It’s been nearly two years since Windows 7 was released, and yet there are still some features that Windows 7 users may not be taking full advantage of — such as desktop gadgets. Similar to the Mac’s Dashboard Widgets, Windows desktop gadgets are mini-applications that reside on your desktop and can display live data, perform simple functions like search or password generation, or give you a sneak peek inside the inner workings of your PC.
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By default, SysInfo appears as a small icon that doesn’t show any data, but click on the icon and a huge panel displaying system information in a wide variety of categories pops up. On top of things like operating system details and the capacity utilization of the processor, there’s data on the computer’s drives, network connections and battery life.
SysInfo doesn’t provide all the details that more specialized gadgets like Network Monitor provide, but it’s an excellent overview, and there’s an uptime clock that shows how long it’s been since the system was started. You can choose to have SysInfo display all its info on the desktop or just in clickable category headers or the single icon, and you can adjust its size on the desktop.
Download SysInfo (265KB)
System Control A1
In contrast, System Control A1 focuses on the essentials. In addition to a prominent digital clock that shows the current time (in a 12- or 24-hour format) as well as uptime, System Control presents a nifty bar graph showing how much memory the system has as well as its free memory available.
It also monitors the utilization of the processor’s threads (which it calls cores) over time and displays the results in graphs — useful information for those who push their systems to the limit.
Unfortunately, System Control’s display isn’t adjustable, and it can steal a lot of desktop area.
These two gadgets complement each other nicely: SysInfo does a good job of showing a snapshot of many of the current goings-on inside your system, while System Control A1 graphs processor utilization over time, which can be helpful in trying to trace a program that’s been using a lot of system resources.
One of these gadgets — or both — belongs on every PC.
Download System Control A1 (26KB)
Temperature gauge
Core Temp Gadget
There are few things worse for your computer than allowing its processor, often its most expensive part, to overheat and burn out. All it takes is one key transistor in the chip shorting out and the whole thing is an expensive piece of garbage.
ALCPU’s Core Temp Gadget can help keep your PC from getting hot under the collar. For it to work, you’ll also need to load the free Core Temp application, but the whole process takes just a couple of minutes.
Version 2 of the Core Temp Gadget shows what processor your system has, its actual clock speed and how much of the system’s memory is being used. On many systems, it’ll also display the chip’s voltage, although some processors — mine included — don’t support this.