SideShow

Update on Windows SideShow in Windows 7 RC

Richard Green on 8th May 2009

So as I said earlier today, I emailed the Windows SideShow team for information about what’s going on in Windows 7, and here’s the response I got:

Richard,

Post-beta, we made a change to help reduce clutter in Control Panel and improve the user experience by only showing items that were relevant to the user’s current configuration. Because Windows SideShow is a hardware dependent feature, we felt it was best to only show it when appropriate hardware was installed on the PC (other Control Panels behave similarly). If you went to the SideShow control panel in the beta build, you’ll notice there’s really not much you can actually do there without a device installed.

Rest assured, Windows SideShow is still there! As soon as you connect up a SideShow-compatible device (such as our latest Device Simulator) the control panel will go back to where it belongs.

I was sceptical at first because my device (HTC Touch HD) was paired with the PC running 7, however it was showing no Windows SideShow service available in the Bluetooth properties.

Windows 7 Release Candidate

Richard Green on 8th May 2009

So I upgraded last night to the RC of Windows 7.

I took longer than the previous builds to upgrade but that’s possibly because I had the files from ISO on the HDD I was upgrading. It wasn’t my fault I needed to change the MinBuild string to let me upgrade from 7068 though.

So first impressions? Not really any difference from the 7068 build with the exception of the changed desktop version printout. SideShow still seems to be missing, and I’ve emailed the SideShow team to ask them about this, so hopefully I get a positive response back like it will be back in the RTM build.

SideShow Missing in Windows 7 Build 7068

Richard Green on 2nd April 2009

SideShow is probably one of the most underrated and under used features in Windows Vista, and I was really glad Microsoft kept going with in in Windows 7 especially as the Windows Mobile client still works well especially for PowerPoint Remote Control.

As I got my new phone yesterday I thought I’d install the SideShow client on it and see how PowerPoint Remote looks on the beautiful WVGA display.

To my horror, Microsoft have removed SideShow from Build 7068 of Windows 7. It was defiantly there in 7000 so where has it gone?

According to Seven Forums, it’s also missing from Build 7048 x86 but still present in the x64 build. As I’m running x86 I can’t look to see if it still exists in the 7068 Build for x64, but I’m guessing it might be gone also.

I really hope this is just temporary and it comes back for the next build.

Vista SideShow

Richard Green on 10th November 2008

SideShow has always been a feature of Windows Vista, however I’ve never used it because I’ve never had a SideShow enabled device and such device are few and far between unless you just go out and buy one without real purpose, until today.

Ok so in actual fact it’s a while ago, but I today discovered the CTP Windows Mobile SideShow Client which means Windows Mobile can be connected via Bluetooth to your Vista box and function as a SideShow device.

Meaning? You can do all sorts of things, some of which are kind of pointless in my opinion especially being that as it’s Bluetooth based your at most of 10m away from your PC, however some of it is quite cool.