Appatic

The most noticeable new feature when Windows Vista first appeared (for sale) back in january of 2006, was without a doubt the Windows Sidebar. Later more known non-officially as Windows Vista Sidebar, because of the little mutation it went once it crossed over to Windows 7 where it became simply Windows Gadgets, as it lost the sidebar aspect of it.

XP users at that time, and during the first 2 years of Vista availability, saw many 3rd party copies of the concept come and go. Some ok, some horrible and one or two quite good. But none were excellent or easy to use and mantain fresh, because they were not the real thing.

But then, at the very last of that series of Windows Sidebar knockoffs, the real deal appeared thanks to the originators and followers of Project Alky. A project that had the goal to bring Vista Only features to XP.

So, long story short; here it is the real Windows Vista Gadgets Sidebar for XP.

Requirements

• A up to date XP SP3
• .NET Framework 3.5 SP1

(recommended in order to get the best performance, stability and compatibility)

Installation

• 1.-Download the RAR package from the download page you can access in the Linkage section of this post,
• 2.-Extract the contents into a folder. For this, you will need to use WinRAR or 7-zip,
• 3.-Open the extracted folder and then open the sub-folder called “Alky For Applications”,
• 4.-Execute installer.msi and follow its process until installed.
• 5.-Return to the main folder. Now execute Windows_Sidebar_Installer.exe, follow its process until installed.
• 6.-Finally, you only need to execute and install Gadget Extractor.msi.
• 7.-Once finished, you are done and the Windows Vista Sidebar is now ready to run in XP. You should now have a Windows Sidebar desktop icon or start menu entry. Launch it and check it out.

Usage

Now that you got the Windows Vista Sidebar running perfectly in XP, there are just  two things to check and setup before you can start happily using it.

First, go and open your Control Panel (In Basic View) and check if you got a Windows Sidebar Properties item in it. If it is there from the let go, then that means it is now perfectly integrated. If you don’t see it right away, reboot and check again. It should be there.

Open the Windows Sidebar Properties. Configure its settings to your liking. Click Ok

You can now start using it. To add Windows Gadgets to it, just open the Gadget Gallery viewer by clicking in the “+”’symbol at the top of the Windows Sidebar. To search for more Windows Gadgets, just click on the “Get more gadgets online” link at the bottom right of the Gadget Gallery viewer.

That is it, now Enjoy!.

Linkage

Windows Vista Sidebar For XP                                     <—Download Link

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