MetroSidebar Review - Ambitious but Ultimately Disappointing Desktop Launcher

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key review info
application features
  • Desktop sidebar with the Windows 8 look
  • (8 more, see all...)

MetroSidebar is a lightweight and rather intuitive OS enhancement tool that places a sidebar on your desktop to facilitate a quick means of accessing applications, performing an online search, staying up to date with the weather conditions, setting an alarm clock, supervising the battery meter, and more.

You can set up shortcuts to custom files and programs, customize colors to make the dock more lively, make the sidebar stay on top of the screen at all times (even when working with other programs), and so on.

Installation and interface

The setup operation is pretty fast and doesn't require special attention. Worth mentioning is that .NET Framework 4.5 must be installed before launching MetroSidebar, and system restart is required to finalize installation.

Although this is not mentioned in the installer, the tool adds an entry to the Windows autostart sequence, and it will run at every system startup until told otherwise.

Once launched, it places a sidebar on the right side of the screen. As the name implies, MetroSidebar adopts the flat look of Windows 8. It shows a brief tutorial at startup to help you get started, and it can remain on top of the screen while you're working in other programs side-by-side.

By default, the bar displays the current date and local time, user name, weather information, along with a shortcut to the Bing search engine. Additional tiles may be added from the local or tile store.

Add and customize local tiles

When it comes to the local tiles, you can add an alarm clock, customize the background color, pick the preferred time format, edit a comment, assign a custom ringtone and adjust its volume level, use a custom background image for the Bing search engine, place a battery meter, or add a media player and put together a playlist.

It's also possible to create shortcuts for accessing pictures. You can modify the default directory, include or exclude subfolders, switch through the images randomly, and pick the delay time between transitions. PC power options may be added for shutdown, restart, sleep, or log off. However, you should be careful when using them, since they automatically trigger the action on click.

The most exciting tile is a launcher that lets you to set shortcuts for custom apps to run or files to open.

It contains seven system locations by default (My Computer, Control Panel, Recycle Bin, Internet Explorer, Notepad, Calculator, Paint), allowing you to edit the properties of every existing tile, such as icon or tile name, even if this means replacing the Windows shortcuts with something else. Any shortcuts can be deleted, and you can add as many new ones as you want, as well as change their order in the launcher. Additional tiles may be added from the tile store or external .dll files.

MetroSidebar gives you the possibility to personalize the color and transparency level of any tile or the entire dock. You can remove its entry from the Windows startup, make the dock stay on top of other windows or automatically hide when not used, deactivate auto checkups for software updates, or set the tool to download and install any updates as soon as they're detected. Multiple monitors are supported and you can select the preferred one for keeping the sidebar on.


The Good

It's free to use, compatible with Windows 8/8.1, 7 and Vista, and supports multiple monitors.

MetroSidebar contains two sheets for placing tiles on, and you can easily toggle them. You can add an alarm, battery meter for notebooks, Bing Search, system clock, media player, shortcut to pictures, power buttons, a search function (same as in Windows 8), user account info, and weather.

The launcher is the most interesting tile, however. It contains some preset Windows shortcuts that can be replaced or backed by new shortcuts to custom files and apps (which is not different than the default desktop). The tiles and sidebar can be customized in transparency and color.

The Bad

It had some stability issues with Windows 8.1 Pro during our tests because it frequently crashed while we were tinkering with settings.

The tile store didn't load in our tests (the developer's website wasn't working at the time).

It doesn't integrate options for adding folders or opening websites in the launcher tile, or changing the Bing search engine.

The Truth

Overall, we had higher hopes for MetroSidebar. The program relies too much on looks and put the functionality aspect aside. It doesn't leave too much room for customization, and the stability issues we came across were enough to confirm our disappointment. Perhaps it will change our minds in future builds.

user interface 5
features 2
ease of use 5
pricing / value 5


final rating 2
Editor's review
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MetroSidebar (7 Images)

MetroSidebar: The sidebar is placed on the right part of the desktop
MetroSidebar: A welcome guide helps you get startedMetroSidebar: Pick local tiles to add to the sidebarMetroSidebar: The mediMetroSidebar:a player can load tracks from a playlistMetroSidebar: Customize the UI and sidebar colors and transparency level
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