Get some gadgets for your desktop

Sometimes, you just want to do one, simple thing – make a note, check the date, view a weather forecast, or keep an eye on the news headlines. Ordinarily, a PC user might turn to Word, Windows Calendar or Internet Explorer to satisfy these needs.

But Windows 7 or Vista users can instead turn to the Sidebar. This is an area of the Windows Desktop that displays ‘gadgets’ designed for specific small jobs. They’ll save you time waiting for full applications to launch and they are all free.

In this Back to Basics we will explain what the Windows Sidebar is, how to add gadgets to it, how they work and what you can do with them.

The Sidebar and gadgets
Gadgets are small, typically single-purpose programs that are designed to start with Windows and stay active all the time, rather than being opened and closed all the while.

Introduced with Windows Vista, gadgets were originally part of something called the Sidebar – a ‘dock’ located on the right-hand side of the screen. However, in Windows 7 they are free-floating, meaning they can be positioned anywhere on the Desktop; Windows XP meanwhile, doesn’t include the Sidebar or any gadgets.

Typical Sidebar gadgets include a calendar, a local weather forecast, a clock, a notepad, a news headline ticker, a live currency converter and so on.

Unless it has been disabled, Vista will launch its Sidebar and gadgets by default. If you can’t see it, though, click Start, type sidebar into the search box and press Enter. Alternatively, click its entry as soon as it appears on the Start menu.

If running Windows 7, right-click on the Desktop and choose Gadgets. Windows 7 doesn’t have the Sidebar and enabling a gadget is a simple case of dragging it from the displayed gallery window to the Desktop.

Configure gadgets
Vista arranges gadgets in a column called the Sidebar, which normally sits on the right-hand side of the screen. If you would prefer the Sidebar to be displayed on the left, right-click on a blank part of it, choose Properties then click to select the Left radio button before clicking OK to close the dialogue box.

To change the order in which gadgets are stacked, move the mouse pointer over one of the gadgets until a tiny dotted button appears (it will be to the right of the gadget). Left-click and drag and drop this up or down the Sidebar to reposition it. As you do, the other gadgets will ‘jump’ out of the way: release the mouse button to drop it into place.

The same technique can be also used to drag gadgets out of Vista’s Sidebar for positioning anywhere on the Desktop. If you do this, you’ll notice many of them become larger and display more options. To see what we mean, drag the included weather gadget onto the Desktop.

 

In Windows 7, look for the same button and use that to drag gadgets to a new position. As gadgets are dragged near to each other or the edges of the screen, they’ll ‘snap’ into position, making it easier to arrange them. If you fancy, align them down the right-hand side of the screen to form a Sidebar, just like Windows Vista.

Most gadgets have options that can be tweaked. Try this in Vista or Windows 7. Make sure the weather gadget is displayed (if you can’t see it, skip to the next section, then come back here).

Hover the mouse pointer over it and then click the little spanner button next to it. Type in your location and press Enter. Click to select the appropriate one from the list, set the temperature to Fahrenheit or Celsius and click OK.

As well as having settings like this, some gadgets are interactive. Make sure the calendar gadget is visible and click it once to cycle between date and month views. Click one of the other days in the month view, and the gadget will display that date. Return to today’s date by clicking the turned-up corner.