Using Vista's Sidebar and Gadgets

Ian Waugh explains how to make the most of the Gadgets on the right of Vista's desktop and why you should be careful about which ones you install

One of the neat new features in Windows Vista is the Sidebar. It appears running vertically down the right of the screen and displays a series of Gadgets. These are little programs that perform simple functions, some useful, some not.

The Sidebar and the Gadgets it contains are easily customised. Most options can be selected by right-clicking on the Sidebar itself or on a particular Gadget. So right-click on an area of the Sidebar (make sure the mouse isn't on a Gadget) and select Properties. Here you can position the Sidebar on the right or left of the screen, and make it stay on top of other windows which you might want to do if you have a large screen monitor.

You can also untick the top check box if you can find no use for the Gadgets and want to stop the Sidebar loading with Windows Vista. You can always start it again by opening the Start menu, typing "sidebar" and clicking on the "Windows Sidebar" program.

Inspector Gadget

But you may find some Gadgets genuinely useful. A few are loaded by default but if you click on the + sign at the top of the Sidebar, a window will open showing a dozen or so more. Click on the "Show Details" down arrow at the bottom of the window then click on a Gadget to see some information about it. To load a Gadget into the Sidebar, simply double-click on it.

You can add lots of Gadgets to the Sidebar and if you have more than can be displayed in the single vertical strip, you can scroll through them by clicking on the right and left arrows at the top of the Sidebar, next to the + sign.

Vista is a very point, click and drag sort of OS and you can click and drag a Gadget onto the Desktop. You can also click and drag Gadgets around the Sidebar to alter their positions. Right-clicking on a Gadget will show an option to close it, as will moving the mouse pointer over a Gadget to reveal a close (X) button to its right and also, in some cases, a spanner which opens the Options dialogue (coming right up).

There's always options

Right-click on a Gadget and up pops a list of additional menus. Most are common to all Gadgets and some are also available from the Sidebar. The most interesting, however, is the Options menu which most, but not all, Gadgets have. Here you can change settings that are particular to each Gadget.

The Clock, for example, lets you set your time zone (and you could add several clocks, each with their own time zone) and offers a choice of eight different clock faces. The Slide Show lets you select a folder from which images will be displayed. The Feed Headlines Gadget offers a choice of feeds.

It's quite easy to get carried away by all the Gadgets on offer but before you install them, take a close look at what they do. Remember the window you opened by clicking on the + sign? At the bottom is a link that says "Get more gadgets online". This takes you to a Microsoft site which parades hundreds of Gadgets for your delight. You can download and install them by clicking on the Download button.

But before you do, check out the Gadget by clicking on the Gadget name or icon. This not only gives you a more detailed description of the Gadget, but if you scroll down the page you'll see comments and questions by users. These can highlight potential problems.

For example, some Gadgets seem to be memory or resource hogs, some users accuse them of running malware, and some users have difficulty in installing certain Gadgets but this is by no means universal. But to be forewarned is to be forearmed so take note of the comments, install it if you will and see how the Gadget performs on your system.

You may -or may not! - be surprised to see just how low the top Gadgets rate - three stars is considered a hit!

If you find a Gadget you like, you can look for more Gadgets by the same author. In the Microsoft Gallery, click on the "Sort By:" header and select Author.

Have fun with the Gadgets but, like everything else out there on the Internet - make your selections with care.

 

Ian Waugh
Read More of Ian's music reviews and tips at www.making-music.com