I’m one of those who firmly believe that Windows 7 is Microsoft’s best operating system ever. Hell, it’s the best operating system out there. But, Microsoft has done some little blunders with it such as the removal of the calendar application that was introduced in Vista ( I know Windows Live Mail has a calendar but it’s for Windows Live users ), and the removal of some very useful sidebar gadgets such as the Notes and Contacts gadgets. I had put up the notes gadget for download long ago, now I’ve finally managed to get off my bum and extract the Contacts gadget from Vista.  Read more...

Permalink: Download Vista Contacts gadget for Windows 7

That was quick by Microsoft. The Windows 7 customization website, also accessible from the personalize window is now up and running. It contains themes, backgrounds, desktop gadgets and sideshow gadgets. The last 2 things can be found at Windows Live Gallery as we, so why the duplication? Weird, I know. But they had to fill it up with something. Even the 12 themes they’ve put up are less than the 22 I’ve made so far. ( hint: check back this weekend again, that number might change ). The themes on the Windows 7 Personalize website are mostly regional apart from a few nature related ones. So, head over to the website and give them a try, if you don’t like them, you can always come back to ithinkdiff themes for more.

Permalink: Official Windows 7 Themes from Microsoft available now

Call it the best feature or worst of Windows Vista, but the Sidebar is undeniably very useful. I find it more useful than OS X’s Dashboard or Yahoo Widgets to an extent. Although, it’s a fact that the sidebar takes a lot of memory in Vista and slows down the boot so it’s better kept disabled at startup. In 7, the sidebar is integrated into the shell, and no longer as a separate application. Also, it seems to run faster and doesn’t slow down boot.

One gadget I’ve always liked since I started using Vista has been Network Utilization meter. It’s a nifty little gadget that beats all its competitors by a long mile due to its features and ease of use. It’s so useful that it should be available in the default gadgets for Windows 7. The network utilization gadget does exactly what it says. It shows you how much transfer speed you are getting from your network, whether it’s Ethernet, Wireless or Bluetooth. It’s great to have the current transfer speed of your network or Internet connection at your fingertips, and it can also be used to shut up those ‘innocent’ ISP support dudes who just load up Google or Yahoo and claim your Internet is working fine, when it’s not.

This gadget includes both bar and line graphs, with different interval choices, as well as a bar view that shows on double clicking the gadget. The update interval/refresh rate of the gadget can be changed through the options as well. I personally keep mine at 0.5 seconds which is the minimum it offers, 10 seconds being the maximum. The Scale can be changed from 56kbps to an STM-1 connection and all different types in between. If you’ve got multiple network adapters, you can manually select the currently active one too. If you click on the resize button, it can also double up to its size. Even that option is configurable as you can change the size from 50% to 200% of its original size.  Read more...

Permalink: Network Utilization Gadget for Windows Vista and 7