10 responses to “Time to kill (most) Windows Gadgets”

1. 

   TMK August 1st, 2012 at 17:57

   I was a big fan of Gadgets way back when they were Yahoo! Widgets ;o) (and before that, Konfabulator).

   Coincidentally I uninstalled Y!W from my old 2000 box last night, time to do the same with Gadgets from my Vista machine, I guess.

2. 

   rc primak August 2nd, 2012 at 16:37

   I also was very gadget dependent until the news broke that the platform is dead. I haven’t found any third-party utilities which display in the compact floating windows with readable graphical displays which were the hallmark of well-crafted system monitoring gadgets. They will be missed.

   By the way, the Google and Yahoo Widgets are not the same as Windows Gadgets Platform. Those were and are third-party desktop apps which always had the reputation for spying and displaying ads. And they were always suspected of being much more insecure than Windows Gadgets.

   You should never have used Yahoo or Google desktop applications of any kind if you value your computers’ security and your personal (even offline) privacy. Same goes for Instant Messaging applications.

3. 

   rc primak August 2nd, 2012 at 17:04

   One more thing, and this is mostly cosmetic.

   The Fixit does not remove the Windows Explorer right-click context menu item for Gadgets. It merely dead-ends any click on this option. If you want to rid yourself of this annoyance, go into the Control Panel, get to Turn Windows Features On or Off, and uncheck Windows Gadget Platform and (if present) the Windows Sidebar. This truly disables the whole platform. The Explorer item disappears entirely.

4. 

   TMK August 3rd, 2012 at 21:30

   I wasn’t seriously asserting that Windows Gadgets were Yahoo Widgets, hence the ;o) in my post. Just that Konfabulator/Y!W predated Gadgets by at least a couple of years.

5. 

   rc primak August 4th, 2012 at 01:31

   I was commenting on security, not similarity nor precedence. Both platforms are and were insecure and should be abandoned yesterday if not sooner.

6. 

   junecrisfrye August 20th, 2012 at 07:29

   i guess it is depends on the user, if there is a useful widget that you use often keep it….

7. 

   Mordechai (Morty) Schiller March 28th, 2013 at 22:28

   I’ll be getting my new Win 7 machine next week. (OK, so I’m a late adopter.) Are there any other mission critical changes since “Windows 7 All-In-One For Dummies” that I need to know about?
   Thanks, Morty

8. 

   Mordechai (Morty) Schiller March 29th, 2013 at 00:21

   And to think that whenever I would work on Win 7 machines, I would routinely install Analog Clock and Calendar gadgets. Yikes!
   This whole issue of Internet apps that run without the restrictions of Web browsers raises a disturbing question. What about apps like Toggl Desktop (https://www.toggl.com/public/tour#desktop) that phones home and syncs up with the mother ship? (Did I just mix metaphors? Sorry.) And how about other programs that phone home for updates? Should all true paranoids disable any unfortified program from Internet access?
   Come to think of it, what about the Gadgets on my iGoogle home page? Are they filtered by Firefox? Or have I opened the gates for a herd Trojan Horses?
   Morty

9. 

   woody March 29th, 2013 at 11:32

   @Morty -

   If you have the original edition of Win7 AIO, I still recommend AVG Free. In the second edition of the book, I switched to Microsoft Security Essentials. I still say MSE is your best bet.

10. 

    Mordechai (Morty) Schiller April 4th, 2013 at 21:29

    Woody,
    Does this mean that MSE is enough to ward off evil spirits from regular apps that call home? What about the Analog Clock and Calendar gadgets?
    Thanks, Morty