There is a beautiful element in Windows 7, which is called Desktop Gadgets. It helps users to add a clock, calendar, slideshow etc. Although, Microsoft excluded them later on for security reasons. Among the several Sidebar software available, there is one, which is worth looking at and that is Desktop Sidebar. It will let you add sidebar with gadgets in Windows 10 / 8 / 7 / XP.

With the help of Desktop Sidebar, you can put some useful gadgets or apps like Outlook, Calendar, Notes, Tasks etc. in the sidebar. Unlike Windows 7’s desktop gadget, you can get this sidebar anywhere. It will actually divide your screen into two parts and one of them will be used to show the gadgets.

Windows Desktop Sidebar and Gadgets for Windows 10. Windows desktop gadget is actually widgets what runs on the desktop screen and are at times called “Windows Desktop Sidebar,” “Desktop screen gadgets” or “Windows gadgets.” Microsoft has no longer support the Gadgets on the new operating system, maybe to focus more on the new live tiles. Desktop Sidebar will help you to add sidebar with gadgets in Windows 10/8/7. You can get beautiful gadgets in the sidebar so that you can do things faster.

Desktop Sidebar for Windows 10

Turn Off Windows Sidebar Win 10

In terms of user interface, it is not very neat and clean. This is because of having so many gadgets under one roof. However, the most interesting feature of Desktop Sidebar is you can customize it according to your wallpaper or theme. Although, it comes with limited inbuilt themes, the collection is pretty good.

It is not too complicated to start using Desktop Sidebar in any Windows version. To get started with this tool, at first, download and install it. After opening it, you will see a sidebar like this:

By default, you can find weather report (if you location is ON), slideshow, newsroom, Outlook, Calendar, Notes, Tasks, CPU/RAM usage and a search box. As it has a section called Outlook, you must have Outlook on your PC, otherwise, it won’t work.

On the other hand, you will get the weather report from weather.com. Generally, it shows Microsoft related news. But, sometimes, you can find other business news too. The most important thing is the Quick Launch section of Desktop Sidebar, where you can pin most used apps like any browser, notepad etc.

If you want to add or remove any panel from the default Desktop Sidebar list, you need to follow these steps.

Remove Panel

To remove any unnecessary panel from this sidebar, just right click on that panel and select Remove Panel.

It is as simple as that.

Add New Panel

To add any new panel in the sidebar, right/left click on the Sidebar text and select Add Panel. Here, you can find a window like this,

Now, just select a panel and hit the Add button.

That’s it!

Windows 10 Sidebar Gadgets Download

If you like, you can download Desktop Sidebar from here.

TIP: Download this tool to quickly find & fix Windows errors automatically

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Active12 months ago

I occasionally use the Windows 10 explorer instead of my usual Total Commander when using windows. One thing that really bugged me was that 'OneDrive' shortcut, As I don't use OneDrive.

I found the solution to removing it by editing the registry here.

That was great, however, I DO use OwnCloud and I want to add a shortcut to the Windows Explorer window where the OneDrive one used to be (preferably with the owncloud logo).

I have an Owncloud shortcut in the 'Quick Access' item, which is ok, but I'd like better.

Note: this is not for windows 8 and not for google drive so is different from this question

Community
JimJim

1 Answer

Mcafee antivirus activation key. Note : this also works for NextCloud

UPDATE: here is slightly different approach for Win10 which won't conflict with google drive in case you use both - with old approach, if you go to ownCloud folder viasidebar icon, and then right click a file and try google drive - share or whatever other option from context menu, it will stop working until you start new instance of explorer.

This approach won't give you this problem.

To cut to the chase, just create the following .bat and mind the Default Icon Path and of course TargetFolderPath (in this case d:ownCloud) (Old post and solution is below this code block for your .bat

Here's what I did. If you need help removing it, lemme know. Tested on Win 10 Pro.
Result:

In the script below, you need to :

  • Replace each occurence of CLSID with your own (generate one online or use guidgen.exe)
  • Specify the path to your ownCloud folder (two occurences) : 'TargetFolderPath'='x:pathTo-ownCloudFolder'

You can also replace the default icon by modifing this line (two occurences) :
@='C:Program Files (x86)ownCloudowncloud.exe,0'

If you use NextCloud, you need to change to : @='C:Program Files (x86)NextCloudnextcloud.exe,0' to show the default icon.

Disable Windows Sidebar Windows 10

ZchesusZchesus

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