Windows Vista ships with eleven gadgets: Calendar, Clock, Contacts, CPU Meter, Currency Conversion, Feed Headlines, Notes, Picture Puzzle, Slide Show, Stocks, and Weather. Several other gadgets available during the Vista beta such as App Launcher, Feed Viewer, Number Puzzle, Recycle Bin and Egg Timer were removed. Windows 7 adds a Media Center gadget and removes the Contacts, Notes and Stocks gadgets. Desktop Gadgets were included in the developer preview and consumer preview of Windows 8, but removed from the Release to Manucture version. Windows Sidebar is not available on Microsoft Windows Server 2008, 2008 R2, or 2012.

The page also has links to help users disable the Sidebar and Gadget functionality of Windows out of concern for vulnerabilities.

In Windows 7, Windows Sidebar was renamed Windows Desktop Gadgets, and the sidebar itself is not included in Windows 7. But it can be reinstated on Windows 7 if the program files are copied over from Windows Vista.

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Microsoft Gadgets, Windows shellThe Windows Desktop Gadgets (called Windows Sidebar in Windows Vista) is a widget engine for Microsoft Gadgets, with program name sidebar.exe. It was introduced with Windows Vista,new york asian escort model in which it features a sidebar anchored to the side of the desktop. Its widgets, called Gadgets, can perform various tasks, such as displaying the time and date and showing the CPU usage.

Windows Sidebar Gadget Gallery, an unofficial successor of the Windows Live Gallery, providing all original Windows Desktop and Sideshow Gadgets, according to their own statements

As of Q4 of 2011, Microsoft retired the Windows Live Widget Gallery stating: In order to focus support on the much richer set of opportunities available for the newest version of Windows, Microsoft is no longer supporGadgetsting development or uploading of new Gadgets.

Originally, Microsoft provided a link to aWindows Desktop Gadgets web site called Windows Live Gallery where additional Sidebar gadgets that have been created by third party clients could be downloaded. The site was officially retired on October 1, 2011.

Citing security, Microsoft has released a Fixit tool to disable Desktop Gadgets on all operating systems.

Microsoft retired the Windows Live Widget Gallery in late 2011 when developing Windows 8. In subsequent months when vulnerabilities were publicized concerning exploitative Gadget apps, Microsoft recommends to current users to disable the Sidebar and discontinue using Gadgets.

The Windows Sidebar was rebuilt for and began to appear in Windows Vista builds in the second half of 2005. Some reviewers and Macintosh enthusiasts have pointed out the Sidebars similarities in form and function to Konbulator (now Yahoo! Widget Engine), which appeared several years previously, and the Dashboard widget engine first included with Apple Inc.s Mac OS X v10.4, which had been released a few months earlier.

Sidebar originated in a Microsoft Research project called Sideshow (not to be confused with Windows SideShow.) It was developed in the summer of 2000, Gadgets, and was used internally at Microsoft.

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The Sidebar appeared in Longhorn build 3683 (Windows Vista) builds as early as September 2002, and was originally intended to replace the notification area or Quick Launch in Windows, but these plans were scrapped after the Longhorn reset in mid-2004.

It had many similarities to current desktop gadget software, including a clock, traffic reports, and IM integration.

Windows Desktop Gadgets contains mini-applications or Gadgets which are based on a combination of Script and HTML. They may be used to display information such as the system time and Internet-powered features such as RSS feeds, and to control external applications such as Windows Media Player. Gadgets can run docked in the sidebar or they can float anywhere on the desktop. It is also possible to run multiple instances of a gadget simultaneously.