The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.

    Windows 7 Gadgets

    Discussion in 'Windows OS and Software' started by MarcTonk, Jul 25, 2009.

  1. MarcTonk

    MarcTonk Notebook Geek

    Reputations:
    1
    Messages:
    93
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    15
    I am curious as to what gadgets you all are using. I saw a picture of someones desktop and they had theirs looking kind of see through like. I been trying to find them but cant. Curious to see..
     
  2. jackluo923

    jackluo923 Notebook Virtuoso

    Reputations:
    1,038
    Messages:
    3,071
    Likes Received:
    1
    Trophy Points:
    105
    Alarm Clock, Clock, Battery status, Weather, Margu-Notebookinfo2

    To enable transparency, some apps allow you to adjust transparencies and some doesn't.
     
  3. kegobeer

    kegobeer 1 hr late but moving fast

    Reputations:
    836
    Messages:
    3,682
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    105
    I don't use any gadgets. I have yet to find any gadget that does something that I need to see on my desktop.
     
  4. ATC

    ATC Notebook Deity

    Reputations:
    245
    Messages:
    1,278
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    55
    Someone pointed out to me last week a program called Rainmeter (specifically with the 'HUD Vision' skin/add-on) which sounds a lot like what you might be referring to and it's awesome (thanks maksin01).

    There are a ton of pre-loaded gadgets but I only have 6 running in this screen below:

    [​IMG]
     
  5. GoodBytes

    GoodBytes NvGPUPro

    Reputations:
    742
    Messages:
    3,108
    Likes Received:
    1
    Trophy Points:
    106
    Weather forecast
     
  6. makaveli72

    makaveli72 Eat.My.Shorts

    Reputations:
    1,235
    Messages:
    2,108
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    55
    I use the Network and CPU Meter (which also shows RAM usage) by addgadget.com

    The Network meter shows you how much data you've downloaded/uploaded thus far and also the speed at which you are currently downloading and uploading.
     
  7. jb1007

    jb1007 Full Customization

    Reputations:
    165
    Messages:
    1,230
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    55
    I find the gadgets useless. It's a great idea to have the gadget sidebar but I feel like they haven't spent enough developing the user experience of the software to really make it attractive.
     
  8. Airblazer

    Airblazer Company Representative

    Reputations:
    9
    Messages:
    108
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    I've loads of gadgets running.
    However since I'm constantly using my pc I don't see them and I don't want to lose screen estate by sidebar being visible always so they're just a waste really :D
     
  9. ViciousXUSMC

    ViciousXUSMC Master Viking NBR Reviewer

    Reputations:
    11,461
    Messages:
    16,824
    Likes Received:
    76
    Trophy Points:
    466
    I assume the same ones Vista had Win 7 will have.

    I used the cpu/ram meter it was nice to see how well the 2/4 cores were getting used and to see how full my ram is on the fly.

    Often times this allows you to spot a process hogging a lot of ram/cpu for no apparent reason as well.

    I also used something called sphere timer, just a nice digital clock that is much easier to see than the tiny one in the task bar, but it also had some extra features built into it like timer, alarm, etc.

    It was very minimal and used no real resources, I am not a big fan of people that turn there whole desktop into a living gadget with just tons of stuff going on.
     
  10. lukychmz

    lukychmz Notebook Guru

    Reputations:
    1
    Messages:
    68
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    15
    i have an alarm clock and the weather channel gadget. I like to keep it simple
     
  11. Fountainhead

    Fountainhead Notebook Deity

    Reputations:
    281
    Messages:
    1,128
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    55
    The individual gadgets vary, but I always have a better clock/date gadget, a CPU/RAM monitor, a weather gadget, and on my notebooks a wifi gadget.