Top 15 Windows Sidebar Alternative and Similar Softwares | Dec 2024

(Due to a security vulnerability, it is recommended to turn off Sidebar and Gadgets.) Windows Sidebar is a long, vertical bar that is displayed on the side of your desktop. It contains mini-programs called gadgets, which offer information at a glance and provide easy access to frequently used tools. For example, you can use gadgets to display a picture slide show, view continuously updated headlines, or look up contacts.

1. Thoosje Sevenbar

Thoosje Sevenbar Thoosje Sevenbar has gadgets like media players, google search, yahoo search and lots of more search engines. It has also Windows 7 sidebar gadgets like weather and system uptime and lots of more useful gadgets. The sidebar uses 50% less RAM and is faster than the original Microsoft Sidebar with......

2. Google Desktop

Google Desktop The power of Google on your desktop. Hit ctrl twice and you are ready for a full Google search of you hard drive and networked drives you may have. Indispensable if you need to find files quickly... the price doesn't hurt either!As of September 14, Google Desktop will no longer......

3. myBoard

myBoard myBoard is a Windows port of Mac OS X dashboard. It is an application for Windows operating systems, used for hosting mini-applications known as magnets.......

4. gDesklets

gDesklets gDesklets is an architecture for "desklets", which are tiny applets sitting on your desktop in a symbiotic relationship of eye candy and usefulness.You can populate your desktop with status meters, icon bars, weather sensors, news tickers... whatever you can imagine... Virtually anything is possible and may even be available some......

5. Microsoft Gadgets

Microsoft Gadgets Microsoft Gadgets are light-weight single-purpose applications that can sit on the users computer desktop, or are hosted on a web page. According to Microsoft, it will be possible for the different types of gadgets to run on different environments without modification, but this is currently not the case.......

6. Vista Rainbar

Vista Rainbar Vista Rainbar is a Windows Sidebar clone for Rainmeter. Entirely free and easy for using, this sidebar, whose you can change the background between around ten choice, offers many gadgets such as clock, calendar, RSS feeds, weather... with the possibility, for most of them, to customize settings and skins.........

7. Screenlets

Screenlets Screenlets are small owner-drawn applications (written in Python) that can be described as "the virtual representation of things lying/standing around on your desk". Sticknotes, clocks, rulers, ... the possibilities are endless.The goal of the Screenlets base-classes is to simplify the creation of fully themeable mini-apps that each solve basic desktop-work-related......

8. OS X Dashboard

OS X Dashboard Dashboard is an application for Apples Mac OS X operating systems, used for hosting mini-applications known as widgets. First introduced in Tiger, it is a semi-transparent layer that is invisible to the user unless activated by clicking its icon in the Dock. Alternatively, the user can invoke Dashboard by moving......

9. Nerdtool

Nerdtool Nerdtool allows you to display many things directly on top of your desktop; weather reports, headline news, and system vitals are just a few uses.Nerdtool is capable of displaying shell outputs with ANSI escaped formatting, but can also manipulate the final output's colors, size, and font. If more intricacy is......

10. Windows Calculator

Windows Calculator Windows Calculator, commonly known as Calculator from the application's title bar, is a calculation application included in all versions of the Microsoft Windows operating system. It can be activated by the command "calc" on most Windows systems.......

11. Microsoft HTML Help

Microsoft HTML Help Microsoft HTML Help is the standard help system for the Windows platform. Authors can use HTML Help to create online help for a software application or to create content for a multimedia title or Web site. Developers can use the HTML Help API to program a host application or hook......

12. Snipping Tool

Snipping Tool You can use Snipping Tool to capture a screen shot, or snip, of any object on your screen, and then annotate, save, or share the image. Simply use a mouse or tablet pen to capture any of the following types of snips:Free-form Snip. Draw an irregular line, such as a......

13. Notepad

Notepad Most simple text editor. Just plain text, saves in .txt format. Not available for download; bundled with all versions of Windows.......

14. Panels

Panels Panels is a bar that can be added to any edge of your desktop. It contains mini-programs called Tiles which provide info and control of your windows desktop. Add weather from multiple locations, monitor cpu, memory, network and disk activity, control iTunes and watch your favorite shows unobstructed with the......

15. Windows Media Player

Windows Media Player The media player provided pre-installed with all modern Windows versions (7 and higher): Windows Media Player 12 plays more music and video than ever, including Flip Video and unprotected songs from your iTunes library! Organize your digital media collection, sync digital media files to a portable device, shop online for......