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Fans of Apple's Mac Dashboard may want to try Kludget Engine, which promises to replicate the Dashboard experience on Windows machines. It'd be great to touch a button and see a variety of useful widgets fly onto the screen. But, like many attempts to bring Apple style to the Windows world, it's better in theory than in practice.
That isn't to say that Kludget Engine is bad. It looks much like Dashboard, and it's actually designed to run Apple widgets. So, we hurried over to Apple's Web site and downloaded some widgets. And they worked--sort of. They appeared within Kludget Engine and looked the way they were supposed to, except for widgets that required any kind of user input, which was many. Entering your ZIP Code for WeatherBug, for example, did not work. And a couple of widgets just wouldn't display correctly at all. Kludget Engine has produced a few widgets of its own, but there's really not much to choose from, and the lack of Help file means users have no guidance when it comes to widget selection or configuration. Thus, users are at the mercy of Apple widgets that may or may not work. It might be worth messing with for die-hard Dashboard fans, but most users can take a pass on kludgy Kludget.
Kludget Engine is free. It installs politely but leaves a folder behind upon removal. We recommend this program, but with reservations.
Publisher's Description
From Mindhyve:
Kludget Engine is an open-source widget engine that can run Apple's Dashboard widgets on Windows. It has a stock of basic widgets included with the installer package. But thousands of widgets are available on the web to install and try out. The application is based on Webkit which means it runs on the same rendering and scripting engine as Dashboard and the Safari browser. The application is also built on top of Nokia's QT framework.
What's new in this version: Version 1.0.0 is the first stable release. Now using Qt 4.7 for improved stability and performance.
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All versions:
3.7 starsout of 3 votes
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Current version:
3.7 starsout of 3 votes
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My rating:
Write review
Results 1-3 of 3
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"Great for testing Mac Dashboard widgets"
Version: Kludget Engine 1.0
Pros
I use Kludget Engine to test my game (which is available as a Mac Dashboard widget) on my pc. It works great and allows me to see how it will render, test window.widget functionality, etc.
Cons
Doesn't render exactly the same as a mac, but works well enough that I don't need a dedicated mac computer for testing.
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"_______---"
Version: Kludget Engine 1.0
Pros
??????????????????????
Cons
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"did not like it"
Version: Kludget Engine 1.0
Pros
none that I could find
Cons
could not use it
Summary
I have windows 7 and internet explorer 9. I downloaded kludget engine as a widget opener. AllI got was a clock and a calender. I already have those with my microsoft software. Kludget engine did not open the widget that I needed opened, so, I deleted the engine. I do not intend to download it again. I rate the Kludget engine as a zero.
