{"id":2684,"date":"2016-11-02T14:26:46","date_gmt":"2016-11-02T14:26:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/desk-accessory\/"},"modified":"2016-11-02T14:26:46","modified_gmt":"2016-11-02T14:26:46","slug":"desk-accessory","status":"publish","type":"definition","link":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/2633\/desk-accessory-da-computer-desktops","title":{"rendered":"Desk Accessory"},"content":{"rendered":"

What Does Desk Accessory Mean?<\/span><\/h2>\n

A desk accessory is a small application to be run in a
\ndesktop environment to help users with some task. Desk accessories were more
\ncommon in environments that had limited multitasking, but have become less
\nimportant as modern systems have preemptive multitasking. Desk accessories
\nstill exist in some form on modern systems.\n<\/p>\n

Techopedia Explains Desk Accessory<\/span><\/h2>\n

Desk accessories are small programs that perform some task,
\nsuch as a calculator or a notepad. Desk accessories were particularly
\nprominent on earlier desktops because they lacked good multitasking
\ncapabilities. The Classic Mac OS was one of them, since it was only with Mac OS
\nX that Apple\u2019s operating system achieved true preemptive multitasking. The Mac
\nOS Control Panel, Chooser and Scrapbook were all implemented as desk
\naccessories. When System 7 appeared, since it had cooperative multitasking,
\ndevelopers were encouraged to write small applications. The macOS Dashboard
\nalso allows developers to create small applications called widgets.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What Does Desk Accessory Mean? A desk accessory is a small application to be run in a desktop environment to help users with some task. Desk accessories were more common in environments that had limited multitasking, but have become less important as modern systems have preemptive multitasking. Desk accessories still exist in some form on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7813,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"definitioncat":[230,239],"class_list":["post-2684","definition","type-definition","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","definitioncat-privacy-and-compliance","definitioncat-productivity-software"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nWhat is Desk Accessory (DA)? - Definition from Techopedia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"This definition explains the meaning of Desk Accessory and why it matters.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Desk Accessory\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This definition explains the meaning of Desk Accessory and why it matters.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/2633\/desk-accessory-da-computer-desktops\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Techopedia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/techopedia\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@techopedia\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/2633\/desk-accessory-da-computer-desktops#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/2633\/desk-accessory-da-computer-desktops\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Margaret Rouse\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/#\/schema\/person\/f5dd538e31ee352d105b8af36c4268a5\"},\"headline\":\"Desk Accessory\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-11-02T14:26:46+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/2633\/desk-accessory-da-computer-desktops\"},\"wordCount\":159,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/#organization\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/2633\/desk-accessory-da-computer-desktops#respond\"]}],\"articleSection\":\"\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/2633\/desk-accessory-da-computer-desktops\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/2633\/desk-accessory-da-computer-desktops\",\"name\":\"What is Desk Accessory (DA)? 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