AveDesk
Encyclopedia
AveDesk is a freeware
(although it is touted as "Donationware
", which means the software is solely donation-supported in terms of financing) widget engine for Windows XP
that runs small, self-contained widget
s called "desklets", as well as ObjectDock
"docklets" (small plugins intended for use by ObjectDock and other similar programs), and is created by Andreas Verhoeven, a freelance software programmer
.
Unlike most other software programs of its kind, AveDesk is heavily community driven. A dedicated section of the forums on Aqua-Soft, an online community of skinning enthusiasts dedicated to emulating the look and feel of Mac OS X Leopard, is used by users of the software to report bugs or request for new software features directly to the programmer, cutting any red tape
in the way. New features are also better discussed among the users of the software program and the programmer himself.
The "Ave" in "AveDesk" is a shortened version of the author's name, Andreas Verhoeven.
plugins developed in Visual C++ that can display themselves as widgets, rather than just simply script files. One advantage is that the desklets can have its entire appearance more easily changed to suit the tastes of its users, rather than having to create an entirely new desklet, as in most other widget engines. However, due to the same reason, users cannot easily create custom-made desklets for AveDesk as other similar programs (such as Konfabulator and DesktopX
). To work around this, AveDesk users usually use a plugin called SysStats, which allow users to easily create and run desklets for AveDesk using scripts (such as JavaScript
and VBScript
), coupled with specially structured INI files
and computer image files that make up the look and functionality of the widget.
With the release of version 1.3 of AveDesk, a new scripting engine, called AveScripter, will be developed to take advantage of the updated internal architecture of desklets. The engine is more closely integrated with AveDesk, and is able to take advantage of the internal features that come with the new version, such as visual effects included with AveDesk and a special library of graphical user interface
controls intended for AveDesk desklets, called AveControls.
Version 1.3 of AveDesk adds several new internal features as mentioned earlier, and a few new desklets were made to take advantage of them. In addition to the "Translator" and "StickyNotes" desklets (which were added in version 1.3) described above, two other desklets worth mentioning are:
Note that this is not an exhaustive list of all the desklets included with AveDesk.
s as docklets are to dock programs such as ObjectDock).
In late 2003, Andreas released AveDesk 1.0 on the Aqua-Soft online community. Soon after, a number of desklets intended just for AveDesk appeared. Some of the more notable desklets that helped propel AveDesk's popularity was a simple but skinnable shortcut desklet (the predecessor to the "PidlShortcut" desklet), that can be easily customised to take on the look and feel of Mac OS X desktop shortcuts but complete with functioning Windows context menus, a disk drive desklet (similar to the shortcut desklet) that could be set to appear only when that particular disk drive has been mounted, and a Trash can desklet that has the additional functions of ejecting a CD or DVD
disk drive when its icon has been dragged
onto it. These desklets helped to increase the appeal of AveDesk to skinning enthusiasts who wanted to emulate the look and feel of Mac OS X.
In late 2004, Andreas released version 1.1 of AveDesk to an eager audience of skinning enthusiasts, who had previously been teased with screenshots of the new version of AveDesk while it was in development. Users who installed the new version were greeted with improved desklets and new, custom visual effects (as described above). These visual effects further increased the appeal of AveDesk, and version 1.1 was embraced heartily by skinning enthusiasts, making it one of the more popular widget engines for Windows, along with already popular widget engines at that time (such as DesktopX
).
In early 2005, version 1.2 of AveDesk was released. Version 1.2 was one of the biggest (if not the biggest) update to AveDesk. Many new features were added to this version, with some of them requested by users of earlier versions; the themes and installer features, as well as Showcase were among the features new to the release. The various shortcut desklets were also replaced by a new, updated "PidlShortcut" desklet, bringing together and improving on the functions and quality of the shortcut desklets it displaced. Additional visual effects, such as improved shadows for the text on each desklet's label and fade-in/fade-out effects, were also added.
On October 26, 2005, Avedesk version 1.3 was released. This version was originally intended to be a minor update to iron out some quirks in previous versions of AveDesk, but it eventually became one of the biggest update to be rolled out. Several new features were incorporated into the release, such as additional hardware-accelerated visual effects when closing or configuring each desklet, along with improved desklets, some of which were described above.
Currently, the software program is at version 1.4 which added support for Windows Vista.
Freeware
Freeware is computer software that is available for use at no cost or for an optional fee, but usually with one or more restricted usage rights. Freeware is in contrast to commercial software, which is typically sold for profit, but might be distributed for a business or commercial purpose in the...
(although it is touted as "Donationware
Donationware
Donationware is a licensing model that supplies fully operational software to the user and pleads for an optional donation be paid to the programmer or a third-party beneficiary . The amount of the donation may also be stipulated by the author, or it may be left to the discretion of the user,...
", which means the software is solely donation-supported in terms of financing) widget engine for Windows XP
Windows XP
Windows XP is an operating system produced by Microsoft for use on personal computers, including home and business desktops, laptops and media centers. First released to computer manufacturers on August 24, 2001, it is the second most popular version of Windows, based on installed user base...
that runs small, self-contained widget
Widget (computing)
In computer programming, a widget is an element of a graphical user interface that displays an information arrangement changeable by the user, such as a window or a text box. The defining characteristic of a widget is to provide a single interaction point for the direct manipulation of a given...
s called "desklets", as well as ObjectDock
ObjectDock
ObjectDock is a dock similar to that in the Aqua GUI. It is distributed by Stardock for Windows 2000, 2003, XP, Vista and 7, and comes in Free and Plus versions.- Features :...
"docklets" (small plugins intended for use by ObjectDock and other similar programs), and is created by Andreas Verhoeven, a freelance software programmer
Programmer
A programmer, computer programmer or coder is someone who writes computer software. The term computer programmer can refer to a specialist in one area of computer programming or to a generalist who writes code for many kinds of software. One who practices or professes a formal approach to...
.
Unlike most other software programs of its kind, AveDesk is heavily community driven. A dedicated section of the forums on Aqua-Soft, an online community of skinning enthusiasts dedicated to emulating the look and feel of Mac OS X Leopard, is used by users of the software to report bugs or request for new software features directly to the programmer, cutting any red tape
Red tape
Red tape is excessive regulation or rigid conformity to formal rules that is considered redundant or bureaucratic and hinders or prevents action or decision-making...
in the way. New features are also better discussed among the users of the software program and the programmer himself.
The "Ave" in "AveDesk" is a shortened version of the author's name, Andreas Verhoeven.
Features
AveDesk desklets are skinnableSkin (computing)
In computing, a skin is a custom graphical appearance achieved by the use of a graphical user interface that can be applied to specific software and websites to suit the purpose, topic, or tastes of different users....
plugins developed in Visual C++ that can display themselves as widgets, rather than just simply script files. One advantage is that the desklets can have its entire appearance more easily changed to suit the tastes of its users, rather than having to create an entirely new desklet, as in most other widget engines. However, due to the same reason, users cannot easily create custom-made desklets for AveDesk as other similar programs (such as Konfabulator and DesktopX
DesktopX
DesktopX is a shareware desktop enhancement program that allows users to build their own custom desktops. Amongst its features is a complete widget engine for Windows as well as a desktop object system. User creations can be exported as .desktop files or as widgets...
). To work around this, AveDesk users usually use a plugin called SysStats, which allow users to easily create and run desklets for AveDesk using scripts (such as JavaScript
JavaScript
JavaScript is a prototype-based scripting language that is dynamic, weakly typed and has first-class functions. It is a multi-paradigm language, supporting object-oriented, imperative, and functional programming styles....
and VBScript
VBScript
VBScript is an Active Scripting language developed by Microsoft that is modeled on Visual Basic. It is designed as a “lightweight” language with a fast interpreter for use in a wide variety of Microsoft environments...
), coupled with specially structured INI files
Initialization file
The INI file format is a standard for configuration files for some platforms or software. INI files are simple text files with a basic structure composed of "sections" and "properties"....
and computer image files that make up the look and functionality of the widget.
With the release of version 1.3 of AveDesk, a new scripting engine, called AveScripter, will be developed to take advantage of the updated internal architecture of desklets. The engine is more closely integrated with AveDesk, and is able to take advantage of the internal features that come with the new version, such as visual effects included with AveDesk and a special library of graphical user interface
Graphical user interface
In computing, a graphical user interface is a type of user interface that allows users to interact with electronic devices with images rather than text commands. GUIs can be used in computers, hand-held devices such as MP3 players, portable media players or gaming devices, household appliances and...
controls intended for AveDesk desklets, called AveControls.
Desklets
AveDesk is mainly used by Windows users emulating the look and feel of Mac OS X. This can be seen in the default set of desklets included in the program. Some of the more commonly used ones include:- A "PidlShortcut" desklet (the most popular among the default set of desklets in AveDesk), a skinnable shortcutComputer shortcutA file shortcut in Microsoft Windows is a small file containing a target URI or GUID to an object, or the name of a target program file that the shortcut represents. The shortcut might additionally specify parameters to be passed to the target program when it is run. Each shortcut can have its own...
desklet that can point to a computer file or folder, but with customisable looks and functions and the ability to use a high-resolution PNG image as an iconIcon (computing)A computer icon is a pictogram displayed on a computer screen and used to navigate a computer system or mobile device. The icon itself is a small picture or symbol serving as a quick, intuitive representation of a software tool, function or a data file accessible on the system. It functions as an...
for the shortcut (instead of the usual low-resolution Windows icon), as well as to provide additional information, such as the number of files in the folder or the size of the disk drive, - A skinnable "iTunesDesklet" desklet (also known as "AveTunes"), which is an iTunesITunesiTunes is a media player computer program, used for playing, downloading, and organizing digital music and video files on desktop computers. It can also manage contents on iPod, iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad....
remote control, similar in functionality to its Mac OS X's Dashboard counterpart, but can have its appearance changed through skins, and - A "StickyNotes" desklet, which can hold simple notes and is very similar to the Stickies widget in Mac OS X's Dashboard. This desklet is an updated replacement for the "Notes" desklet found in earlier versions of AveDesk.
- A "Translator" desklet, which uses an online language translator to translate text from one language to another, and is similar to its Mac OS X's Dashboard's counterpart, but can have its appearance changed through skins. Among the languages supported are the more commonly spoken languages in EuropeEuropeEurope is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
(such as EnglishEnglish languageEnglish is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
, FrenchFrench languageFrench is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
and GermanGerman languageGerman is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
), as well as ChineseChinese languageThe Chinese language is a language or language family consisting of varieties which are mutually intelligible to varying degrees. Originally the indigenous languages spoken by the Han Chinese in China, it forms one of the branches of Sino-Tibetan family of languages...
, KoreanKorean languageKorean is the official language of the country Korea, in both South and North. It is also one of the two official languages in the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture in People's Republic of China. There are about 78 million Korean speakers worldwide. In the 15th century, a national writing...
and JapaneseJapanese languageis a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...
.
Version 1.3 of AveDesk adds several new internal features as mentioned earlier, and a few new desklets were made to take advantage of them. In addition to the "Translator" and "StickyNotes" desklets (which were added in version 1.3) described above, two other desklets worth mentioning are:
- A "ChalkBoard" desklet. Essentially a simple electronic drawing pad, a user can use a mouseMouse (computing)In computing, a mouse is a pointing device that functions by detecting two-dimensional motion relative to its supporting surface. Physically, a mouse consists of an object held under one of the user's hands, with one or more buttons...
to write or draw on the pad. The user can choose between five drawing colours and three pen sizes. - A "WordSearcher" desklet, which allows a user to search either an online dictionaryDictionaryA dictionary is a collection of words in one or more specific languages, often listed alphabetically, with usage information, definitions, etymologies, phonetics, pronunciations, and other information; or a book of words in one language with their equivalents in another, also known as a lexicon...
or thesaurusThesaurusA thesaurus is a reference work that lists words grouped together according to similarity of meaning , in contrast to a dictionary, which contains definitions and pronunciations...
. The desklet's colour changes to green if an entry is found, and red if it is unable to find the entry.
Note that this is not an exhaustive list of all the desklets included with AveDesk.
Features
Among the features of AveDesk not usually found in other widget engines are:- An installer feature. New users are easily confused with the correct installation of new desklets. To work around this, desklet creators can create specially pre-packaged desklets (which are actually ZIP filesZIP (file format)Zip is a file format used for data compression and archiving. A zip file contains one or more files that have been compressed, to reduce file size, or stored as is...
with the correct directoryDirectory (file systems)In computing, a folder, directory, catalog, or drawer, is a virtual container originally derived from an earlier Object-oriented programming concept by the same name within a digital file system, in which groups of computer files and other folders can be kept and organized.A typical file system may...
structure and instructions for the software program). Users need only to open the package with AveDesk, which will then automatically and correctly install the desklets for the user. - Modules, which extend the functionality of the software program itself. These modules act as plugins to the AveDesk program itself, and are not desklets or widgets. Modules provide additional functionality such as the ability to show or hide "PidlShortcut" desklets that point to specific disk drives as they are mountMount (computing)Mounting takes place before a computer can use any kind of storage device . The user or their operating system must make it accessible through the computer's file system. A user can access only files on mounted media.- Mount point :A mount point is a physical location in the partition used as a...
ed or dismounted, or to automatically hide all normal desktop icons when the program is started. - A themes feature. This feature allows a user of AveDesk to save the configurations and positions of AveDesk desklets he or she has running on the desktop, so if the user wishes to go back to that configuration in the future, he or she only needs to load that theme into AveDesk, saving the hassle of rearranging and reconfiguring the desklets. This feature came about after some users of earlier versions voiced the need to use multiple configurations of AveDesk desklets.
- Showcase. Similar to Konfabulator's Konsposé, and patterned after Mac OS X's Dashboard and ExposéExposé (Mac OS X)Exposé is a feature of the Mac OS X operating system. First previewed on 23 June 2003 at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference as a feature of the then forthcoming Mac OS X v10.3, Exposé allows a user to quickly locate an open window, or to hide all windows and show the desktop without the need...
, this feature quickly brings AveDesk desklets to the foreground, with the background dimmed. The user can set the hotkeys used to activate ShowCase, as well as setting the "dimness" of the background. - The ability to add custom visual effects to desklets, and to create new ones using specially crafted scriptsScripting languageA scripting language, script language, or extension language is a programming language that allows control of one or more applications. "Scripts" are distinct from the core code of the application, as they are usually written in a different language and are often created or at least modified by the...
. Unlike other widget engines, where visual effects are limited to the scope of the widgets, users can add their own visual effects onto AveDesk desklets, separate from the desklet. Many of the effects mimic the animations present on Mac OS X, but a few effects were unique to AveDesk, which some cross-platformCross-platformIn computing, cross-platform, or multi-platform, is an attribute conferred to computer software or computing methods and concepts that are implemented and inter-operate on multiple computer platforms...
users using the software application feel are better than their counterparts on Mac OS X. - A control panel. Instead of a context menuContext menuA context menu is a menu in a graphical user interface that appears upon user interaction, such as a right mouse click or middle click mouse operation...
listing all open widgets (as in most other widget engines), AveDesk uses a control panel for centralised desklet management. The control panel list all currently open desklets (along with a "live" thumbnail image of the desklet), as well as a menu barMenu barA menu bar is a region of a screen or application interface where drop down menus are displayed. The menu bar's purpose is to supply a common housing for window- or application-specific menus which provide access to such functions as opening files, interacting with an application, or displaying...
. From there, a user can open and close desklets, configure AveDesk's options, set the defaults for new AveDesk desklets, switch or create new AveDesk themes, or install and manage modules. Like other widget engines, however, AveDesk does place an icon in the taskbarTaskbarIn computing, a taskbar is a bar displayed on a full edge of a GUI desktop that is used to launch and monitor running applications. Microsoft incorporated a taskbar in Windows 95 and it has been a defining aspect of Microsoft Windows's graphical user interface ever since. Some desktop environments,...
, but it does not contain a list of running desklets. Its main purpose is to activate the control panel, to switch themes, and to shut down the program itself. - ObjectDock docklet support. Highly unusual for widget engines, AveDesk not only support its own plugin formats, but plugin formats of other applications that uses plugins (in this case, ObjectDock). One could run an ObjectDock docklet inside AveDesk as if it were an AveDesk desklet.
- Labels and sublabels. Each AveDesk desklet can have its own label, which the user can change. Some desklets makes heavy use of this feature, such as the "PidlShortcut" desklet; the labels provide the name of the file or folder it is pointing to, and the sublabels can provide additional information about the file or folder. Sublabels were added in version 1.1 to allow such shortcut desklets to more closely mimic their Mac OS X counterparts, which has this feature for all icons. This feature exists in the first place because ObjectDock docklets (which AveDesk can support, as described above) usually emanate information through labels, as well as the icon representing the docklet itself.
History
AveDesk was actually a spinoff of another different software project. Originally, Andreas Verhoeven (who was then a creator of ObjectDock docklets) was developing a program that could run ObjectDock docklets in Y'z Dock (a now-defunct program that was similar to ObjectDock) and vice versa, in order to resolve incompatibilities between the two programs. Instead, he managed to have ObjectDock docklets running on the desktop, independent of ObjectDock (hence the support for ObjectDock docklets). From there, he began further developing the idea that eventually led to AveDesk. During its development, he coined the term "desklets" to describe the widgets of AveDesk (as desklets are to computer desktopDesktop metaphor
The desktop metaphor is an interface metaphor which is a set of unifying concepts used by graphical user interfaces to help users more easily interact with the computer. The desktop metaphor treats the monitor of a computer as if it is the user's desktop, upon which objects such as documents and...
s as docklets are to dock programs such as ObjectDock).
In late 2003, Andreas released AveDesk 1.0 on the Aqua-Soft online community. Soon after, a number of desklets intended just for AveDesk appeared. Some of the more notable desklets that helped propel AveDesk's popularity was a simple but skinnable shortcut desklet (the predecessor to the "PidlShortcut" desklet), that can be easily customised to take on the look and feel of Mac OS X desktop shortcuts but complete with functioning Windows context menus, a disk drive desklet (similar to the shortcut desklet) that could be set to appear only when that particular disk drive has been mounted, and a Trash can desklet that has the additional functions of ejecting a CD or DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
disk drive when its icon has been dragged
Drag-and-drop
In computer graphical user interfaces, drag-and-drop is the action of selecting a virtual object by "grabbing" it and dragging it to a different location or onto another virtual object...
onto it. These desklets helped to increase the appeal of AveDesk to skinning enthusiasts who wanted to emulate the look and feel of Mac OS X.
In late 2004, Andreas released version 1.1 of AveDesk to an eager audience of skinning enthusiasts, who had previously been teased with screenshots of the new version of AveDesk while it was in development. Users who installed the new version were greeted with improved desklets and new, custom visual effects (as described above). These visual effects further increased the appeal of AveDesk, and version 1.1 was embraced heartily by skinning enthusiasts, making it one of the more popular widget engines for Windows, along with already popular widget engines at that time (such as DesktopX
DesktopX
DesktopX is a shareware desktop enhancement program that allows users to build their own custom desktops. Amongst its features is a complete widget engine for Windows as well as a desktop object system. User creations can be exported as .desktop files or as widgets...
).
In early 2005, version 1.2 of AveDesk was released. Version 1.2 was one of the biggest (if not the biggest) update to AveDesk. Many new features were added to this version, with some of them requested by users of earlier versions; the themes and installer features, as well as Showcase were among the features new to the release. The various shortcut desklets were also replaced by a new, updated "PidlShortcut" desklet, bringing together and improving on the functions and quality of the shortcut desklets it displaced. Additional visual effects, such as improved shadows for the text on each desklet's label and fade-in/fade-out effects, were also added.
On October 26, 2005, Avedesk version 1.3 was released. This version was originally intended to be a minor update to iron out some quirks in previous versions of AveDesk, but it eventually became one of the biggest update to be rolled out. Several new features were incorporated into the release, such as additional hardware-accelerated visual effects when closing or configuring each desklet, along with improved desklets, some of which were described above.
Currently, the software program is at version 1.4 which added support for Windows Vista.