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Windows Vista RTM Lab >> Next-gen applications Windows Presentation Foundation

The audience of the Vista RTM Lab now has to face a presentation and discussion on the “Windows Presentation Foundation” platform. WPF makes future Vista (and XP) applications much more attractive and functional. Since I have been reporting on WPF (e.g. from TechEd, PDC or the Vista Lab in Amsterdam) I will not go deeper into this. However, they showed us a couple of interesting WPF applications from which I pick out two:

iBloks
This little graphically interesting application aims at the users under 24 : With the help of the new 3D-capabilities of Vista and WPF you are able to create a “mobilee” with different pictures and videos that you can attach to it. This mobilee can be published to the internet easily and lets you share it among your friends.

iBloks - one of the first WPF applications for Vista

Yahoo Messenger
Yahoo shows a possible Vista Killer application: The brand new version of the Yahoo messenger which fully incorporates the features of the “Windows Vista Foundation”. The new Yahoo-Messenger offers for example a 3D color picker as well as scalable pictures of your contacts. The main and chat windows are both semi-transparent which blends in with nicely with the Vista UI. The message windows can be combined into ONE single window that uses the tab feature similar to the one in Firefox or IE7. So even if you’re a die-hard chatter your task bar won’t drown in 25 different blinnking chat windows.

You even have to possibility to share pictures and videos in a visually stunning interface which makes for an interesting interaction...

Yahoo Messenger with transparency effects

“Tabs” - Tabbed browsing with chat windows

Picking photos in Yahoo Messenger

Writing Windows Presentation Foundation applications
The variety of graphics and effects of these WPF applications can be created using the Microsoft “Expression Blend” tool. You have the possibility to make pictures three-dimensional or change them into a fully functional button. As in similar applications (such as Marcomedia Flash) you’ll be able to add “triggers” to objects as well. If you want to create nice websites or applications for Vista the easiest way is to use Expression Blend!