InsideMicrosoft

Turn Any Google Gadget Into A Windows Sidebar Gadget

Nice! Someone has written a program that will turn any Google Gadget into a Sidebar Gadget for Windows Vista. The Amnesty Generator (version 0.5b) will take the code for a Google Gadget, or almost any type of web widget, and make it work on Windows Vista. This is exactly the sort of thing I’d hoped someone would do, giving Windows Vista access to the thousands of Google Gadgets without installing a ton of GoogleWare.
(via WinMatrix > Digg)

So, here’s what you need to do:

• Head to Google’s Gadgets for your Webpage directory
• Find a Gadget that you like (make sure it renders on the page, otherwise it probably won’t work), configure it, and copy the code to add to your webpage
• Paste that code into Amnesty Generator’s big text box, press Tab on your keyboard, and Amnesty will auto-fill most of the fields. Fix any as necessary, create a thumbnail if you’d like, and click Generate.
• Open the Sidebar’s Gadget Gallery by clicking the plus sign at the top of the Sidebar.
• Find your new Gadget (you did name it, right?) in the Gallery and drag it to the desktop or Sidebar
• Ta-da! You’re done, baby!

The hilarious thing is that this is designed to bring Google web Gadgets to Windows Vista, but there’s no way to bring Windows Live Gadgets into Vista.

Oh, wait! That’s right, I solved that problem two months ago! Just alter this code with the Windows Live Gadget XML you want and the proportions you need, and you can put Windows Live Gadgets on the Vista Sidebar, too:

< iframe frameborder="0" scrolling="no" style="margin:5px 0px 0px 0px;width:150px; height:350px;" allowtransparency="true"
src="http://gadgets.start.com/gadget2.aspx?b=http%3A//shared.live.com/4d8Kgj76eAIxromSOzOn1Q/#view=Custom&host=microsoft.blognewschannel.com&mode=viewer&m=http://download.gallery.start.com/d.dll/1~1~781~6461/gadget.xml&params=%7BshowToolbar%3Afalse%2CthemeGuid%3A'WallClock'%7D" >< /iframe >

Here’s that Gadget, the iPhone Countdown Gadget, running on my desktop:

If you get the proportions wrong, don’t sweat it, you can re-generate the Gadget, and as long as it has the same name, it’ll replace the one you made before.

The verdict: I’m seeing some bugs and annoyances, but this is going to be the killer Gadget when it’s done. I can’t wait to see the next version, which should hopefully fix any little problems. A must-have Gadget for the Vista Sidebar connoisseur.

February 7th, 2007 Posted by Nathan Weinberg | Live, Sidebar, Vista, Google, Windows, General | 5 comments