If you press the right mouse button on the desktop, in Windows 7 or Windows Vista, an entry appears that was not present on Windows XP: Gadget . The gadgets are graphic boxes that show some selected information on the screen and thus allow you to always have it under your eyes when you are at the computer.
In fact, these are small programs running on the PC desktop.
They were limited to the sidebar in Windows Vista, but this limitation has been lifted in Windows 7 where these panes can be moved to any part of the desktop.
Windows 7 gadgets have been highly criticized, many people consider them annoying and useless because, at times, they are ugly to look at or because they are of no use.
This is not exactly true, it always depends on where you are looking.
Let's see what are the best gadgets for Windows 7 and Vista, not ugly aesthetically but above all useful in a general sense, whatever the use of the computer.
Before describing the gadgets that I have used and those that I always keep active on my desktop, I would like to reassure those who are worried about consuming too much Ram memory on their computer.
Gadgets, at least on Windows 7, are noticed in the task manager (task management) by the " sidebar.exe " process which should not occupy more than 10 MB of memory.
Clearly this consumption of resources grows if more gadgets are installed and activated so my advice is to use only those that are strictly necessary and, if anything, activate the others only when needed.
To install a gadget on Windows, if you download it from the Microsoft site, it installs automatically while if you download it in Rar format from other sites, you must unpack it and install it by pressing on the .gadget file or copy the contents of the archive to the folder C: \ Users \ & username $ \ AppData \ Local \ Microsoft \ Windows Sidebar \ Gadgets .
Gadgets in Windows 7 can be moved with the mouse and, by pressing the right button, they can be configured with the available options, including transparency or opacity and, sometimes, the size.
In general, Windows gadgets serve six main things: having hardware information, receiving notifications on the weather and weather forecast, clock, notification of new incoming emails, a calendar, an audio or video media player always on top of the impression,
Many of those proposed by the Microsoft site are absolutely stupid that can entertain for a day but that end up immediately in the trash.
Among the predefined ones in Windows 7 there are already the clock and the weather detection with weather forecast.
As for the main function of the gadgets, the detection of hardware parameters, some of them that monitor the use of the computer are very comfortable.
1) The most important of these is CPU Monitor (it should already be installed in Windows 7) which always shows the use of processor and RAM memory .
You can change the graphics of this meter by downloading the color package from Deviant Art
This is important because in this way, when the PC freezes in long loads, you can immediately understand, without opening the task manager, that it is better to close something or wait for it to finish, without opening new windows or new programs.
Those who have cpu problems, often 100% occupied, can also install the Fileinspect gadget which shows on the desktop the 5 processes that use more processor and more Ram memory, so you can recognize them immediately.
In the options you can configure the view for the processes and the number of those to be displayed.
For dual core or multi-processor computers, however, another type of gadget called All CPU Meter must be used which shows their usage.
2) To always keep under control the space used on the computer's hard disk, you can download and install the Drives Meter gadget which shows the total space, the one used and the free space for up to 6 partitions or disks, both internal and external (including USB sticks).
3) Another important gadget is to control the use of internet bandwidth and see the data transmitted by the computer, uploading and downloading.
Especially if you are using a timed interenet connection, I recommend installing the Wired Network meter gadget which also shows the internal and external IP address.
Again regarding network monitoring, it can be useful, if you use the Wireless network, the Wireless Network Meter gadget, the same as the previous one in the information with the addition of the wifi signal control and the connection security.
4) Battery Meter is perfect for laptops to check the battery charge status .
5) Notebook Info 2 is a great gadget designed for laptops and netbooks that displays a variety of information including: the battery level and its status, the WiFi network status, the use of CPU and the use of RAM memory, energy saving plans for a shortcut, a clock, a calendar, an alarm clock and more.
In the options you can choose what to see and what not to remove what is not needed.
6) The volume control from Gadget is really useful because it allows you to move the general level of the Windows audio volume, directly from the desktop, using the mouse wheel.
By pressing the central button on the gadget you can then set the mute.
See article on how to adjust the PC volume with the mouse wheel
7) The multimeter allows you to have everything in a pane the forecast of time, time, consumption and use of cpu and ram and many other data on computer performance.
8) If you want a better clock than the default one, you can download the ClockTopia graphic package or a digital clock.
Searching Google or Deviant Art for the word Clock you can find many other fantasies.
9) On Deviant Art, the famous graphic site, you can download a pack of gadgets among the most used in the world, Chameleon Glass which contains 15 gadgets to be installed .
These include: a clock, a weather forecast tool, a network and internet statistics detector, cpu check, check for new e-mails, disk check, empty trash and a radio to listen to in streaming.
10) Also from Deviant Art, there is another package of transparent Gadgets, among which there is: clock, calendar, performance meter, Wifi signal, Feed Reader and weather.
11) A very useful gadget is System Shutdown which allows you to put the buttons in the foreground to turn off, restart or put the computer on standby and also to set a shutdown timer.
Important update : Gadgets have been canceled by Microsoft which has ended its support and which will no longer work on future versions of Windows (Windows 8).
The official gadget gallery has been deleted and to find other gadgets you have to go to a different site like WindowsLiveGadget
Even Microsoft recommends to disable gadgets in Windows 7 and the sidebar in Vista for security problems even if leaving them should not have any negative effect on the computer.
READ ALSO: How to install desktop gadgets on Windows 8 / 8.1
In another article of this blog, 15 other recommended gadgets with weather, music, file management and fast access to Windows 7 .
Easier to install and similar to Gadgets are the XWidget Windows widgets, very modern and similar to those of Android phones.
