SmartBar XP

SmartBar XP is a Windows sidebar that comes with fully customizable panels and several modules to display various information right on the desktop.

The application can be placed anywhere on the screen and the window can be resized as much as you want to better fit your desktop.

By default, SmartBar XP boasts a clock and a date, a Windows Media Player controller, a web search tool, a system monitor utility to keep an eye on CPU and RAM usage, a quick launch feature for starting new apps on the go, but also a network monitor to see sent and received data in real time.

The sidebar is fully customizable, which means you can also change the theme, with several built-in templates, but also configure the so-called “panes”, which are actually the tiny modules that show information or let you control various apps.

There are several built-in panes, including those concerning tech news, weather, media, information and other miscellaneous items.

Of course, both the panes and the bar can be customized, either by enabling Pane Scrolling, slide effect when collapsing or by using mouse wheel scrolling across the sidebar.

While it needs a reasonable amount of computer resources to run smooth, SmartBar XP takes some of the space on your screen and by default it stays on top of all the other apps.

But all in all, SmartBar XP is quite a handy sidebar utility, especially for older Windows versions that do not include a sidebar designed by Microsoft. It does its job pretty well and comes with lots of panes.