Active Desktop

The term Active Desktop denotes a function of the operating system Microsoft Windows to display content from the Internet to the desktop, without having to use a browser. It is part of the Active Platform. Users can use any HTML content ( web pages, calendars, etc.) place or special channels as independent ad units on the desktop. It is possible to synchronize content from the Internet on a regular basis in order to bring the content up to date without having to call the appropriate page in the browser.

History

The Active Desktop was introduced with the completion of the Internet Explorer 4.0 for Windows 95 and Windows NT 4.0 in 1997. Following the reasoning of the Microsoft Active Desktop should be the argument par excellence for the purchase of Windows 98. With him, it was only possible in Windows 98, background images in formats JPG, GIF or PNG to use (though initially only by being integrated into an HTML document ). Previously, only images could be used in BMP format. It was, however, like to hide the fact that this additional feature claimed a considerable part of the working memory of that computer itself.

Present use

Windows 2000 and Windows XP include this feature yet. The feature, however, was no longer being developed by Microsoft for several years.

Since Windows Vista, this function is no longer included. Superseded it was the sidebar, Windows 7 " Desktop Gadgets ", which can be used to display multimedia content and Windows Live gadgets.