Get the Vista sidebar in XP
While Vista has now been available for almost two years now, there are a lot of people that are happily sticking with XP, myself included. And while there aren't enough flashy features to tempt me to switch to Vista, one that I do like the look of is the Vista sidebar. Happily, deviantart user joshoon has posted a package that allows you to install the real Vista sidebar on your Windows XP computer. Installing the sidebar consists of installing three packages: Alky for Applications, Windows Sidebar Installer, and Gadget Extractor. Alky for Applications is where the magic happens allowing Vista-specific software to run under XP. An interesting side-effect of installing the Windows Sidebar Installer is that the Vista-specific fonts are added to your XP installation.
Because this is an XP-compatible version of the actual Vista sidebar rather than a copy, all of the widgets that you could install in Vista will work on XP.
[via Lifehacker]













Comments
5
Subscribe to commentsJackNov 17th 2008 12:03PM
There is always the free Yahoo! Widget Engine that I use...anything beats a Microsoft product
SuperevilNov 17th 2008 12:12PM
A couple years back I used to use Desktop Sidebar. Actually a bit better than the Vista Sidebar IMO.
http://www.desktopsidebar.com/
Adam MarasNov 18th 2008 12:18AM
Just an FYI: Alky for Application is brought to you in part by the same fellow that's been digging up the shiny new hidden features in Windows 7.
WilNov 18th 2008 9:46AM
XP has been able to do this for several years now. It's called Yahoo! Widgets and Google Desktop Sidebar.
Neither is very useful, but both look better than the Windows version (which also isn't very useful). These sidebars are just a way to fill all that space provided by the new widescreen monitors.
BryceJan 21st 2009 3:28AM
Side bar works great EXCEPT the "Currency" gadget does not work - the one that shows the exchamge rate between 2 currencies. Any ideas on how to get it working?
Bryce