| AveDesk | |
| Developer: | Andreas Verhoeven |
| Genre: | Widget engine |
| Operating System: | Microsoft Windows |
| License: | Donationware |
| Website: | AveDesk |
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 widgets 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.
AveDesk desklets are skinnable 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.
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:
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.
Among the features of AveDesk not usually found in other widget engines are:
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 desktops 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.