Gadgets providing access to these applications are represented by desktop icons. These icons are then organized on the scrollable Sidebar on the screen, Microsoft officials said at the combined Software Architecture Summit and Middleware Summit conferences on Wednesday.

This Sidebar and Gadgets combination can save users from having to access Web pages for some everyday tasks. "Anything you've ever seen in a Web page and then some will be possible in a desktop Gadget," said Brian Teutsch, program manager at Microsoft.

Gadgets can be developed for tasks such as traffic maps, weather screens, and other functions. Developers can use tools such as Visual Studio to build gadgets using HTML.

"[They use] anything that they've become familiar with to write HTML, and they use JavaScript," Teutsch said.

Following a demo of Windows Sidebar and Gadgets, conference attendee Jody Kerr, systems architect at Wells Fargo, described the technology as "killer" for enterprises.