I have never programmed a gadget for Vista or Seven, but I would like to try to make one. But where do I start? I have tried to search around on google and msdn, but I haven't managed to find anything useful. Either very, very old stuff (Vista beta stuff), already made gadgets or differences between gadgets in Vista and Seven. But that doesn't help me, since I don't have a clue how to make a gadget in the first place... I haven't even managed to find out what they are written in...
So, could anyone help me out with a kick start?
In other words, how do I get from a clean install of Windows 7 with Visual Studio to a working Gadget that I can install and put on my Windows 7 desktop.
This question is related to
windows-7
windows-desktop-gadgets
Here's an excellent article by Scott Allen: Developing Gadgets for the Windows Sidebar
This site, Windows 7/Vista Sidebar Gadgets, has links to many gadget resources.
Combining and organizing all the current answers into one answer, then adding my own research:
Brief summary of Microsoft gadget development:
What are they written in? Windows Vista/Seven gadgets are developed in a mix of XML, HTML, CSS, and some IE scripting language. It is also possible to use C# with the latest release of Script#.
How are they packaged/deployed? The actual gadgets are stored in *.gadget files, which are simply the text source files listed above compressed into a single zip file.
Useful references for gadget development:
where do I start? Good introductory references to Windows Vista/Seven gadget development:
If you are willing to use offline resources, this book appears to be an excellent resource:
What do I need to know? Some other useful references; not necessarily instructional
Update: Well, this has proven to be a popular answer~ Sharing my own recent experience with Windows 7 gadget development:
Perhaps the easiest way to get started with Windows 7 gadget development is to modify a gadget that has already been developed. I recently did this myself because I wanted a larger clock gadget. Unable to find any, I tinkered with a copy of the standard Windows clock gadget until it was twice as large. I recommend starting with the clock gadget because it is fairly small and well-written. Here is the process I used:
C:\Program Files\Windows Sidebar\Gadgets\Clock.Gadget\
<name>Clock</name>
This is the name that will be displayed in the "Gadgets Gallery" window.%LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows Sidebar\
)I have started writing one tutorial for everyone on this topic, see making gadgets for Windows 7.
Source: Stackoverflow.com