Microsoft made a hell lot of changes to the Windows interface when it introduced Windows Vista. There was AERO, a new start menu, stylish icons, and yes, we got a Windows Sidebar too.

The Windows Sidebar exists in Windows Vista & Windows 7 and is displayed on the right hand side of your screen. You can add a variety of Gadgets to your sidebar, the default ones being Calendar, Clock, CPU Meter, Currency, Media Gallery etc. To add one of these sidebar Gadgets simple right click on your desktop and click on Gadgets. Apart from these default sidebar Gadgets, you can install a variety of other Gadgets available on the Internet. I’ve compiled a list of 5 of the best and must have Windows Sidebar Gadgets:

 

1. Web Search Sidebar Gadget: A Google search box on the desktop sounds nice, right? The Ultimate Explorer Gadget lets you search Google and a dozen other popular websites including Yahoo, Youtube, Wikipedia, Amazon, Ebay, Torrent websites (Pirate Bay, Mininova, Iso Hunt etc.) and many more. You can change the layout and size of the box and even change it’s look by selecting a new theme.

Download It.

2. FaceBook Sidebar Gadget: How about being able to access FaceBook right from your desktop? The FB Explorer Sidebar Gadget lets you view your newsfeed, comment and like items, track messages and notifications, access your friends list, view your wall and more. You can even customize the look of the Gadget by choosing from among the 10 in-built themes.

Download It.

3. iTunes Sidebar Gadget: The iTunes Accessory Sidebar Gadget lets you play, pause and change tracks. It shows the track title, artist, rating, album and artwork. Shuffle button, Mute and Volume controls are also present. There’s a playlist and EQ preset menu included as well. And yes you guessed it right, iTunes has to be installed on your PC.

Download it.

4. GMail Sidebar Gadget: The GMail Reader Gadget allows you access to your GMail inbox. It displays 5 e-mail at a time on the face of the Gadget and in total 20 e-mails.

Download It.

5. The Magic Folder Sidebar Gadget: Hate your desktop being cluttered with files? Magic Folder is a wonderful solution to your problem. It simply puts all the files on your desktop into different folders based on their respective file extensions. You can specify the folders for different file extensions. Once all set, just drag your files to the Magic Folder icon in your sidebar and all those files will disappear, leaving your desktop clean. You can find those files in the folder you set for that file type. You can also click on the Magic Folder icon in your sidebar and you’ll be shown a drop-down box of the different folders. You can simply open the required folder from there.

Download It.

How to install Sidebar Gadgets? Simply download the files and open them. A Security Warning will pop up, click on Install and you’re done.

Following an outbreak of Windows-related malware, Microsoft took Bill Gates’ requests in 2002 to make safety a main concern. Bill Gates was depressed seeing the incidents of breakouts and he had completely had it seeing how many reports and incidences had come to him. Similarly, the customers were also gloomy seeing the presence of viruses and malicious outbreaks on their system.

It was at that time that chairman of Microsoft put his foot down and commanded an altered memo to the employee working in the company. A series of changes were about to happen and that was to be known as an era of “trustworthy computing.”

The new creations that are made now target and hope for reducing the quantity of the aforementioned problems that arise in the software Microsoft, its customers or partners create. Microsoft feels that they should provide its customers with these alterations and the advantages they bring with them. In time, the company does hope that they would make such safe software that they won’t ever become a cause for the customers to fuss over it.

Despite the promises and attempts, safety and protection issues have become a big disappointment for Microsoft. The problems also appeared in Windows XP along with Microsoft’s net initiative. This was a big ongoing project at the time and was bound to assure the users of an all the time safe route to businesses through the internet.

What came afterwards was that Microsoft picked security rather than the bottom line for Windows development. Thus instead of new products, more work was to be done on making the then available products more safe and secure. About 85,000 developers got trained in safe programming and then scrutinized the array of Windows code; where all the product development was halted, this event totaled to be around $100 million.

It is a good thing that Microsoft has been working on its security performance as seeing the array of platforms these days, security and safety matters a lot. Blackberry has been named one of the most secure platforms and it is maybe that way its sales always seem to be decent. Anti-virus and firewalls are present in almost every single computer. Seeing how handheld devices have turned into mini computers, people tend to save their personal, financial or professional details on the device itself. Spyware software is being installed in smart phones merely to protect them or to be used as a way of tracking someone. Mobistealth and Mobile Spy are some of the few popular names that are being widely purchased by people to keep their loved ones safe.

The disappointing history of Microsoft does get better as the company has stepped up its game in providing more secure products but so have the villains and the cybercriminals. Where companies come out with the better weapons, the cybercriminals come out much more advanced attacks. Many of the Microsoft users still aren’t sure whether after ten years of Windows malware if they feel safer or not.

Author Bio: Stella Rebecca has been in the business of providing quality information on tracking app for Iphone. Her main expertise lies within the spectrum of Moniotring software for Android and Spy app for cell phone which are making waves in the technology world today..

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Microsoft,
Windows

Besides the Metro UI and a ton of other new features, Windows 8 has something more in store – a shiny new file system. Though only for the Windows Server 8, the ReFS, or the Resilient File System is a next generation file system built upon the NTFS. ReFS will retain a high level of compatibility with NTFS features by reusing NTFS’ API/semantics engine. Apart from being a better storage system in general, the ReFS will bring a new storage engine that is expected to resist data corruption, protect again latent disk errors, grant large volume, directory and file size and uphold metadata integrity.

Read more about the ReFS on the Windows 8 Blog.

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Metro UI,
ReFS,
Windows