Get hold of the Vista widgets on Windows XP
Vista Sidebar is a simple utility with which we’ll be able to add the practical and functional Windows Vista widget sidebar to Windows XP so that we can access a wide range of utilities with a single click of the mouse.
Take your Vista widgets to XP
Once this application has been installed, we can start to customize the widgets that we want to be shown, among which it is possible to find a Windows Media Player controller, a calendar, a clock, utilities to search on the Internet, a weather station or a Wi-Fi gadget, to get to know the power of our connection.
Both the configuration as well as the installation or customization of the widgets are very simple and, in a matter of minutes, we’ll have a customized toolbar.
If you don’t want to update to Windows Vista, but you want to have the popular toolbar that this operating system includes, download Vista Sidebar and always have the best widgets available.
Requirements and additional information:
- It only works on Windows XP.
Leticia Sorivella
My name is Leticia. I really like movies, television, and music. That is why I studied Audiovisual Communication. In the beginning, I wanted to work in movies, but I ended up on television. Then, I went from being behind the cameras to being in…
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Windows Vista and Windows 7 come with a sidebar in which you can install gadgets like clock, weather information etc. But Windows XP lacks this feature. But worry no more, you can install a free third party sidebar in Windows XP. This sidebar works just like the Windows Vista or Windows 7 sidebar. Here is how :
- Download sidebarb116.exe (10 MB).
- Install the Desktop Sidebar by running sidebar116.exe that you downloaded.
- If the Desktop Sidebar does not run automatically, you can choose from Start Menu → Programs → Desktop Sidebar. When run it would look like this :
- You can change the settings for the Desktop Sidebar by right clicking on its system tray icon and choosing Options
- In the Options window, you can set it to auto-start with Windows under the General tab. Check the box labeled Run this program when Windows starts and click OK button to save the settings.
- In the Options window, you can change the Desktop Sidebar skins under the Appearance tab. Choose a skin from the drop down liast as shown and click Apply button to save the settings.
The Desktop Sidebar has dozens of other settings and plugins to choose from. You can even download new skins from its web site. The Desktop Sidebar is a very nice, lightweight and freeware sidebar for Windows XP users.
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One of the more visible changes of the Windows Vista operating system was the Windows Vista Sidebar which made it possible to put so called gadgets on the Windows Desktop. Gadgets are small applications that can display all kinds of information such as RSS news feeds, contacts or system information.
Many Windows Vista users like the Windows Sidebar, others feel that it is to restricted to one part of the screen. Microsoft has already announced that they will change that behavior in Windows 7 so that users can place gadgets wherever they want on the desktop.
It was only a matter of time until someone would port the Windows Vista Sidebar to Windows XP. Joshoon managed to port the real Windows Sidebar to Windows XP by making use of Alky For Applications. You might remember Alky from the time when Windows Vista came out. That was at the same time when Microsoft announced Vista only applications and Alky was supposed to make them compatible with Windows XP (like the games Shadowrun or Halo 2)
The pack includes three different applications that are needed to install, display and maintain the Windows Vista Sidebar in Windows XP. First there is Alky For Applications which can simply be installed. Once that is done the Windows Vista Sidebar can be installed and will be operational afterwards. The pack comes with many gadgets and a tool called Gadget Gallery which can be used to add new gadgets to the sidebar.
Already available gadgets can be added by right-clicking the sidebar and selecting a gadget from the list of installed gadgets. Each gadget can be added by right-clicking it and selecting Add from the context menu.
Even more interesting than this is the ability to download gadgets from the Windows Vista Gallery site over at Microsoft. It requires some manual work but it’s easily done and works perfectly fine. The gadget needs to be downloaded and unpacked. It comes with the .gadget extension but it can easily be unpacked by most unpackers. Worked fine with 7-zip.
The directory that will be created by unpacking the .gadget file, adding the .gadget extension to the root directory of it and moving it to the Shared Gadgets directory of the sidebar application.
One interesting feature is the ability to detach a gadget from the sidebar so that it can be moved freely around on the desktop.
The Sidebar requires roughly 20 Megabytes of computer memory when displaying the default three gadgets.
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Лайфхакер недавно писал о скриптах, способных эмулировать сайдбар в Windows XP один в один как в Windows Vista. Поделюсь с Вами еще одной программой, которая создаст в Windows XP многофункциональный сайдбар — Thoosje’s Vista Sidebar. Боковая панель может отображать на рабочем столе строку поиска Google, Yahoo, других поисковых систем (опции поисковых виджетов настраиваются), панель управления, виджет Windows Media Player, RSS каналы, информативный виджет погоды, календарь, часы, большое число виджетов, отображающих сведения об активности компьютера.
Можно вывести данные потребляемого трафика, показания активности жесткого диска, графики загрузки процессора и оперативной памяти, а также отобразить текущее время работы компьютера.
Программа поддерживает скины, при чем изменяется вид не только для главной панели, но и отдельных элементов (поиск, часы, календарь). По утверждению разработчиков, их боковая панель очень экономно относится к ресурсам, занимая по сравнению с аналогичной панелью ОС Vista на 50 процентов меньше оперативной памяти. Сайт: http://www.thoosje.com/sidebar.html.
Install and Create Vista Sidebar in Windows XP
MSTN (link dead) has packaged all files and executables needed to install and run Windows Vista Sidebar in Windows XP properly into one setup file – WindowsSidebarInstall.exe. Download and install WindowsSidebarInstall.zip which contains WindowsSidebarInstall.exe. The installer will automatically create a sub folder Sidebar (can also be installed in “Windows Sidebar” folder) in the Program Files folder, and then copy all the necessary files, DLLs and executables (e.g. Sidebar.exe, xmlrw.dll and emu.dll) to the \Program Files\Sidebar (or \Program Files\Windows Sidebar folder if you choose so when prompted by setup) directory, with two more child folder “Default Parts” and “en-US”. Beside, the setup will also create a folder named “Parts” in the currently logged on user home directory (assuming you logon as Administrator, the Parts folder will be located in C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\ directory or accessible via %userprofile%\Parts command), with all the default gadgets (parts). This is the folder where all gadgets should be installed.
After finished copying the files, installer will automatically execute Windows Vista Sidebar Compatibility Patch which will patch Sidebar.exe so that the executable which originated from Windows Vista can be ran in Windows XP. Click Start and then click on OK when prompted with message that process succeeded with file successfully patched. Installation of Windows XP Sidebar is done.
To run XP side bar, click on Start and then Run. Type in the either one of the following commands, depending on your installation directory, in the Run box:
C:\Program Files\Sidebar\sidebar.exe
C:\Program Files\Windows Sidebar\sidebar.exe
Click OK or press Enter when done. XP sidebar will launch, open and display the side bar to the right side of the XP desktop, with an icon on the notification area (system tray). By default, no parts or gadgets is loaded. Click on the plus sign (+) to select and add the gadgets (parts) to the Windows XP Sidebar. The default gadgets or parts are slideshow, analog clock, Internet search and RSS.
About the Author: LK
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