Disable Windows Sidebar in Vista
Let's be honest: If you are reading this article, then you probably think the Windows Sidebar in Windows Vista is cheesy and useless. Thankfully it's also easy to disable.
To disable the sidebar, right click on the sidebar or sidebar icon, and choose properties:
Uncheck the "Start Sidebar when Windows starts" checkbox:
Then right-click on the icon, and choose Exit to close the sidebar:
Your sidebar should now be gone, and won't start back up with Windows anymore.
The Geek is the founder of How-To Geek and a geek enthusiast. When he's not coming up with great how-to articles, he's probably writing at his personal blog. This article was written on 01/7/07 and tagged with: Windows Vista, Desktop Customization
Not cheesy and useless. The sidebar is only good for only a few things for me. The date, time, weather, processor and ram usage, and wireless networking status. After that it may be cheesy, but sidebars are useful, even this built in one from Mycrowsloth.
so check this out man! if i disable the sidebar during the start up will this actually make my start ups much quicker. what about the anti virus software that runs starts auto during start up.
holla back geek
Obviously the meaning of "cheesy and Useless" will vary from person to person. The sidebar has some usefull gadgets if you bother to try them.
To me "cheesy and useless" are all those lame morons who still think intentionally misspelling Microsoft is a funny joke (maybe 10 years ago). The only thing worst are idiots who use dollar signs to replace the letter 'S'.
Yes, I do quite like the sidebar, especially the clock for quick time reference. But I can also see why a lot of people would think it 'cheesy'
I personally think Aero is only usefull for 'showing off' your new Vista, and will never otherwise be used … what do you think?
I have a question about the side bar. I just upgraded to windows vista, and i noticed that the side bar had nice features that might be acceptable by me for future use.. However, after i updated some files on the computer, the side bar disappeared from the screen. I enabled it and that still didn't help. The icon in the task bar is also gone and i don't know how to bring it back. I need some assistance that way i can get the side bar going and working properly. Thank you.
I have tried right clicking on the windows sidebar but do NOT get the dialog window you display.
The window that opens is the same as opens on clicking anywhere else.
If you right-click on the sidebar and click "Close sidebar," your gadgets will remain open, but the sidebar will be minimized to the system tray icon. It's much less cheesy that way.
Yahoo Widget is more useful….
how in the hell do I connect to the internet on Vista with my Firewall that has a network key. Vista asks for a passphrase not a network key?????????
obviously, I'm not a geek with this stuff….but I've been able to setup a laptops with XP with the firewall network key no problem.
Forget gadgets!
Get more Widgets!
Ya but how to disable windows+G (and keep all other shortcut keys)? Everytime you use that key, sidebar is launched
Great Site !!!!!!! Question- is there a way to totally remove (not just disable) from my computer system and hard drive?
Thanks
Bruce
I have the same problem…I installed updates for vista and the sidebar suddenly disappears…..HELP ME!
Thank you mister Geek, such a simple thing but when you don't know it can be maddening and waste a lot of your time. Your site was very helpful.
hello - with such xp software can I then also download vista gadgets, like from http://www.gadgetsdownload.com
now I have asked on a few forum lets see what happens.
how do i turn it back on?
I've a question. I've got norton internet security and when it's on. the stock ticker gadget that I have will not refresh with new data. how do I fix that with the firewall?
The sidebar is not cheesy, I have on it the date, weather, cpu and ram usage (all 4 cores) and a XM radio gadget and a chronix radio gadget. also RSS feeds etc… all this just at the touch of a button. why the hell would this be useless? just more mindless microsoft bashing, thats what it is.
OK all is well in just disaling the sidebar….one of the first things i did when i got my laptop….but what if you hate it soo much, along with a bunch of other crap that comes with vista, that you want to delete it completely from your computer. It says i dont have the right privilages??? please help mr geek