Hey what gadgets are you guys using??

I'm using
Slide Show (scrolls through pictures/photo's you have on pc)
my weather (a weather program that atually works)
triple j radio (listen to live stream or select which show you want to listen to)
google search
longer notes (basically sticky notes but vertically longer to fit more in, good for reminders, things to do)

http://members.iinet.net.au/~joekool/desktop.jpg

start->run

none

none

http://i296.photobucket.com/albums/mm190/pointyfork/qgl/gadgets.jpg

Weatherbug
Bigpond usage
Calender
Some wanky hard drive/cpu/ram usage meter I put there & cbf removing
network up/download speed, as above put there cbf removing it

I love how people have a calendar, there is one down on the right hand bottom corner!!

Weather, oldskool clock, wanky cpu boost gauge

You have to mouse over the clock to see it though heardy, I likes my calender easy to spy with my beady little eye.

You have to mouse over the clock to see it though heardy, I likes my calender easy to spy with my beady little eye.

As opposed to minimising all open programs to see the desktop?

I always think, hey that thing is kind of cool and would provide me with information I might want but... I cant remember the last time I saw my desktop so what's the point.

I cant see my opinion ever changing from 'its all wanky bulls*** with no real need'

As opposed to minimising all open programs to see the desktop?

You know you can make the sidebar (in vista anyway) stay on top of all windows right?

As opposed to minimising all open programs to see the desktop?

I always think, hey that thing is kind of cool and would provide me with information I might want but... I cant remember the last time I saw my desktop so what's the point.

I cant see my opinion ever changing from 'its all wanky bulls*** with no real need'

Windows+G.

Its also really easy to show desktop (and gadgets) in Windows 7 - fling your mouse to the bottom right, then move away when you're done.

last edited by Hogfather at 18:14:47 24/Jul/09

If you made your taskbar double sized (one of the first things I change, I HATE group similar tasks crap) it shows time/day/date all without mousing over!

where'd you get the bigpond usage thingy whoop? and is it for IE8?
i had one for FF but need one for IE

If you made your taskbar double sized (one of the first things I change, I HATE group similar tasks crap) it shows time/day/date all without mousing over!

I can't stand double height taskbars, if I want giant taskbars I'll go use redhat linux circa 1500BC. Huge task bars are so last century and this is why windows 7 fails by default, large task bar.

where'd you get the bigpond usage thingy whoop? and is it for IE8?
i had one for FF but need one for IE

http://qgl.ausforums.com/index.php/439207/?agn=thread&id=2765914 It's not for IE, it's a Windows gadget so it runs regardless of the browser you use but you're gonna need vista or windows 7.

I can't stand double height taskbars, if I want giant taskbars I'll go use redhat linux circa 1500BC. Huge task bars are so last century and this is why windows 7 fails by default, large task bar.

I am bigtime hater of large taskbars.

Bt I gave it a go in 7, and combined with app-centric taskbar it seems to work well? I don't miss the 50 odd pixels.

exactly, you can have all your frequently used apps/games in the quick launch... saves having a quick launch that is massively long!

Double sized task bar ftw, especially when you have many apps open in an office environment - nothing more then double though

but in win7 a single size taskbar shows the time and date, you don't need to double it.

Then windows 7 is win. To be honest I haven't tried win7 thoroughly, I installed it in a VM, played with it for 10 minutes & got rid of it, I do know you can make the task bar smaller but I can't be stuffed running it on my PC only to have it expire in march or whatever.

On a side note, how do videos look in windows 7? I'm getting really pissed off with the way vista seems to be handling videos. Seems like no matter what client I use (MPC, VLC, Quick time) they all default to using GDI rendering and videos look f***ing s***. I can force them to use direct x and it looks all pretty once again but quicktime keeps defaulting to GDI after I restart. It just won't remember what I set it to and occasionally VLC & MPC seem to be back in GDI mode & the picture looks all jaggy & f***ed.

If they've fixed this issue in Windows 7 then I might swap otherwise I'm going back to XP where everything I need just works the way I want it to without having to force a particular rendering method. It's not just this PC either, same s*** happens on my laptop. Both got nVidia video cards.

I just have the clock, calendar and I installed a WoW thingy that lets me know if my server is online and how busy it is.

but in win7 a single size taskbar shows the time and date, you don't need to double it.

this is a breakthrough and i may upgrade.

Outlook Appointments is the best gadget ever. shows upcoming appointments from your outlook calander.

Others I have running are

iinet usage gadget - shows usage, quota left and time left till reset
multimeter - cpu/mem guage
network traffic - in/out traffic in MB/s and Mbits/s
weather
calander
shutdown gadget - clock + shutdown/reset/lock buttons.

last two are a bit redundant, but i don't use the time/date on my taskbar.

quick launch is win

launchy > quick launch

I've stopped using Launchy since I installed Windows 7. The taskbar is just that much better that I don't really feel the need for it anymore.

whoop: I had that problem when i switched from xp to win7. None of the popular 3rd party players (mpc, vlc) played video without it looking like pixelated s***. So I loaded WMP and it was playing them fine, just like in XP. (WMP is actually useable these days.. I havent looked at it for years until now)

Anyway long story short, in MPC go to options > playback >> output. I assume under DirectShow Video you have it set to system default? If thats the case check it to VMR9, and apply. That sorted me out. The change seems to be system wide, once I did that, VLC was fixed as well.

I still use WMP for most video files since upgrading to win7, the picture doesnt look as washed out as it does in MPC.. dont know why.