For instance, the device may decide it is time to alert you about a meeting it has known about for a while. On the opposite end of the spectrum, the device may be used as a kind of remote control for applications on the main PC. Using SideShow, users are able to control Windows Media Player and play songs without having to open the laptop lid.

SideShow is not strictly a mobile technology, although it certainly plays an important role in mobility. It is also very useful in other scenarios, such as the ability for a system administrator to check the status of a server without ever having to hook up a monitor and a keyboard. Envision a set of rack-mounted servers that have a SideShow display built in so you can quickly check the status of all servers in a rack and even perform simple tasks, such as resetting a service or rebooting a computer.

Similarly, aux displays can be built into portable computers on places other than the lid. Currently, computers have LEDs to indicate simple status information, such as whether the device runs on a battery or is plugged into an outlet. Figure 2 shows concept art for such as configuration.

Not all aux displays are built into the hardware. They also come as separate, hand-held devices that communicate with the PC through technologies such as Bluetooth or standard wireless connections. Such devices could be special- purpose-built devices, or more common devices, such as cell phones. This way, system administrators could control and monitor servers using that hand-held device (or cell phone), rather than having to walk up to each server.

In a more consumer oriented scenario, you could use a SideShow-based remote control device (Figure 3) to control a Windows Media Center PC, without ever having to look at a conventional display device and without getting anywhere near the PC. Similarly, SideShow devices could be used as interactive picture frames in the living room, or recipe viewers in the kitchen. The low cost of SideShow devices makes such scenarios feasible, and limits are only set by hardware vendor’s imaginations.

By: Markus Egger

Markus is an international speaker, having presented sessions at numerous conferences in North & South America and Europe. Markus has written many articles for publications including CoDe Magazine, Visual Studio Magazine, MSDN Brazil, asp.net Pro, FoxPro Advisor, Fuchs, FoxTalk and Microsoft Office & Database Journal. Markus is the publisher of CoDe Magazine.

Markus is also the President and Chief Software Architect of EPS Software Corp., a custom software development and consulting firm located Houston, Texas. He specializes in consulting for object-oriented development, Internet development, B2B, and Web Services. EPS does most of development using Microsoft Visual Studio (.NET). EPS has worked on software projects for Fortune 500 companies including Philip Morris, Qualcomm, Shell, and Microsoft. Markus has also worked as a contractor on the Microsoft Visual Studio team, where he was mostly responsible for object modeling and other object- and component-related technologies.

Markus received the Microsoft MVP Award (1996-2006) for his contributions to the developer community. Visual LandPro, one of the applications Markus was responsible for, was nominated three times in the Microsoft Excellence Awards.

megger@eps-software.com

megger@eps-software.com

Sriram Viji

Program Manager, Windows SideShow

Windows SideShow takes data presentation beyond your desktop and makes it available to you on devices and peripheral displays. As a programmer, I can write gadgets or mini-applications on the PC sending data from my application or a web service to devices using a set of Windows APIs. I don’t need to know how to program devices. I have prototyped a few gadgets with my copious free time using our tools and I’m looking forward to hooking them up to new hardware on laptop PCs, front panel displays and potentially, my cell phone.