Windows Vista has been popular, but although millions of people are using it (either from having purchased a new computer with Vista pre-installed or because they purchased an upgrade), millions more are still using Windows XP. Still, if there is one area in which Vista has caught the attention of computer users, it is in the new look it sports. Among the most popular aspects of the look is what is called the Sidebar.
What is the Sidebar? Simply put, the Windows Sidebar is a docking area for little Gadgets, which can do anything from tell you the time, to today’s date, to whether your stocks are performing well. There are a decent number of Gadgets that come with Windows Sidebar by default, but even more are available on the Microsoft website (you can read more about the Vista Sidebar here).
But for those still using Windows XP, who maybe don’t have quite the processing power (or video capabilities) necessary to run Vista the “right” way, there is an option that in my mind looks just as good as the Windows Sidebar, and has a ton of great gadgets as well.
Called the Thoosje Sidebar, this Windows Sidebar replacement has a nearly identical look to the official Windows Sidebar. It was originally designed to be a part of the Vista Transformation Pack, a free set of utilities with the purpose of making your standard XP installation look like Vista, but the Thoosje Sidebar can be downloaded and used completely on its own.
You can get the Thoosje Sidebar from its homepage, along with roughly 300 other user-designed gadgets. Thoosje Sidebar comes with a dozen or so gadgets, which accurately mimic the look and features of the Windows Sidebar. The following Gadgets come with the Thoosje Sidebar out of the box:
Clock
Sticky Notes
Calendar
Hard Drive Space
Run Gadget
Media Player Gadget
Email Status
Recycle Bin
Photo Viewer
Internet Use Viewer
RSS Viewer
System Monitor
Search Engine Gadget
Torrent Search Engine
Weather
Uptime Display
Calculator
Battery Life (for laptops)
WiFi Connection Gadget
Some of the gadgets are configurable, such as the RSS feed viewer, email status checker and search engine gadget, while others – such as calculator and recycle bin – simply give you fast and easy access to something already on your computer. As mentioned, there are hundreds more gadgets available, with features such as viewing online comics, checking tv and movie listings, and more.
The Thoosje Sidebar works incredibly well. It truly does look exactly the same as the official Windows Sidebar (except for the calendars and calculators being different colors), and it seems to put as much strain on the system as the official one as well. And that’s really the only drawback to either one of the sidebar applications. Because of their use of transparencies, and just the fact that numerous tiny programs are all running at once, the Thoosje Sidebar can be a bit of a drain.
In my checking, while the Thoosje Sidebar didn’t affect my CPU usage very much, it did a number on my RAM. With the computer sitting idle (aside from the Thoosje Sidebar), roughly 50 percent of my RAM was in use. Turn off the Thoosje Sidebar, and that number dropped down below ten percent. So, while the Thoosje Sidebar looks great, performs well, and provides a nearly identical drop-in replacement for the Vista version of the Windows Sidebar, a fast computer with lots of RAM and a good graphics card are my recommendations. Other than that, the Thoosje Sidebar is really great!
