Coffee Dharma

Windows Sidebar

Posted on 07. Feb, 2008 by Rob in All, Musings, Older, Review

First off I have to mention that the system requirements are pretty steep as it is using a minimum of 25-30MB of RAM at all times and often goes higher as some gadgets update. If you have plenty of RAM to spare (as many of us do these days) there are some fun and useful gadgets available for Windows Sidebar. Here is a list of the five gadgets I have been using on mine. They are not listed in order of importance, but rather as they appear on my Sidebar.

1. App Launcher

• As the name suggests, App Launcher is a simple program launcher for the Sidebar. You can add your favorite apps (much like a dock) and click icons for fast launching. I added this one as a testing point since I usually use Launchy for my launching needs. For those who like a graphical dock type system this one works great.

2. Multi Meter (Dual Core)

• For those with Dual Core systems (again, many of us these days) this gadget easily monitors each processor core and RAM usage in a small window. I have found this one useful simply in seeing how taxing some processes are and a great way to see if a curious memory leak is happening.

3. Calendar (Included By Default)

• There’s not much to explain about this one. It’s a calendar with multiple view options and a nice UI

4. Notes (Included By Default)

• Again, there’s not much to explain here. It’s the equivalent of Post-It notes for your Sidebar.

5. Feed Reader

• I tested quite a few feed readers in the Sidebar. The default one that comes with Windows is nice but relies on Internet Explorer for updates. I refuse to use IE for obvious reasons and found Feed Reader to be the best alternative. Many of the ones out there used scrolling for feeds and I found that distracting. Feed Reader uses a side scroll interface that is much less distracting. It also uses live previews of clicked articles so you can quickly review it before going to the site.

Tags: Musings, News, Review, Software, Tech, Vista, Windows