Microsoft invented small applications which consist all information for your daily needs in its Windows Vista operating system, but those applications were fixed on the right border on the screen. In Windows 7 those little programs popularly called gadgets can be resized and set up anywhere on your desktop. If you have invested in your copy of Windows 7 then you should pay attention to various gadgets which can facilitate your daily work.
How to access the desktop gadgets in Windows7?
To access Windows 7 gadgets right-click the desktop and from the list choose Gadgets. You'll get the window like this one:
Those are basic gadgets, available in any edition of Windows 7. They contain basic information you use frequently, like weather, feed headlines, search web, calendar, clock but also some useful tools like CPU meter which shows how much of your system resources you use. To see more info about gadget click Show details. To download more gadgets click Get more gadgets online. To add gadget simply click on it. It will show on your desktop. It is possible to have more instances of the same gadgets, which can be useful for example if you need to have overview of few world times. Once the gadget is on your desktop you can customize it in the following way. Point over the gadget. You will see something like on this image.
First of those options is to remove the gadget from your desktop. If you click on second you will get the options window for that gadget. There you can make some specific options for every gadget, for example change the skin of gadget or choose which info the gadget will display. Note: Some simple gadgets may not have options. When you click on the third option and drag, you can change position of gadget. Right click on the gadget gives you menu with these three too. If you want your gadgets to be transparent, right-click on gadget and choose Opacity, and then choose the percent of opacity for that gadget.
A huge number of gadgets (more than 4000) is available for free at Windows Live Gallery. Here you can see few of them with short descriptions.
- CPU Meter – Shows percentage of usage of CPU and physical memory.
- DriveInfo Gadget – Shows free space on your hard drives, in percentage an GB.
- WeatherBug – Shows weather in different parts of world.
- System Control A1 Gadget – Similar to CPUmeter, but works also for 8 CPU cores.
- Gmail Reader – Shows resent 20 mails fromyour Gmail inbox. Also make a sound when new mail arrives.
- Traffic Info – Visually shows information about traffic speed in selected city.
- Xirrus Wi-Fi Monitor Gadget- Shows various information about Wireless network connections.
- System Monitor Gadget – Shows information about CPU and RAM usage, wireless connections, IP addresses and battery usage.
- Shoutcast Gadget – Plays music from internet radio stream.
- System Volume Gadget – Offers easier way to change system volume.
- Language Translator Gadget – Translate between 54 different languages.
- iPhone Battery Gadget – shows battery level of the iPhone.
- Wired Network Meter Gadget – Shows all information about wired internet connection.
- Remote Desktop Gadget – Enables work on remote server.
- Facebook Explorer Gadget – Shows messages, invitations and other news on your FB account.
- Outlook Tasks – Shorter way to access your tasks from your Outlook account.
- Horoscope Daily – Shows daily horoscope.
- Unit Converter – Converts between various units.
- Google Gadget – Enables Google search.
- Twitter Explorer – shows recent Twitter messages.
- SudokuPuzzles – Enables you to play Sudoku.