Close

Free Sidebar Gadgets for Windows 11/10/8.1/7 Desktop

TRANSLATE

Dear users,
Today, electricity is not just comfort for me — it is the ability to work and maintain this website. Due to the war, my home is without power for up to 18 hours a day. When electricity is gone, the internet is often unavailable, the refrigerator stops working, and much of the time I am forced to sit in darkness.
The only realistic solution is a power backup system — an inverter with batteries — costing about $2200.
Thanks to your support, $470 has already been raised — 21% of the goal.
This is an important step forward, and I am sincerely grateful to everyone who has already supported me.
I have taken a loan to start solving this problem, but covering the full cost on my own is very difficult. Every contribution brings stable working conditions closer.
If this project has been useful to you and you are able to help, I would be sincerely grateful for your support.
Support for Power Backup (Inverter + Batteries)

Mouse Monitor is working again!

Can anybody help me to translate few my gadgets to other languages (Korean, Thai, Vietnamese, etc.)? If you’re that person, please call me using the contact form.

Try our new tools: Geomagnetic Storms Sidebar Gadgets Recent Indicator, Hocus pocus Sidebar Gadgets Recent Indicator, Write your name in nautical flags, Write your name in Old Norse viking runes.

How to add gadgets back to Windows 11 or Windows 10

I like Windows 10, but disabling gadgets is something I can’t agree with. I use the Desktop and I need my gadgets! Without gadgets my life is bleak because gadgets make your work easier and handy and I think many people will agree with me.

When Windows Vista was first introduced to the market, the first thing that people noticed was the gadgets. They were the small desktop tools that displayed your current CPU speed, or the weather in another country, little widgets that you could drag around and place where you wanted. For Windows 7 this desktop gadget feature has been extended and improved.

For the next installment of Windows however, namely Windows 8, Windows 8.1 and Windows 10, the desktop gadget feature has been discontinued and a lot of people miss it immensely. The main reason why this feature was discontinued is because of the risks that some of the third party gadgets give to the Windows user. Unfortunately, gadgets introduced an attack vector for hackers, which Microsoft had to issue a patch for. These days, however, that vulnerability is fixed.

All in all gadgets were very useful options that supported a particular desktop-focused way of working, and it was quite a surprise when they were dropped completely (rather than redesigned and made more secure).

Windows 10 has already proved successful as a combination of Windows 8 and Windows 7. You know that you can rely on your live tiles in order to imitate how the gadgets worked before, but it is not quite the same. Fans of the desktop gadgets will be pleased to know that we now have ways to restore the gadgets. What if you would be told that you can install the gadgets that you used to have before into your Windows 10 powered computer? Will you grab the opportunity?

Gadgets can contain viruses like any other software. Despite the warning when installing a gadget people seemed to think that it is safe to run any gadget (e.g. like it is to view a website). That is not the case. Opening a gadget is as dangerous as it is to run an .exe file. But this is not a security hole. If an attacker wanted to access your computer, he’d need to convince you to open his prepared .gadget file. As long as you trust the source of the gadgets you install and you use anti-virus software you should be safe. You can read Microsoft's official statement about this.

So, desktop gadgets can still be added to Windows 10 but after significant updates of the Windows OS you may need to re-enable your gadgets.

Here we look at a few of options: Windows Desktop Gadgets and GadgetPack