Gadgets are installed just like other applications with the difference that they are added to the gadget listing and the desktop automatically.

The first question that may arise is about the save location. Where are gadgets stored?

There are, as usually, two answers to this. It depends if the gadget has been installed system wide or only for a specific user.

• Systemwide gadgets: All gadgets of this kind are usable and accessible by all system users. They are stored in the folders C:\Program Files\Windows Sidebar\Shared Gadgets, C:\Program Files\Windows Sidebar\Gadgets or for 64-bit systems in the folders C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Sidebar\Shared Gadgets and C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Sidebar\Gadgets
• User specific gadgets are installed only for, and usually by, a user of the system. These gadgets are stored in the user folder, more precisely under C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Sidebar\Gadgets

Gadgets are stored as .gadget files which are basically zip archives that have been renamed.

How to uninstall gadgets

The best option is to uninstall them in the gadgets menu. A right-click on the desktop and the selection of Gadgets opens that menu. All installed gadgets are displayed and it is possible to activate them here or uninstall them. A right-click on a gadget opens a context menu with options to uninstall the selected gadget from the operating system.

A confirmation dialog is displayed with options to go ahead with the uninstallation or cancel it.

It can happen that a gadget cannot be uninstalled properly from the gadgets interface. Deleting the file in the gadgets directory is then an option to remove it from the operating system.

Gadgets are displayed on the desktop all the time. It is possible to hide them by right-clicking the desktop and selecting View > Show Desktop Gadgets to switch between visible and hidden mode.

windows 7 gadgets

It is furthermore possible to change the opacity of individual desktop gadgets. Allowed values range from 20% to 100%. The gadget is always displayed with a 100% opacity regardless of its custom value if the mouse is moved into its window.

gadget 20 percent opacity

The guys over at Windows 7 News have now found a way to make individual desktop gadgets invisible on the desktop.

The process involves some basic hacking of system files and terminating a system process. Users who feel uncomfortable doing that should stay away from the change.

The process is divided into five steps:

• Set the gadget’s opacity to a distinct value.
• Kill the Windows Sidebar task.
• Open the settings configuration file.
• Change its opacity to 1%.
• Start the Windows Sidebar task.

Steps 1 and 2 are easily done. Just set the opacity of a gadget that you want to make invisible to 20%. The value should be different from other values to make identification easier. The sidebar.exe process needs to be killed to be able to make the changes in step 3 and 4.

Please note that all gadgets are removed from the desktop once the process has been terminated.

Locate the settings file, it is usually located in C:\Users\{username}\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Sidebar\Settings.ini.

Open the document and search for the text PrivateSetting_GadgetOpacity=”{20}”. Replace 20 with the opacity value of the gadget that you want to make invisible. Change the value to 1 and save the file.

Now restart the sidebar.exe process and watch the magic happening.

Pretty cool, eh? It is possible to change the opacity of all gadgets that should be made invisible in one go to optimize the process.

Gadgets can be helpful depending on a user’s work situation. Gadgets are available for all kinds of tasks from displaying hardware information to Internet search forms and multimedia players.

This article reviews five desktop gadgets that are hardware related. Their usage as well depends on the user’s situation. A desktop computer users will not necessarily run a gadget that is displaying the remaining battery power while a netbook user might not be interested in the a gadget that displays the load of each cpu core.

Notebook Info 2

The name of the gadget already implies that it has been designed for mobile computer systems like netbooks or notebooks. It can display a variety of information including battery level and status, WiFi network status, cpu and ram usage, power-plans, uptime, a clock, alarm and calendar and more.

The settings can be used to display only the relevant items on the computer desktop. It is for instance possible to get rid of the calendar if that is not needed.

download it here

All CPU Meter

This gadget displays cpu related information including the used, free and total computer memory and the load on each cpu core. It did however detect eight cores on our quad-core test system.

download it here

Drives Meter

Can display hard drive information like the number of used, free and total space of each hard drive. A total of six hard drive partitions can be configured in the gadget’s options.

download it here

Wired Network Meter

This gadget displays many network information like the internal and external IP address or the up and downstream of the selected network adapter.

download it here

Wireless Network Meter

From the same developer as the wired network meter but created for wireless connections. It displays the same information as the wired network meter plus information about the connection (secure, not secure) and the signal.

download it here

The gadgets should be compatible with both Windows Vista and Windows 7. Interested users can browse the more than 3800 gadgets offered at the Windows Live Gallery for other gadgets.

What’s your take on Windows gadgets? Are you using them at all? If so, which are you using?

I had deleted the downloaded gadget installation file but noticed that the gadget was still listed in the gadget list. Figured that it had to be stored somewhere if it appeared in that list and decided to search for the gadgets location in Windows.

Turns out there is more than one location where Windows 7 and Windows Vista are storing gadgets. The common locations for saving gadgets in Windows are either Program Files\Windows Sidebar\Gadgets or Users\USERNAME\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Sidebar\Gadgets.

The third party gadget that I had installed was stored in the AppData folder where all third party gadgets had been saved by Windows. Each gadget is stored in its own folder and it is possible to copy that folder and add it to another Windows installation so that the gadget becomes available there as well.

Hope this helps anyone running Windows Vista or Windows 7 to locate the gadgets in their operating system as well.

Windows 7 has changed gadgets on the Windows platform by removing the sidebar limitation that was introduced in Windows 7. Windows 7 Gadgets can be moved freely on the desktop by the user providing more customizations for the user.

The users who do not like gadgets usually point out that they use system resources that could be better used otherwise and that there are not lots of gadgets that they would like to use.

The Chameleon Glass collection is a package of 15 Windows 7 gadgets that use a glass interface, that is an interface that fits nicely into every desktop background and color scheme the user might be running on the PC system.

The 14 gadgets for Windows 7 provide the following functionality:

- calendar : resizable desktop calendar
- clock : analogue desktop clock
- control : shutdown, restart or lock your pc from the desktop
- cpu : monitor the cpu and ram load of your rig
- email : check your pop3 account for new mail
- netbars : monitor your bandwidth usage through a graphical bar
- netstats : monitor your bandwidth usage through textual info
- notescolour : coloured postit notes
- noteswhite : white postit notes
- onedrive : monitor free space for any drive on your pc
- radio : listen live to DI or SKY fm streams, or add streams yourself
- recyclebin : with spinning recycle icon when full
- stats : shows online/offline state, uptime, localIP, date, wifi strength, battery status
- weather : shows current weather conditions + a 5 day weather forcast in the flyout

Each is provided as a single gadget filetype after extraction. A simple double-click on a file will install the gadget in the operating system. It will automatically be displayed in the upper right corner of the desktop from where it can be moved to any place on the desktop.

Some gadgets offer configuration options. The Internet radio gadget for instance comes with a list of radio stations and the option to add custom Internet radio stations to the listing that can be played directly from the desktop. The same is true for other gadgets like the weather gadget where a city or region can be selected.

Chameleon Glass is a nice looking gadget collection for the Windows 7 operating system. The download – with a size of 14 Megabytes – is directly available from the developer’s Deviantart page.

Facebook Explorer

Facebook Explorer is a popular gadget that can be used to read new messages that are posted by friends at the Facebook website. It is furthermore possible to set or delete the current status of the user’s Facebook account from within the gadget. The gadget needs to be authorized before it can be used. This is done during setup where the gadget will display links to Facebook so that it can be authorized. A Facebook login is necessary for that authorization.

My Outlook

A gadget that displays Outlook information including incoming appointments and tasks, a search box to find contacts, incoming mails with options to reply, forward, delete, open or save attachments and more.

GMail Reader

The Gmail Reader gadget will check a configured Gmail account for new emails regularly. It will display a summary of the latest 20 received emails and notify the user with a sound alert if new emails have arrived in the Gmail account.

Twitter Explorer

The Twitter Explorer gadget will display the latest messages that the logged in Twitter user received with possibilities to reply immediately to those messages and to open links that have been posted in the messages. The gadget offers a search and filters to only display replies or mentions.

Messenger Gadget

The Messenger Gadget displays Windows Live Messenger account information. It displays contact status information and allows the user to start chat session and update the status right from the Messenger gadget.

Pop3 Checker

A handy gadget for users who use Pop3 email accounts informing the logged in user about new emails that arrived in the email accounts.

Skype Gadget

The Skype Gadget is a little informative gadget for the Skype voice over IP software. It displays the status of each contact in Skype with possibilities to immediately initiate a chat or call with the selected user. It is furthermore possible to dial any number in the gadget as well.

And that’s it. These seven gadgets should come in handy for Windows 7 and Windows Vista users. Let us know in the comments if you use these or others in the supported operating systems. You can check out the Windows Live Gallery for thousands of additional gadgets for both Windows 7 and Vista.

Update: Microsoft has retired the Windows Live Gallery in preparation of the upcoming Windows 8 operating system. You can read more about the topic here: Microsoft Retires Gadgets In Preparation Of Windows 8 Launch