|
 I'd
really like to go into my
spiel about the Windows
Vista Sidebar here - you
know where I tell you it's a
little bar just off N.W.
Street, next to O'Leary's
Pub. But, because I like
you, I won't do that today.
You're either
going to love the Windows
Vista Sidebar or you're
going to hate it. Luckily
for those of you that hate
it, you can keep it from
appearing on your desktop
just by right-clicking on it
and selecting "Close Side
Bar".
Me? Well, I'm
starting to like it, but I
could live without it. The
nice part is you can add
gadgets to it, and customize
it to make it do things you
want it to do - like show
the current newsfeed from
CNN (or whatever you like) -
there are now hundreds of
free gadgets available you
can add to your Vista
sidebar. Many of them are
utterly useless, but one
person's garbage is another
person's treasure, right?
Anyway, those
of you who have "pictures"
enabled in your email
program will be able to see
my slightly customized
Windows Vista Sidebar on the
left. You see my nice neon
clock, the latest news
tidbits, a resource meter
showing CPU and RAM usage,
my computer's uptime since I
last rebooted, and a little
slideshow that I added just
for this article to give it
a little color.
There are
hundreds and hundreds of
gadgets you can add to your
sidebar. Of course you're
limited to only a few unless
you're using a 42" LCD TV as
your monitor :)
You can
hundreds of gadgets free by
right-clicking on the
sidebar, clicking "Add more
gadgets" and then clicking
"Get more gadgets" at the
bottom of that dialog. Or,
those of you who like links
in newsletters
can get more gadgets from
this location. And if
you're a Windows XP user and
are just curious, you can,
of course click that link
too. But you won't be able
to download any gadgets, nor
could you use them even if
you did. Unless, of course,
some swift software
programmer invents a Vista
sidebar for Windows XP that
accepts these gadgets. Heck,
who knows, maybe someone
already did!
So, if you
love the sidebar in Vista,
be sure to take advantage of
its customization features
and peruse the many gadgets
available for it. If you
hate it, then you probably
haven't read this far since
I told you how to get rid of
it in the first paragraph :) |
