Go Gadget

Go Gadget was designed as an equivalent of Ubuntu’s Taskbar for Windows, allowing users to pin their favorite programs and files for quick access.

The application comes in the form of a sidebar placed on the right of your desktop, which stays hidden during your work at the computer. The only time it becomes visible is when you hover the mouse onto the right edge of the screen.

Go Gadget’s aim is not to replace Windows’ taskbar, but to act as a complementary asset, allowing you to keep the latter tidy while gathering your shortcuts inside an invisible toolbar. The items you can pin to it range from images and applications (EXE files) to shortcuts and WPF animations.

The only interface of the application is the sidebar itself, which, as mentioned, can be triggered by hovering the mouse onto the right section of the desktop. The background of the sidebar will be in accordance with your wallpaper, as the program automatically detects and uses the predominant color inside the image.

In order to pin a new item, simply drag and drop it to the sidebar; right-clicking on an already pinned shortcut will reveal a menu that allows users to view the Properties of a file, as well as to remove it from the list.

On Windows 8, the sidebar can be quite tricky, since hovering the mouse over the right side of the screen also triggers the Charm Bar. This issue could easily be fixed by moving the sidebar to the left of the screen. Another downside is the low support for file types; we would like to see, in future releases, possibilities to pin documents, as well as text files, for instance.

Go Gadget has got the potential to be an appealing quick access sidebar with a little work. Besides the disadvantages mentioned earlier, it could also use more customizations in what the appearance is concerned.