Discussion on:

Five Windows 7 gadgets worth sharing with your users

You are aware that Microsoft shut down the gadget gallery in October 2011????

It's best to check things out before you make declarations such as this. Just connected to it and downloaded a gadget.

Actual words from Microsoft:

Because we want to focus on the exciting possibilities of the newest version of Windows, Microsoft no longer supports uploading new gadgets. But that doesn't mean you can't still get gadgets. The most popular and highest-rated gadgets are still available on this page.

Some info for gadget developers:

You can now use your HTML5 and CSS3 skills to build Metro-style apps for Windows 8 Developer Preview. To get started developing Metro style apps, go to Windows Dev Center.

If you're interested in building gadgets for the Windows 7 Gadget Platform or the Windows Vista Sidebar, we recommend you have a look at the Gadgets developer documentation on MSDN.

Want to share a gadget that you???ve already created? CodePlex is a great option for hosting your gadgets.

How they are trying to force gadget developers over to supporting their new platform which doesn't even have a firm release date yet? I mean this Windows 7 they are trying to force them off of when most companies have only just begun to transition from XP. Kind of a pendulum move, after working so hard to recover from the Vista PR debacle by concentrating on getting people to migrate to 7.

Hi mbloemer,
Yep, we're aware that Microsoft closed its Windows Live Gallery last fall. In its place is the page we link to at the beginning of this article, where a limited number of gadgets are available for download. Old links to the Windows Live Gallery redirect to this page as well.
--Jody

There's about 25 or 30 gadgets there compared to hundreds (or more) that used to be there. I can understand MS moving away from gadgets, but to make all those pre-existing ones unavailable now just seems wrong. Does anyone know their reasoning? Were they getting abusive gadgets in there or something?

Go to the website that you claim has these gadgets and see if those gadgets are actually there.

I will admit that I did not bother going to the website this time because this is the third time you have recycled this three-year-old article in just the past year. I have given up expecting TechRepublic to have valid information because you have demonstrated that you don't have either the expertise or the common business sense.

It is bad enough that you constantly repost the same articles over and over in multiple versions of your newsletters, but recycling old garbage articles just to fill up space in the newsletters is not going to do you any good - it won't take long for your target audience to realize that you are no longer a reliable source of material worth reading.

This is a fresh article, not recycled, and the gadgets are in deed there, and available. It's Okay if you don't find the article useful -- that's just the nature of things. A number of readers have sent private emails asking for information on other possible gadgets, so it's a viable topic, even if it isn't right for you, just now.

If this is a fresh article, why are readers complaining about the same faults that other readers complained about IN THIS SAME THREAD over two years ago?!?

I've read this REHASHED article at least four times in the last year -- sometimes it gets tweaked a little when you recycle it but everything about it seems to have come from the original notes for the original article written way back when Microsoft actually had a Win 7 Gadgets website, not just a legacy webpage to keep the link buried in the OS from going dead.

Apparently TechRepublic has run out of technically competent writers and whatever staff they have left are so totally clueless that they just keep recycling old articles hoping that subscribers won't notice that some of the items in the so-called NEWS letters are two and three years old.

Occasionally part of the information is partly updated from the original article, but even then, the information may still not be up to date. TechRepublic has recycled this three year old "Gadgets" article three times in the past year -- each time highlight a few different gadgets, but most of the the gadgets being mentioned do not actually exist on microsoft's abandoned legacy gadget website.

You're not the only reader and believe it or not, we write to a broad audience, from folks who are new to Windows 7 and gadgets to developers of all ilk.

I was really disappointed when they shut that down. I found several interesting gadgets out there. Pretty bizarre that they gave us something handy like that then axed it.

My must have gadgets are the basic clock, weather, and the CPU and Network meters.

Can you please share any gadget capable to tell me that how many people are connected to my wifi-internet connetion.

Not really, but the uploads only. Downloads are still there and also the gadgets which are in the blog.

I was setting up my new pc last night and went to get some gadgets from MS. There are still gadgets there, but only a few by comparison to how many there used to be. Anyone know why MS would cut down on the number of gadgets available? Just curious. I did get the ones I use mostly: clock, calendar, weather, and system guages. But what happened to the many others that used to reside there?

Another very useful Gadget is the Drives Meter, made by the same outfit as makes the Network Meter. For anybody whose computer lacks an indicator LED for the hard drive or uses multiple drives, this Gadget does the job -- and more. It indicates when a drive is in use, gives an idea of how much data is being accessed, monitors writes and reads separately, and monitors logical drives separately. Like the Network Meter, it has lots of useful settings.

Too bad you didn't include a link.

I wen t to the gadget galley awhile back and was shocked that they would yank all the pre-exisiting gadgets from the galley and state that they wanted to focus on the "exciting new product" or some crap like that. That's almost akin to going out to dinner with your new love and ditching them mid way through to go meet up with your new flame. Let's face it, MS needs to stop thinking that people are going to drop whatever OS their using and upgrade right to the next "great" release you put out. Come on people, is Windows 8 really raising your eyebrows? I didn't think so.

Rainmeter is a great tool set if you're interested in desktop gadgets - customizable as well..
http://rainmeter.net/cms/

... but drastically shrunk.

Most Windows-offered Gadgets are no longer available, including the Countdown timer. If you could post sources that create their own Gadgets, THAT would be helpful.

Just one more reason to opt out of TechRepublic (TR): providing links that don't work to things that may no longer exist. Of the five (5) mentioned, I could get three (3). That's a forty (40) percent failure rate, and that's a failing grade. I would expect a bit more of TR.

This is driving me nuts, the gadgets that I would like to try aren't there anymore. Couldn't find Stopwatch, the link didn't work, then when I went to MS's page, it wasn't there. I clicked on the link for more gadgets, searched for Stopwatch and there is no current release. I had this same issue with the network meter on the last article about gadgets.

Unfortunately, the links provided don't work, and Microsoft doesn't provide the ability to search for particular gadgets on their website. They do provide a handful on their gadget page, but if the one you want isn't there, you're out of luck. What am I missing here?

I am the author of CalendarMark:
"CalendarMark is a complete and useful Windows desktop gadget, enabling full Google Calandar access, keeping your agenda up-to-date with ease."

CalendarMark is currently available for an introduction price or even for free (well, for a tweet about CalendarMark). Go to http://calendarmark.com to get it!

Apparently no one at Tech Republic bothers checking their articles before sending out emails with links to old badly out-dated information.

This is their second email with links about Gadgets this year -- the previous one had comments over a year old still attached to the article.

For all their claims about keeping up with technology, no one at Tech Republic knows that Microsoft all but abandoned Gadgets months ago -- there is NO support for Gadgets -- just a small handful on one webpage and they don't even pretend to support even those few.

There should be sort of handy supermarket/shopping gadgets or apps around to push me flyers or offers matching my needs, expedite placing orders and keep track of my patron history thereof.