allshare4all

Most of you should already known or at least heard about Windows Vista
Sidebar, it is a pretty and useful utility that allows us to organize
our desktop providing the ability to add gadgets (small applications)
on a vertical bar located on any side of the screen. Some gadgets
available are: a weather monitor, a clock, a CPU and Ram meter and
digital Post-it.

Unfortunately Microsoft´s sidebar is exclusive
for Windows Vista; therefore there is no way to get those
functionalities if you are running Windows XP, well at least not from
Microsoft.

Vista Rainbar is a free sidebar clone for Windows XP
from gavatx that also works on Windows Vista, it latest version 4.3,
consumes less ram than other similar sidebars for Windows and includes
an installer to enhance the user experience but some users, including
me, had issues make it run the first time.

It has all gadgets
mentioned above plus some extras, most of its gadgets have different
themes and an option to change their background; therefore you can make
them look as you wish. Even the sidebar itself has a lot of themes to
choose from! It also has a crystal gallery like Vista own sidebar!

Vista
Rainbar still is a good sidebar clone, it just need to be more polished
in order to replace Vista sidebar and provides the best alternative to
it on Windows XP.