14 DAY TRIAL // In what concerns the looks and functionality, Vista is no longer a secret for many users. However, most of the computer users still linger on Windows XP due to the price the late Longhorn has. A compromise can be made and you can apply Vista shell to your worn out XP. As once Vista has blinked at you with those pretty icons and graphics, you will definitely decide that you want it.
Longhorn Transformation Pack did a good job some time ago and in some cases it still runs (I do not think I'll take it off from my home computer until Vista drops the price a little) beautifully, converting the hefty XP title bars into the nifty slim Vista look that will also make your monitor seem larger. Not to mention Vista Transformation Pack.
If you do not want a total transformation of your shell as XP still has something to say in this matter then the solution is installing a side bar populated with all sorts of widgets that come in handy from time to time and give that spaceship visual of your desktop.
Thoosje comes with a little application that may be to your taste. Vista Sidebar is absolutely free and from what I gathered, the author is continually working on it, improving and fixing the existent bugs. It is not a shell replacement, but it'll give you an idea on how Vista looks like, in case you haven't already checked it out.
The side bar consists of a series of widgets that fulfill different purposes and can be left floating on the desktop or placed in the actual side bar. The 14 widgets available do not fit in the lateral bar (unless you have a 24 inch monitor), so a gadgets window to launch them from is available. This way you can make side bar resident only the applications you constantly need.
The menus available in the gadgets window and at the same time the application window are Clocks, Gadgets and Skins. To give more flexibility to the application, the Clocks section includes a number of six clocks that can be customized in terms of changing the aspect and the minute and hour pointers. Thus you can opt for a sport-looking watch, a classical (having all the hours displayed) or a more elegant one with no hours displayed and with different background colors. Let's not forget that the pointers can also be selected and they go from chrome looking to slim shaded ones.
The gadgets are the most important elements of the bar and there are 14 of them. Ranging from useful ones like CPU and RAM meters, RSS reader, calendar, system uptime counter, search bars or A/V players to less useful (for some of you) gadgets like thumb image viewer and weather forecast.
Vista Sidebar makes available two search bars. Each of them contains several search engines that can be changed with a click of the mouse. Information on the Internet can be searched using Google, Yahoo!, Amazon, Thesaurus, Wikipedia, Alta Vista, Dictionary or MSN Search. Just type the query in the search bar, choose your search engine and press the magnifying glass in the right. An instance of the default web browser will automatically open or the search will be displayed in a new window/tab if the browser has already been launched.
The other search bar is dedicated to torrent search only and also includes major torrent websites like IsoHunt, Torrent Spy, Pirate Bay, Meganova ans Mininova, Demonoid and Torrent Reactor. Don't let the misspelling of Demonoid ("Demoniod" in the widget) disorient you or the fact that there is no Torrent Reactor listed, as the last "Demoniod" is actually a link to it.
As you cannot rely on the TV forecast of the weather the same is available here too. The weather widget showed fog, raining and the forecast was "mostly clouded" in my region despite the bright sun and abnormally hot weather for this time of the year I notice outside. I've been waiting for several hours now to see the "mostly clouded" atmospheric condition and the sun is still shining.
Confronting the CPU usage in Task Manager and the one displayed by the adequate widget in Vista Sidebar I noticed some inconsistencies between the two. For making a clear idea about the authenticity of the widget's reading I decided to force my CPU up a little. Big surprise or not, while Task Manager read a 66% CPU usage, Vista Sidebar's widget showed 30%.
Furthermore, playing with the clock pointers resulted in some cases a time reset to twelve o'clock sharp, but only in some cases. I also had a little trouble with the RSS reader as it keeps resetting to the default RSS subscription and clicking on the news displayed will not result in anything.
The WiFi Internet connection widget however worked like a charm and after a few seconds of disconnection of the network its status changed. The same happened when connected, taking it about 20-25 seconds to realize that the connection is back and display the "Internet Connected" message.
The Good
Great looking widgets. The shutdown button in the system uptime widget is a fast way to close your computer. The media player worked like a charm playing everything I fed it.
The Bad
There are still a number of bugs to be fixed. One too many if you asked me, but given that the developer updated the program quite often I guess in a pretty short time we are going to see an improvement in functionality and a rise to the expectations of the interface.
The Truth
It is a good thing that it is free. And if you want to get inspired in creating an interface for your own software it is a good point to start from. I only wish I could give more than 5/5 stars for the looks as they are truly amazing. As for functionality, I am waiting for the future improved versions.
Here are some snapshots of the application in action:
