BIT-101 [2003-2017]

I’ve been using Windows since verstion 3.0 and I’m sure I’ve used just about every free gadget, dock, launcher, desktop enhancer, etc. out there over the years. I even bought the whole Stardock / Desktop X / Object Desktop / WindowBlinds / etc. Suite.

Generally, using those apps goes something like…

1. Wow, that looks cool!
2. Let me customize it and make it look even cooler.
3. Hmmm… it’s kind of getting in my way.
4. Hmmm… it’s killing my cpu.
5. This doesn’t actually enhance my day to day workflow at all.
6. Uninstall.

A while back though, I got wind of Desktop Sidebar. I’ve had it installed for several months now. It’s a keeper. Why?

1. It’s free.
2. It looks cool and you can skin it to make it look cooler.
3. It doesn’t get in the way at all. Apparently it is modeled after the side bar that will be in Longhorn. It sits off to the side of the screen. You can make it autohide or hid it via a click on its tray icon.
4. No noticeable CPU hit.
5. It is very useful.

More on #5. There are all sorts of panels you can download for this thing. The ones it installs with are great already. You can have a clock, performance meters, weather panel, slide show, various IM panels, media control panels, stocks, news, command line, Google search. It also has a whole set of panels that hooks into Outlook, so you can see your mail, calendar, contacts, etc. right there.

It has a built in MSN chat panel, and Miranda IM panel. This is really useful for me, as Miranda supports MSN, AIM, Yahoo, etc. and even Jabber, which we use at work. So all my contacts are always sitting there in the sidebar.

If you are on a pc, check this one out. Give yourself a few days to get used to it. You’ll love it.