Which Vista gadgets are you using?

I downloaded the multi-meter and the calculator...any other gadgets worthwhile to download?

I don't really see the point in the sidebar. Well, I do, but it doesn't suit my needs, if you're with me.

I have it disabled, because once I'm up'n'running it only gets hidden behind apps anyways, and I wont be looking at it again. So why bother?

When I had it though, before I discovered the wonderful /thing/ that is my Logitech G15, I had the WMP gadget. Now my keyboard controls everything... no need for sidebar any more.

The first thing I did when I got my new PC with Vista was to disable the Sidebar. I don't use any of the gadgets.

i dont use it either, just hasnt got any gadgets that i would use pretty much

Same here. The sidebar is a nice concept, but not useful enough for me. Maybe if I had a high-res widescreen monitor or multiple monitors I'd be more inclined to use it, but right now it's pretty much the first thing I turn off after installing Vista.

With an 16:10 24" display the sidebar is a perfect place to show streamed information. I use weather, clock, multi meter, notes and a rss gadget from a big german news website. But why didn't Microsoft has it's own little gadgets department? Most of the available gadgets are crap.

I have them floating on my second monitor. I wouldn't use it on a single monitor setup because it would be useless and use up too much space.

I use
- Weatherbug gadget
- Calendar
- big digital 12hr clock
- Sticky Notes

I remember when Weatherbug was considered spyware.

I have a widescreen monitor so leave the Gadget sidebar on but the limited height means there isn't enough room for all the possible gadgets (would like to add Sky News but don't have the room).

In the UK there's an excellent Conchango gadget that tells you the train times (and what's running late) for your chosen destinations.

And I have the dilbert gadget running too - much easier to just click on that and have the daily cartoon slide out than go to the source and wait for 200 adverts to load.

Also find the Post-it note gadget useful and of course the usual clock, weather and calendar, although the weather (even for central London which is hardly an unknown destination) is so inaccurate most of the time it's pretty worthless.

The standard vista weather, clock & a weather gadget I wrote - it gets a 3 day forecast, displays the conditions and max temp, if you click it you get full weather/pollution forecast for that day.

prndll wrote:

I remember when Weatherbug was considered spyware.

It isn't now? Did they stop installing GAIN?

Yahoo! Widgets. (calendar, weather, todo & notepad)
Still on XP

Seba

Same as the other few, I have it disabled. I find no real advantage using it - just takes up screen real estate.

I disabled it after I had a play. It's not as though there's anything wrong with Vista's sidebar, I just can't see any reason to use it.

Rowan wrote:

I disabled it after I had a play. It's not as though there's anything wrong with Vista's sidebar, I just can't see any reason to use it.

Well yeah, but I found that if I use t like in OS X it is pretty usefull. It is not always there, it is distracting you and whenever you want to see something (calendr, stock, weather) I just press F8 and voila!

I really only use it for the post-it notes gadget. I genuinely find that gadget useful. It doesn't take up screen real-estate at all, since it's not always on top.
 
I'd use it for more, if there was anything useful for it. Pretty much the majority of what I find on Microsoft's site is internet radio players for every radio station known to man.

I took a shot at writing some stuff for it, but writing applications in javascript and html is god-awful, and not being able to debug anything using VWD Express pretty much kills the deal.

What I'm looking for, gadget wise, though, is a Windows Media Center remote that uses Sideshow, allowing me to browse an EPG gadget, a gadget showing me my recordings, and a gadget allowing me to set a recording. That would be pretty neat to do all on the remote, without having to wake up WMC.

Bas wrote:

I really only use it for the post-it notes gadget.

Ok, that sounds like a useful gadget. Except I have all my notes in Outlook. And that syncs with my PocketPC. Oh well.