How-To Geek Bounty: Get Paid for Active Desktop for Vista

Active Desktop Replacement Bounty – Update

Update: This bounty has now been successfully claimed.

A significant alteration in Windows Vista involved the outright elimination of Active Desktop. This functionality previously allowed users to utilize a dynamic webpage as their desktop background, or, for some, multiple such pages.

Numerous readers have contacted us inquiring about restoring this capability, and many have expressed interest in finding a suitable alternative.

Bounty Sponsorship

Reader Scott is offering sponsorship for the development of an Active Desktop replacement for Windows Vista. How-To Geek will contribute half of the bounty, which currently totals $103.24, for an open-source solution.

Feature Specifications

For those unfamiliar with the original functionality, here are the detailed requirements:

• The system should support the display of multiple web items directly on the desktop.
• Each item can be a live webpage or an image sourced from a webpage.
• These web items must be dynamic, refreshing automatically and enabling active links that launch in the user’s default browser.
• Users must be able to resize and reposition these items freely.
• The items should remain fixed on the desktop, behaving as Active Desktop previously did.
• The solution should not be implemented as a Vista Sidebar gadget.
• From a performance perspective, it should avoid the excessive memory and CPU usage characteristic of Vista Sidebar gadgets.

The following image illustrates the potential of Active Desktop, which proved valuable for visualizing data like weather maps (click to enlarge).

Bounty Rules

The following guidelines apply to submissions:

• We strongly prefer an open-source replacement to ensure long-term availability.
• Freeware, closed-source versions can be discussed directly with Scott on the forum thread. However, How-To Geek will only sponsor open-source software.
• All questions and submissions should be directed to geek@howtogeek.com, or posted on the dedicated forum thread.
• How-To Geek readers will have exclusive first access to coverage of the winning solution.

An active forum thread is available for questions and further discussion regarding the bounty details.