Gadget Inspector
New in Vista is the sidebar, which contains gadgets (lightweight applications drawing data or images onto the actual desktop to run). In my current invocation of Vista Beta2 on my laptop I'm running slideshow in a gadget, an analog clock (interestingly the hands move via the hands being images which are rotated to appropriate locations based on the time), an rss feed gadget, and a stock and index gadget. There are also game gadgets available (sudoku, poker, etc). I have my own list of handy things I need, ie a blog gadget, a crm gadget,and a live local gadget for maps and directions. Another application for this is for Key Performance indicators, and infrastructure monitoring (server status gadget). It will be interesting to see this unfold as it is deployed for transaction and client support status and monitoring.
