One of the major usability enhancements that MMC provides is built-in support for taskpads. On the context menus, tasks are exposed which take the current selection context and operate on it. Taskpads, on the other hand, provide an entry point into tasks which do not require a selection context. The main thing that taskpads will do is launch wizards, but some Snap-Ins may also use them to launch help topics and to jump to other taskpads.
There are two types of taskpads, those that use a standard console template and those that do not. In the standard console template there is the possibility of customizing the title on the taskpad, the description of the taskpad, and the logo shown on it. If your Snap-In wants to customize anything beyond this, though, you will have to build your own taskpad using HTML and ActiveX technologies. The following is an example of a console standard taskpad:
Of course, by using HTML and ActiveX technologies to create custom taskpads almost anything is possible. For example, here is an example of a taskpad created for a fictitious company called "Arcadia Bay":
By creating your taskpad using the standard template, your Snap-In can take advantage of a couple of behaviors that would otherwise be difficult to achieve:
Resizing If you used normal HTML, you might either have to write some special scripts to move elements on your taskpad around, or have both horizontal and vertical scrollbars. Using the standard template, however, MMC will take care of these resizing issues for you.
Converting a taskpad into a toolbar Taskpads can be displayed either in their full state where each task is given an icon, a title, and a description or they can be displayed in toolbar mode where only the icon is showing. In this toolbar state, of course, very little screen space is used and several taskpads can be shown at once - either floating or docked to some part of the console. (Note: Only custom taskpads are supported in the PDC technology preview release. The standard console implementation will be offered shortly.)