Vista sidebar gadgets

[smallblueplanet]

Okay, geek mode on!

I've just bought a new laptop which comes with Vista. Now I'm not terribly keen on it but I do like the 'windows sidebar' bit and have found some fun gadgets to go on it - there's a good weather one and a BBC radio player and some webcams....

Does anyone else use it and can recommend any useful or just fun to play with 'gadgets' for it?! I'm stopping myself installing a 'Countdown to Christmas' gadget at least for a couple of month!!!

edit - for the Franco expats there's a good 'French radio player' too.

[shirlthegirl43]

Elder son (self confessed geek) has vista on his pooter but hasn't mentioned special buttons - he prolly hasn't noticed them on his way to game sites! Madmax installed it on one lappy but it took so much running that the poor little lappy nearly keeled over Can't say I have played with vista enough to express an opinion.

[BrideXIII]

I have , the weather, also the met office forecast one, moon phase one, ram/cpu gauge, and a nice lil stick the pin in the voodoo doll, for off days clock set to greenwhich, and one to paris time, ( WoW player ) and there is a cool little postit one i use sometimes as well.

[nelliegemini]

Well that was scary, I've just had to ask OH if he was secretly posting on here as Smallblueplanet! He just asked me the very same question.

We have just had to buy a new PC (total breakdown on the old one), and I've just bought my first laptop - both come with Vista which we are trying to come to terms with. I'm sure it is wonderful, if I could just get it to work (and persuade Vista and Norton that not EVERY email is a baddun).

I have clock, notes, weather (rainy cloud), and a little gizmo that gives me an update on the websites I visit most, if they have updates (Lolcats, BBC news etc, not this one). I have one which is meant to be news headlines which has just said 'loading' since Thursday. Countdown to Christmas sounds too scary but I like voodoo doll - where can I find out more?

[smallblueplanet]

lol! nellieg. You can turn lots of the 'dumbing down' elements of Vista off - the help & support is actually quite good for once. Also I've switched to 'classic' view in lots of cases! Not keen on Norton or McAfee (a trial came on this one). I use AVG free and Avast free (?) is supposed to be good.

Also like the sound of the voodoo doll - link please?!

I've just found Nasa tv and have been watching live some bloke in a space station!

Wunderground is a good weather gadget, if you put UK locations in it lets you search for local weather stations - mine is the Upavon base. Also there are links for local webcams.

Windows Live Gallery

[NOG]

Carefull cos they use a lot of RAM and CPU Cycles. If your PC is not top flight you may not want to put them on.

You can also turn of Indexing to increase proformance.

[BrideXIII]

Well that was scary, I've just had to ask OH if he was secretly posting on here as Smallblueplanet! He just asked me the very same question.

We have just had to buy a new PC (total breakdown on the old one), and I've just bought my first laptop - both come with Vista which we are trying to come to terms with. I'm sure it is wonderful, if I could just get it to work (and persuade Vista and Norton that not EVERY email is a baddun).

I have clock, notes, weather (rainy cloud), and a little gizmo that gives me an update on the websites I visit most, if they have updates (Lolcats, BBC news etc, not this one). I have one which is meant to be news headlines which has just said 'loading' since Thursday. Countdown to Christmas sounds too scary but I like voodoo doll - where can I find out more?

I'd advise you to get rid of Norton.
the best anti-virus out there is AVG and its free. I have been using it for years, and even the local computer shop installs it on all models before they leave the shop.
its easy to use, and doesn't conflict with things all the time, but you should be sure to remove norton, not just stop using it, all anti-virus' see each other as virus' so only ever have one on your machine at a time.

[Bren In Pots]

No Vista for me I'm still running on windows 2000.

[nelliegemini]

I'd advise you to get rid of Norton.
the best anti-virus out there is AVG and its free. I have been using it for years, and even the local computer shop installs it on all models before they leave the shop.
its easy to use, and doesn't conflict with things all the time, but you should be sure to remove norton, not just stop using it, all anti-virus' see each other as virus' so only ever have one on your machine at a time.

Well my lovely laptop (I haven't given it a name yet) is Norton free, but does have AVG - as you say, my local computer shop sold me this machine and they installed the protection. We had resisted Vista, I always like everyone else to Beta test new software for at least a couple of years, but we got caught out by the collapse (old PC, not the stock exchange).

Thanks to smp (I hope it isn't too familiar to use the abbreviation), I now have a virtual flowerpot!

[tootles]

We have an exchange rate thingy, the time, current weather (in case I can't see out of the window?) and a random slideshow of every photo we have stored on picasa.
My husband is (was) an IT man and viruses were a bit of a specialism for him - we have had Norton for ages. My feeling is that if he thinks it is worth it, it is.

[smallblueplanet]

Well my lovely laptop (I haven't given it a name yet) is Norton free, but does have AVG...

I'm sure there are as many views on this as there are 'IT users' but I've known Norton be troublesome to certain groups of users - and AVG is used by plenty of 'professionals'.

...Thanks to smp (I hope it isn't too familiar to use the abbreviation), I now have a virtual flowerpot!

Oh that sounds fun too have you a link?

[digthatchick]

No Vista for me - I run a Mac - no need for Norton - we don't get viruses and the Vista sidebar was nicked from Mac its called Widgets here

[smallblueplanet]

But you're lucky cos Macs can run Windows software - must have felt you were in danger of missing out?

[nelliegemini]

I'm sure there are as many views on this as there are 'IT users' but I've known Norton be troublesome to certain groups of users - and AVG is used by plenty of 'professionals'.



Oh that sounds fun too have you a link?

You asked about the virtual flowerpot (unfortunately not a virtual runner bean)

Erm, tricky this, I think I found it at ...

Google Gadgets: Virtual Flower Pot

anyway, I Googled 'google gadgets virtual flower pot' (I can't get the link thing to work every time).

However, it seems from the comments on that link that it is really boring because it can't be customised, but hey, if it makes me smile for a day that's fine.

[lynda66]

i got vista on my new lappy, did my head in till i turned it to classic mode, it's not really much different to xp that i've noticed to be honest ..... i do use firefox, cos internet explorer isn't as good

i have used an old version of Norton (for windows 95) on every pc i have ever had, and found it ok once you turn the not needed bits off.

unfotunately it won't work with vista, i did try the new version pre-installed on the laptop, but it did my head in it was so complicated and slowed the pc down too much. so i haven't actually bothered, with a anti virus, i don't have emails coming straight to my pc, so really haven't been bothered by any. have a couple of anti spywares, and an adware remover. and windows firewall ... haven't been troubled by anything since i had it.

anyway, re the sidebar thing ........ haven't found that yet lol.