As we previously established, widgets are DesktopX objects that were combined together to create some sort of “mini-application” and then exported as an .EXE that uses the DesktopX run-time DLLs installed on your computer to run.

When you choose “Load Widget”, the Widget Manager is run. You don’t really need this program to run widgets, it’s just there to make it easy to load and manage widgets. When you actually do choose to run a widget, your widget directory is opened.

DesktopX includes some very good widgets with it, namely the “Silica” series of widgets.

These widgets do things such as display a calendar, tell you how much disk space is available, allow you to load a picture onto your desktop, display the current stock values, give you a “To-Do” list and much more.

You can interact with widgets by Right-Clicking on them and going to its properties dialog.

Loading a Widget 

To load a Widget from the DesktopX Welcome menu, click on the "Load Widgets" button and the following dialog box will open called the "Widget Manager".  You can do the following: Load Widgets, Download more Widgets, Options, Configure a Widget, Unload a widget from memory, Show All / Hide All, and Minimize All / Unload All. To load a widget, click the button, then use the Explorer window that opens to double-click on the desired widget.  When you are finished selecting widgets, click on .

For instance, if you selected the "Fishy.exe" widget, you will see a colorful fish swim across your desktop.  This is referred to as "eye candy", since it is pretty & fun to watch, but does not do anything practical.  There are lots of widgets that do helpful tasks.

You can move the fish around by left clicking on it, then dragging & dropping it where you want it and it will continue to swim.  You may see it swim over (or under) an open application window (i.e. Windows Explorer).  If it is swimming on top (in front) of the window (see below) and you click on the window, the fish will move behind it.  This is because the "Z-order" is set to "Normal" in the widgets properties. 

What is Z-order?

Think of your Windows desktop as having layers, or levels like in a building, with the higher levels in front (or on top) of other things in the background (on the ground level).  Background wallpaper is the first floor / ground level (or "Desktop level").  Windows and other objects on the second floor block (or overlay) other windows/objects underneath (behind) it.  Using this stacking ability. windows & objects can be placed in the background (ground level) or foreground (top floor) along a Z-axis, even though your desktop is really 2D (two dimensional).  (Additional Information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Z-order.)

With programs (or widgets in this case) that allow us to change the Z-order, we can specify if a widget is at: Desktop level (ground level), Normal or Always on top (top floor).

You can change the Z-order and other properties by right-clicking on a widget.  A small menu opens with these options for the widget: Hide (from view), Close (widget), About (info. about the widget) and Properties. 

(To unhide a hidden widget, right-click on the "DesktopX Widget" icon in the System Tray & select "Show All" (hidden widgets).  Or select "Open Widget Manager" from the menu, select the widget to unhide & either double-click on the widget (under "Loaded Widgets") or click .)

Selecting "Properties" opens a dialog box with several options on two tabs: Appearance and General Settings.  You can also change the properties by selecting the widget Each widget may have different default settings.

Properties Quick Reference 

Action	What it does
Appearance tab
Z-order	Change the position of the widget from: Always on top - always in front of other open application windows, etc.. Normal level - stays in front of open application windows, etc., unless the window is clicked on (giving it focus), in which case the widget will be sent to the background (behind open window). Desktop level - keeps the widget in the background, behind open window(s) & other objects (i.e. dialog boxes, message boxes, ...).
Opacity	Changes the transparency of the widget as you move the slider . Far left: Totally transparent (see through), non-opaque. Far right: Totally opaque (can not see through).
	Checked, gives the widget a shadow. Unchecked, no shadow. Clicking gives you options to change the shadow from its default.
	Allows you to change the shadow settings of the widget, then click or to save changes.  (Click then to abort changes.) "Sharpness" - far left (more sharp), far right (fuzzy). "Darkness" - far left (lighter), far right (darker). "X" - (X axis / horizontal) move the slider to the far left to move the shadow to the far left & to the right, to move it to the right of the widget. "Y" - (Y axis / vertical) move the slider to the bottom to move the shadow lower than the widget or up the scale to move the shadow above the widget. "Override custom settings where already defined" - if you find as you make changes, nothing happens, check this box.  Then you should see changes made to the widget as you move the sliders.  This option replaces the widgets default settings with your desired changes to the shadow. Note: You must check the box for "Shadow", otherwise the widgets shadow will not change.
Hue Shift (From: To:)	Changes the hue (tint) of the color of the widget.  The top rainbow bar (From:) are the default colors, while the bottom bar (To:) are the new hues as you move the next to "Hue Shift".
Accessibility	Places an icon for this widget in the Taskbar (bottom of desktop), Systray (System Tray / by default, lower right corner next to clock) or None (no icon).  Having an icon available gives you easy access to changing the properties, hiding, closing, etc. of the widget.  Otherwise, you have to open DesktopX Welcome, then "Load Widgets" to view / change "Loaded Widgets".
	Silica Widget icon placed on Taskbar.
Run automatically when Windows starts	Checked, automatically starts this widget when Windows starts up.  Unchecked, widget only runs when you start it manually through DesktopX, Windows Explorer, etc..  The next time Windows starts, widget will not run.
General Settings tab
On top / on bottom hotkey	Hot keys are special key(s) on your keyboard assigned a certain task (e.g. Show (unhide) a hidden widget).  You can change what key is used, to avoid potential conflict with the same key used by another program.  These two options are "toggles", press once to do something, then press again to do the opposite. F9 - (default) Press to bring the widget to the top level (foreground), press again to send to the bottom (background / desktop level).
Show / hide hotkey	F10 - (default) Press to show (unhide) a hidden widget, press again to hide.

Download More Widgets

Clicking will open & display the WinCustomize.com website in your web browser.  It will automatically display the "DesktopX Widgets" web page.  You can browse over 1,000 free widgets for use with DesktopX.

Clicking the button opens a dialog with several choices to control how all widgets are controlled.

Quick Reference 

Action	What it does
On top / on bottom hotkey	This works the same as the Properties for an individual widget, except this will control all widgets currently running.  So you can bright all running widgets to the top (foreground) by pressing F9 or send them to the background (desktop level). F9 - (default) Press to bring all running widgets to the top level (foreground), press again to send to the bottom (background / desktop level).
Show / hide hotkey	F10 - (default) Press to show (unhide) all hidden widget(s), press again to hide.
Language	Change default language of English to a different one in the pull-down menu.
	Displays list of widgets in temporary folder on your hard-drive.  This is used for faster access to widgets.  This allows you to delete an individual widget's folder, if you want to remove it from the cache.  Deleting from cache will delete preferences as well.  Click to close Explorer window.
	Removes all running widgets from the cache, including any changes in properties.  When prompted, click (remove all). (Click or to abort.)

Other Options 

Action	What it does
	Clicking on a widget under "Loaded Widgets", then clicking the button will open the "Properties" dialog as previously described.  (Please refer to Changing Widget Properties on this page).  Note:  If the Widget Manager is centered on the screen, when you click the Properties dialog will appear behind the Widget Manager.  So you will need to move the Widget Manager to see it.
	Selecting a widget under "Loaded Widgets", then clicking the button will remove the widget (stop it from running).
	Displays all hidden or previously obstructed (sent to desktop / background) running widgets.
	Hides all running widgets.  These remain running, until you unhide them (Show / Show All).
	This minimizes all running widgets.
	Unloads (removes) all running widgets.  There is no confirmation, once you click this all widgets are stopped.
	Closes the "Load Widget" dialog box.

Widget Manager in System Tray

When you click the button on the DesktopX Welcome screen, the Widget Manager dialog opens & DesktopX puts an icon in the System Tray (SysTray) next to the clock.  (By default, the System Tray is located in the lower, right-hand corner of your monitor.  If you changed the location of your Task Bar, the System Tray/Clock will be in a different corner of the screen.)

After closing the Widget Manager, you can easily access many of the widget options by right-clicking on the icon in the System Tray.

Right-click menu - with widgets running.

As seen if no widgets are running.

Most of the options on this menu are available in the Widget Manager dialog.  All of the options are detailed in the following table.  If there are no running widgets, the menu will have less options, since some only affect running widgets.

Quick Reference

Technical Notes

If you look in the Windows Task Manager, a widget will be listed under Processes as DXWidget.exe regardless of the name of the widget.  This is for widgets requiring DesktopX installed to run.  The reason a widget needs DesktopX installed, is that it includes DLL's (Dynamic Link Library) that contains programming the widget needs to run.  In the Standard version of DesktopX, using the DesktopX Builder, you can export a widget as a Windows Vista Sidebar widget.  If you have the DesktopX Professional version, you can export a widget as a stand-alone program, called a "Gadget".  A gadget does not need DesktopX installed to run, so you could create a widget, and convert it to a Gadget to share with your friends who do not have DesktopX.