Windows Vista Customization Sidebar Gadgets

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Windows Vista Customization – Five Must-Have Sidebar Gadgets

One of Windows Vista’s most immediately obvious features is the “Sidebar” – a taskbar, usually docked to the side of the screen, in which you can quickly and easily install “gadgets” – small applications that can help you automate some of your most common tasks. Although every user has a different recipe for the “perfect” gadget configuration, there are a few essential gadgets most users are going to want to get their hands on:

1) An RSS Gadget (and some good RSS feeds to go along with it) like Feed Headlines or News By Keyword.
RSS stands for “Really Simple Syndication” – just think of it as a way for you to get the news headlines you’re most interested in delivered (and constantly updated) to your desktop, with links to the full articles online. You can add newsfeeds from virtually any news provider, allowing you to tailor-make your news reading experience, or have the gadget search for feeds by keyword.

2) A freeware weather Gadget like Weather or MSN Weather.

Face it – unless you live on the North Pole you’re going to need to know what the weather’s like outside. A weather gadget on your desktop can serve as a virtual weather station, letting you know the temperature, forecast, and conditions – without you even having to look out the window.

3) A CPU / System Monitor Gadget like Multi-Meter or All CPU Meter.

Even if you think you don’t need one of these, you probably do anyway. A system monitor can tell you things about your computer you’ll probably want to know – like how much of your system’s RAM is currently in use (and how much is remaining) or how much processing power that Vista Aero theme you’ve got is using up.

System monitors come in all shapes and sizes – some display network bandwidth information, some display critical system information; you’d do best to pick the one that seems to correspond most to your level of ability. There’s no sense in inundating yourself with useless information. For the novice, try Multi-Meter. The more experienced user might prefer All CPU Meter, which displays more advanced system details.

4) A Package Tracking Gadget like Package Tracker.

If you’ve ever bought anything on Amazon.com lately, you’ll know how troublesome it can be to constantly log onto sites like FedEx.com and repeatedly type in a long tracking number to check your package’s status.

With a good package tracking gadget like Package Tracker, you can check the status of your packages as easily as glancing at your Vista sidebar – and the sidebar gadgets are occasionally faster to update package status than the shipping providers’ own website interfaces. Packing gadgets can be invaluable to frequent Ebay users, online buyers and sellers, or corporate purchasing managers.

5) A note-keeping Gadget like Notes or Outlook Notes.

Sometimes, getting your word processor up and running just takes too long – you’ve got to type something and you don’t have any time to waste. Look no further than a note-keeping gadget like Notes or Outlook Notes, which work like a virtual notepad, allowing you to jot down quick records and store them for future use.

With the ability to run multiple instances of the same gadget, you could use a note-keeping Gadget to keep track of shopping or packing lists, recipes, or just about anything that pops into your head – it’s as easy as clicking the notepad in the sidebar and typing away. With no need to name or save files, a note-keeping Gadget makes the task of keeping your digital life organized significantly easier and less time-consuming.

With gadgets available to simplify Google searches, calendar-keeping, stock, package or flight tracking, remote desktop connections, even to convert RSS feeds into digitized speech, these five Gadgets only represent a jumping off-point; every user will have their own specific needs and preferences as to what belongs in the sidebar; fortunately, Vista users can connect to Microsoft’s Gadget repository and easily download and install new ones, or update Gadgets with new versions. Many options like opacity, size, location, and so on can be customized by right-clicking an item on the sidebar, and gadgets may even be “undocked” from the sidebar and place at the discretion of the user, anywhere on the desktop, allowing for almost infinite customization of the Vista experience.
As new are Gadgets released daily, Windows Vista users might someday need a gadget to control their gadgets – and some are already available. For the intrepid programmer, gadgets represent an opportunity to place their application on the desktop of millions; let’s just hope they haven’t come up with a Gadget to play computer solitaire.