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:

sidebar-disable-1.png

Uncheck the “Start Sidebar when Windows starts” checkbox:

sidebar-disable-2.png

Then right-click on the icon, and choose Exit to close the sidebar:

sidebar-disable-3.png

Your sidebar should now be gone, and won’t start back up with Windows anymore.

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Lowell Heddings Lowell Heddings
Lowell is the founder and CEO of How-To Geek. He’s been running the show since creating the site back in 2006. Over the last decade, Lowell has personally written more than 1000 articles which have been viewed by over 250 million people. Prior to starting How-To Geek, Lowell spent 15 years working in IT doing consulting, cybersecurity, database management, and programming work.
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