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Vista Sidebar XP for Windows

  • Free

  • In English
  • V 1.0
  • 2.9

    (114)
  • Security Status

Install the Vista Sidebar on Windows XP

Vista Sidebar XP is a little application for XP users that will give you a taste of one of the most coveted features of Microsoft Vista - the desktop sidebar.

Some time ago, Microsoft Windows XP was replaced by Vista. The new operating system brought about a bevy of changes, including a revamped desktop environment, designed not only to look good, but also to improve your productivity. One of the key new features was a sidebar, which replicates the dashboard in OS X and allows you easy access to certain tools, such as news, web searching and your digital photos.

If you haven’t got the money (or indeed, the inclination) to upgrade to Vista, then you can recreate the sidebar with Vista Sidebar XP. Despite a rather strange installation process, which fails to provide an auto-run function, the app can be set up and configured pretty quickly and comes with four useful preset ‘widgets’. The Vista Sidebar XP gadgets are a search function, image preview window, RSS feed and elegant analogue clock.

Visually, all the Vista Sidebar XP gadgets are pretty faithful to the Vista sidebar, although they lack the customization options that you get with Vista. For instance, Vista Sidebar XP's image tool doesn’t allow you to set the folder from which to display pictures, merely picking photos at random from your hard drive.

All the Vista Sidebar XP tools are locked within a transparent bar that runs down the right-hand side of your desktop, which gets annoying after a while as there’s no way to minimize it and it ends up squashing any application window you open.

Despite being a bit limited, Vista Sidebar XP represents an accurate taste of the instant-access functions you can expect in Vista.

If you just can't wait to get your hands on the new Vista Sidebar, one of the new operating system's premier features, this little program should quench your thirst for the time being. Patched together from early Vista beta releases, you can install and run this Microsoft me-to feature in your current Windows XP installation.

The sidebar runs along the... side of your monitor and provides access to "Gadgets" which are basically mini applications such as clocks, weather checkers, RSS readers, etc... They work similarly to Apple's Dashboard Widgets and Yahoo Widgets.

PROS

  • Quick to configure
  • Aesthetically consistent with Vista

CONS

  • Impossible to minimize
  • Widgets lack options

Program available in other languages


Vista Sidebar XP for PC

  • Free

  • In English
  • V 1.0
  • 2.9

    (114)
  • Security Status


User reviews about Vista Sidebar XP

  • Anonymous

    by Anonymous

    absolutely out of work.
    doesn't works. I tried to intall it but the bar is not showed ..... i think it is not compatible with windows XP

  • Anonymous

    by Anonymous

    In case it did not go through.
    bar not showing on desktop after installation and restart.Any ideas how to turn it on.
    ********************* More

  • Anonymous

    by Anonymous

    Do You Know How Uninstall It???.
    I want to uninstal it,but I don't know the way to uninstall it.. :(
    Do you know how to uninstall it???

  • Anonymous

    by Anonymous

    Gadget Extractor failed to initialize with error..
    What I did is I've installed Microsoft Encarta 2009 and it works! - Updating the Microsoft.ne More

  • Anonymous

    by Anonymous

    Gadget installer problems..... EASY FIX..
    Download and install ms DOT NET version 2.0.5 or above. For XP I recomend 3.0 or 3.5, not 4.0 beta.Reb More

  • Anonymous

    by Anonymous

    Gadget Extractor is not working>>>>.
    The Programme is amazing. I liked it a lot, Simply the true copy of the original Vista side More


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Laws concerning the use of this software vary from country to country. We do not encourage or condone the use of this program if it is in violation of these laws.