How To Speed Up Vista Tips: Disable Sidebar Gadgets

One of the new features that come with Windows Vista is the Sidebar Gadgets. The sidebar is basically an active space in your desktop where you can place gadgets, which are small programs that are designed for one particular purpose, such as telling you your exact computer hard drive status, the time or date, or displaying notes that you can quickly edit. The problem with gadgets, however, is that they will take up some of your computer’s memory and slows down the CPU. Here’s how you can disable the sidebar gadgets in order to speed up Vista.

* Open the Gadget Window. Start up your computer, and then wait for the sidebar to appear on the screen. This is usually displayed on the right side of your screen, although it can also be adjusted to be found just about anywhere on the screen. Hover your mouse over the active space, and wait for the “+” sign to appear on the top of the screen. Once this has appeared, click on it to open the Gadget Window.
* Choose the gadget. With the Gadget Window opened, you should be able to find a list of all the gadgets that are available in your computer. There are default gadgets that are automatically shipped with your computer, and there are also other gadgets that you can download from the Vista Sidebar website. Go to the particular gadgets that are currently displayed in your sidebar, and then right click these. Once you have right clicked the side bar, a drop down menu will appear. Choose the uninstall option. This will remove this particular sidebar gadget from your computer.
* Repeat. Now, all that you need to do is to repeat this process for all of the other sidebar gadgets that you want to remove. Leave only those gadgets that you really need .for instance, if you use Google Calendar and you have the Google Calendar gadget installed, you can leave this in place especially if you use it to display your calendar appointments.
* Uninstall the sidebar. Remember, though, that even with all of the sidebar gadgets uninstalled, the active space itself is still operating and will still consume some processing power and memory. To remove the sidebar active space itself, click on the “Show Hidden Icons” button on the Taskbar. Look for the Windows Sidebar icon and then right click this. Click on the Exit button to close the active space itself. Or, you can also click on the properties button and uncheck the “Start Sidebar when Windows starts” option. This will keep the sidebar active space closed even after you have shut down your computer. This is important if you no longer plan on using the Sidebar Gadgets. To restore the Sidebar active space and be able to add more gadgets, simply go to the Control Panel and search for the Sidebar icon .


Sidebar Gadgets can be very useful and attractive. If you are running low on RAM and you need to free up some processing power, however, you should consider disabling the gadgets.