Which Vista gadgets are you using? | The Coffeehouse

PaoloM
Hypermediocrity

ZippyV wrote:
And the one above? 1.31 $

That's the money I have available for my next meal. Hrm. Looks like that lobster and steak will be hard to get...

Oh, back to 0 - 0 bugs Smiley

DigitalDud

PaoloM wrote:

Lloyd_Humph wrote: whats the bottom widget?

My bug count. It was at 0 - 0 yesterday, damn!

Well now we know who is a PM here. Smiley

PaoloM
Hypermediocrity

DigitalDud wrote:

PaoloM wrote:

Lloyd_Humph wrote: whats the bottom widget?

My bug count. It was at 0 - 0 yesterday, damn!

Well now we know who is a rockstar PM here.

There, fixed that for you Smiley

LaBomba
Summer

Not many here big fans of the sidebar eh?

Ah well, i like the weather gadget and the multimeter - use the notepad too.

I think i'll leave it on - perhaps it's because i can afford the screen real estate.

Island Dog

Lloyd_Humph wrote:

Island Dog wrote:I'm using the weather gadget and a Halloween countdown gadget I made with DesktopX.

Heh, child at heart

Unless you mean the film... which sucks.

I love halloween... basically it's an excuse to go out and scare people. Last year I went as me normally. It scared enough people. I can't be bothered with costumes.

I remember almost choking on a bin bag pretending to be a (really) cheap ghost.

Hehe. Halloween is always a good time of year for skins and themes. I guess I should have included a screenshot.

Desktop Sidebar

esoteric
λ

TommyCarlier wrote:
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.

Same here. I'm not convinced about the non-value of the sidebar though. Some integration with messenger and more sophistication wrt forced space use, may help it. I've installed some Opera widgets, although I'll probably not use them either, heh.

Richard.Hein
... my guitar gently weeps ...

Disabled. 2 gigs and a 1 gig USB flash drive and I still have to disable running apps all the time to get any decent performance.

We should have a poll on how many have Sidebar disabled.

ScanIAm
On a scale of 1 to 10, people are stupid.

Sven Groot wrote:

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.

Then you must not be using the latest Windows Mobile Sad

I used to love using notes for things like grocerie lists and stuff on an iPaq with PPC 2002/3, but windows mobile 5+ doesn't sync that stuff any more. Sometimes, MSFT does some pretty annoying things.

magicalclick

The performance meter. Most important.
The calander because sometimes the system tray don't pops up date.
Live Map Trafic report.

Sven Groot
My name has 9 letters. Coincidence? I think not...

ScanIAm wrote:

Sven Groot wrote:

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.

Then you must not be using the latest Windows Mobile

I used to love using notes for things like grocerie lists and stuff on an iPaq with PPC 2002/3, but windows mobile 5+ doesn't sync that stuff any more. Sometimes, MSFT does some pretty annoying things.

I use Windows Mobile 5, and it syncs the notes fine. Not by default though, you have to check it in ActiveSync/WMDC.

irascian
Irascible Ian

LaBomba wrote:

I think i'll leave it on - perhaps it's because i can afford the screen real estate.

I've never understood the "wastes real estate" arguments for turning it off.

The only time it takes up screen estate is when you're not running an application (unless you choose not to run the app full screen, in which case you're personally responsible for the lack of screen estate). Are people really THAT concerned about seeing their desktop wallpaper that they regard the sidebar as getting in the way???!!!

With the sidebar and one button click (Windows Key-M) I can see the current date/time/weather/state of British Rail trains/state of the Underground/write a quick note. And with another button click I can hide it.

What's not to like?

Bas
It finds lightbulbs.

irascian wrote:

I've never understood the "wastes real estate" arguments for turning it off.

The only time it takes up screen estate is when you're not running an application (unless you choose not to run the app full screen, in which case you're personally responsible for the lack of screen estate). Are people really THAT concerned about seeing their desktop wallpaper that they regard the sidebar as getting in the way???!!!

Same here. It only takes up real estate when you explicitly bring it to the top, or when all apps are minimized, in which case there is nothing you need the real estate for. If people don't use it and therefore find that it wastes CPU cycles, sure, but screen real estate?

cheong

Bas wrote:

Same here. It only takes up real estate when you explicitly bring it to the top, or when all apps are minimized, in which case there is nothing you need the real estate for. If people don't use it and therefore find that it wastes CPU cycles, sure, but screen real estate?

You lose "screen real estate" for desktop icons, I think.

Actually, in the previous "remote desktop shuttles my icons if the client is smaller than my actual desktop" discussion here, we already learnt many people here (including me) are fans of arranging desktop icons in groups with affinity to screen corners, and the sidebar occupies 2 out of 4... "What a waste of screen real estate" I should say... Tongue Out

Added: Perheps Microsoft should defaults it to center of screen instead, afterall we all have relatively big screens so icons do not easily accumulates to occupy space there. But wait, will it still be called "side"bar?

Bas
It finds lightbulbs.

cheong wrote:

Added: Perheps Microsoft should defaults it to center of screen instead, afterall we all have relatively big screens so icons do not easily accumulates to occupy space there. But wait, will it still be called "side"bar?

You don't have to place the gadgets on the sidebar. You can place them wherever you want (including the center of the screen) and hide the sidebar.

dentaku

Bas wrote:

cheong wrote:
Added: Perheps Microsoft should defaults it to center of screen instead, afterall we all have relatively big screens so icons do not easily accumulates to occupy space there. But wait, will it still be called "side"bar?

You don't have to place the gadgets on the sidebar. You can place them wherever you want (including the center of the screen) and hide the sidebar.

Exactly, I drag them out of the sidebar and just place them where I want on monitor #2 then turn off the sidebar and all the gadgets stay right where I put them.

I wish the didn't move over to the left a bit every time I run a game fullscreen.