If you're a Windows Vista user you'll no doubt be enjoying all those cool sidebar gadgets. But if you don't you can always make do with tools like Thoosje Vista Sidebar.

With Thoosje Vista Sidebar you can have a completely customizable gadgets sidebar on your desktop even if you have Windows XP. Simply run it and start adding any gadget you want by clicking on the little cross button on the top. The gadgets are quite varied and cover different needs: from the PC resources meter to the photo slideshow, from the RSS mini-reader to the weather gadget. Bear in mind that when you select gadgets for Thoosje Vista Sidebar they appear on your desktop – not on the sidebar itself – and you have to manually drag and drop them on Thoosje Vista Sidebar.

Once ready and customized with all your chosen gadgets, Thoosje Vista Sidebar looks really beautiful on your desktop. Plus, it includes some background skins to make it fit perfectly with the image you have as wallpaper. The downside to this graphical beauty is that it may slow down your system. Also, Thoosje Vista Sidebar seems to be a bit slow when opening menu windows. But the main drawback is undoubtedly the fact that you can't download new gadgets – you must stick to the ones the author provides you with in the program's configuration.

Thoosje Vista Sidebar looks beautiful on your desktop, but it may slow down your system. Also, not being able to download new gadgets is really frustrating.

Download Thoosje Vista Sidebar 2.5 in Softonic

We've seen quite a few software apps that stream online TV channels right to your computer, but this is probably one of the first TV apps to focus on music TV.

Audials TV delivers more than 50 different music streaming TV channels to your PC, thus providing you with an entertaining background soundtrack while you're working or simply browsing the web. The program can be run as a standalone application – with different interface designs - or be embedded in Vista's sidebar as a gadget.

Don't be fooled by the small number of channels on the left pane of Audalis TV. If you click on the "Sender" button you'll see a complete list of all available channels, among which you'll find popular stations like MTV or Ministry of Sound. Bear in mind, however, that the image and sound quality may vary a lot from one channel to another, and that you may also find the odd channel that doesn't connect at all.

Audalis TV lets you watch streaming music TV channels right in your computer, either on the desktop or as a Vista gadget embedded in the sidebar.

Download Audials TV 1.2 in Softonic

Unless you’ve been living in a hut in the Gobi desert for the last few months, you’ll know that Microsoft Windows XP is no more, having being replaced by Vista. The new Operating System brings about a bevy of changes, including a revamped desktop environment, designed not only to look good, but also to improve your productivity. One of the key new features is the Sidebar, which replicates the Dashboard in OS X and allows you easy access to certain tools, such as news, web searching and your digital photos.

If you haven’t got the money (or indeed, the inclination) to upgrade to Vista, then you can recreate the Sidebar with this popular application. Despite a rather strange installation process, which fails to provide an auto-run function, the app can be set up and configured pretty quickly and comes with four useful preset ‘widgets’. The tools are a search function, image preview window, RSS feed and a rather elegant analogue clock.

Visually, all these widgets are pretty faithful to the Vista sidebar, although they lack they customisation options that you get with the new OS. For instance, the image tool doesn’t allow you to set the folder from which to display pictures, merely picking photos at random from your hard drive . All the tools are locked within a transparent bar that runs down the right-hand side of your desktop, which gets annoying after a while as there’s no way to minimize it and it ends up squashing any application window you open. Nevertheless, it represents an accurate taste of the instant-access functions you can expect in Vista.

Download Vista Sidebar XP 1.0 in Softonic