Windows only: If you’re in no hurry to adopt Windows Vista but you’ve taken a shine to the Vista Sidebar, Joshoon over at Deviant Art has uploaded a port of the actual application to Windows XP. Using a combination of resources such as Alky for Applications, a Windows Vista to XP compatibility client, and the sidebar extracted from Vista the port allows XP users to run Vista Sidebar. Users can grab additional sidebar gadgets directly from Microsoft and experience the same functionality as they would with the sidebar on a Vista system. If you’re running Windows XP and looking for something to round out real estate on your widescreen monitor this might just be it. For other sidebar candidates and general Vista goodness, check out how to get the best features of Vista in XP. The Windows Vista Sidebar pack is free, Windows XP only.
Windows Vista Sidebar for Windows XP [via gHacks]When Google released a couple of gadgets for the Gmail sidebar and provided an open means of making more, long-time users of Remember the Milk might have guessed the task manager that tries to be everywhere would be all over it—and they were right. The Remember the Milk gadget lets you add, complete, edit, and postpone tasks, as well as single out a task list to show in the sidebar. It doesn’t have the second-brain, star-equals-task power of RTM’s Firefox extension, but it’s a nice, unobtrusive way to add task management to your email/calendar/docs landing page. Hit the link below for instructions on installing RTM (which requires a free accont) in your Gmail sidebar. Remember the Milk for Gmail Gadget [via RTM Blog]
Gmail has added support for sidebar gadgets to its experimental Labs section, allowing users to add an agenda view of Google Calendar, a short list of recent Google Docs files, and any web-based gadgets using Apache’s Shindig standard to the left-hand sidebar. As the developers themselves note, adding outside gadgets isn’t exactly user-friendly, but then again, adding too many gadgets could lead to some page-loading slowdown. You can enable the GCal, Docs, and external gadget support in the beaker-icon Labs menu of Gmail. While you’re in there, here’s a few ways to make Gmail gadgets more convenient.
A good task manager is something that could make Windows Vista’s somewhat unfairly maligned sidebar feature pretty useful—and Remember the Milk just so happens to be a pretty good task manager. Blogger Mark Godwin details how to turn the task manager’s iGoogle gadget into a sidebar tool you can size any way you want. We’ve previously shown how to plant web gadgets into the sidebar with the Amnesty Generator, but Godwin’s technique requires only a simple sidebar gadget installation, and it’s time well spent. Got your own web-to-Vista gadget tweak to brag about? Tell us in the comments. Remember the Milk on your Vista Desktop! [Mark Godwin's Blog]
Windows Vista only: The built-in search feature is one of the more useful aspects of Windows Vista, but the need to constantly update the file index is often seen as creating a performance hit. Switching off indexing altogether isn’t a wise idea (it’s needed for apps like Outlook, for instance). The MS-developed Indexer Status Gadget gives you more insight into how the indexing process works, showing how many items on your machine Windows still needs to index, letting you stop and start the indexing process if you want those to temporarily reclaim those processor cycles, or letting the indexer run full tilt rather than its default behaviour of slowing down when you’re performing other tasks on your PC. Indexer Status Gadget is a free download for Windows Vista only, runs inside Windows Sidebar. Indexer Status Gadget [via Engineering Windows 7]
You’ve seen how Google Reader’s iPhone interface fits oh-so-nicely into your Firefox sidebar, and now the How-To Geek shows how you can make it even more compact and useful. Using some bookmark digging and the Stylish theme-ing extension for Firefox, you can remove Reader’s blue border and header, change the font sizes, and reduce the feed displays to headlines only. Hit the link for individual or compilation Stylish scripts that make Reader even better on the side. Tweak Google Reader iPhone Edition in Your Firefox Sidebar [The How-To Geek]
In the wake of the recent Google Reader for iPhone update, web site Mozilla Links saw an opportunity to make good use of the new mobile interface by putting Google Reader iPhone into your Firefox sidebar. The setup is a snap, and when you’re done the simple, mobile-friendly iPhone interface loads perfectly and looks great in the Firefox sidebar. Add this one to the growing list of mobile apps that fit perfectly in your sidebar.
The Digital Inspiration blog suggests that Facebook’s new browser-based chat system, which we stood up against Gmail’s web chat yesterday, works well running inside a Firefox sidebar. To anchor it there, simply add this Facebook Chat popout URL from Bookmarks->Organize Bookmarks, and make sure “Load this bookmark in the sidebar” is checked. The intended two-column layout can make the sidebar a little intrusive into your actual browsing, but you can resize to a narrow strip and still get chat functionality, simply by clicking inside the sidebar to re-order things. Put Facebook Chat in Firefox Sidebar & Talk from Any Web Page [Digital Inspiration]
Readers are submitting their best life hack for a chance to win an autographed copy of our new book, Upgrade Your Life. Here’s our latest winner. Reader Zalary put some HTML skills to work to turn the Firefox sidebar into a one-stop shop of frequently used utilities. Zalary says:
Windows/Mac/Linux (Firefox): With all the things you can throw into your Firefox Sidebar—including web sites, gTalk, and a to-do list, among others—wouldn’t it be nice if you had a bit more control over where that pane shows up on your browser? The MultiSidebar extension lets you right-click to place individual sidebars on the right, left, top, or bottom (kind of defying its nature, right?) and remembers where you wanted them next time you launch them. The real benefit, besides training your eyes, is being able to open more than one sidebar at once. If you have certain sidebars you browse with and others you occasionally pop open with a shortcut, MultiSidebar should be right up your alley. MultiSidebar is a free download, works wherever Firefox does. MultiSidebar [via CyberNet]
