How To Enable Gadgets In Windows 8.1

Do y'all miss having desktop gadgets that were available in Vista and Windows vii? At present you can easily get them dorsum, including the sidebar on Windows 8 and 8.1.

Windows 8 is in a strange place right now, in i sense it'due south ahead of its time, but public and current hardware isn't quite gear up for information technology all the same. On the other hand, most of the traditional elements are still there like the desktop, merely non everything – Gadgets for case. Call up Gadgets? They were introduced with Vista, and continued on in Windows 7. I remember booting up Vista for the first time and seeing the Gadget Sidebar, which had some cool stuff that could be useful.

Leave it to tertiary-political party developers to make full in the holes in Windows eight that Microsoft has created. For case, no Offset button or card? No problem – apply Classic Beat. Need to kick straight to desktop or have modern/metro-style apps piece of work on the desktop, Stardock has you covered. Now for getting your gadgets on in Windows 8, bank check out 8GadgetPack – a complimentary utility that installs the original Gadget program files on the new Windows OS.

Go Gadgets Back in Windows viii

Afterwards you install 8GadgetPack you'll get the traditional Gadget Sidebar that you remember from Vista. Really here I have information technology installed on a test arrangement running the Windows 8.one Public Preview.

When it beginning launches yous'll just have a few on the bar. To add more than, click the "+"Add Gadgets icon on the upper right corner.

Then yous'll get a windows showing you 4 pages of different gadgets that are available. The absurd thing is it includes a ton of gadgets like the analog clock, CPU Meter, Feed Headlines, Pasty Notes, Weather, and a lot more.

You can come across all of the gadgets included, and download the utility from the 8GadgetPack site.

It works just like the original version also. You can drag the gadgets to your desktop and manage the settings of each one.

Another thing you'll notice after installing it, you'll accept a Gadgets item placed on the context menu.

If you want to hide the bar, just right click an empty expanse on it and click Close Sidebar.

What Happened to Gadgets Anyway?

Gadgets were discontinued by Microsoft because of what the company claims are security bug. According to the Microsoft Windows site:

Gadgets are no longer bachelor on our website because the Windows Sidebar platform in Windows 7 and Windows Vista has serious vulnerabilities. Microsoft has retired the characteristic in newer releases of Windows. Gadgets could be exploited to harm your computer, access your figurer'due south files, show y'all objectionable content, or change their behavior at whatever time. An attacker could even use a gadget to have complete command of your PC. If you're concerned almost the safety of gadgets you've downloaded, find out more about gadgets and steps you can have to protect your PC.

While testing this out over the past few days though, all of the included gadgets are safe, contain no malware, and didn't cause whatsoever problems with my computers. Also there is no crapware as long as you get 8GadgetPack directly from its site, and not the crapware laden download.com. There are ads on the site, and when yous go to download it, make sure you click the v7.0 button on the right side of the page.