I upgraded to a new laptop recently and it came with Vista. The things of Vista really didn't interest me until I set out to learn and like it with this new laptop.
The one thing that really piqued my interest is Vista's SideShow feature. I think this makes sense, but not in the area they were intending. I would never want to buy a laptop like the one from ASUS that has as second display on the outside of the lid. (I thought the lid was to protect that screen... so now I have one without a lid. Ok...)
However, I can totally see this SideShow being very useful when working with secondary displays plugged in by a VGA, DVI, or HDMI connector. I use my secondary display very infrequently, unless I am monitoring my emails like I am panicked. But otherwise, that screen just sits there with a window sitting on it. If Sideshow could be put out to other monitors, it would then become something very cool, and useful.
People could even add a touch-screen monitor to their computer, and let SideShow run on it, with a user interface added. I think this could add a new level to secondary attached monitors.
What would this take to make this possible though?
I think there would either have to be an updated driver for video cards to remain online while the PC is on standby, or an updated BIOS to allow the video card to remain on. This would not take much to add this great functionality to our second (or third) displays.
Ok, now somebody who knows how to do this, patent it and make money off it. Do whatever you want with the idea. I just want SideShow to make some sense.
