Gadgetarian is an efficient, and also free and absolutely safe utility, that will let you enjoy your Windows 7 gadgets on the desktop of Windows 10 or 11.
I like newer Windows, but disabling gadgets is something I can’t agree with at all! I use the Desktop and I need my gadgets! Gadgetarian adds gadget support on Windows 10 or 11in a few seconds. You won’t even need to restart your PC! Just right click on the desktop and you will find the familiar “Gadgets” option, along with “Personalize” and “Screen Resolution”.
In the rare case that any of the gadgets when you start Windows doesn’t have enough time to start, just right click on the desktop and refresh your gadgets by going to View > Show Desktop Gadgets: Unchecking and then checking again this option will open any gadget that didn’t have time to open on Windows start.
You may also like to download this great little freeware called Gadgibility, that will let you hide, reveal or restart / refresh your Gadgets instantly!
The setup includes some popular free gadgets, but you can always come here to download more. Note that each and every gadget is tested for safety and is free.
Note also that Gadgetarian does not add any new abilities to the Windows system, it just enables the native gadget functions, now unfortunately hidden. This way you can keep using all of your old desktop gadgets or add new ones, without compromising the integrity of the OS.
Since Gadgetarian is not a separate program, you don’t have to uninstall anything, just as you don’t have to uninstall functions such as “copy” and “paste”.
In case you don’t need your gadgets, just don’t place them on the desktop! Yet, if for any reason you’d like to remove even the option of using gadgets, it’s easy, read this short post.
After major updates of the Windows OS, such as the Creators Update, you may need to re-enable your gadgets. Feel free to download again and run the Gagdetarian. You can bookmark this page to download a fresh copy of the Gadgetarian whenever you need it!
You may also like to check this How to Install page. The current version of Gadgetarian (2.5) features easy automatic setup (which you can see also in this short video).
» Download Gadgetarian for Windows 32bit or 64bit
» If you like it, don’t forget to share it!
PAD (xml) files for the 32bit and the 64bit version
Love that gadgetarian!
Simple and easy … I like that it’s not bloated with all kinds of other stuff. I discovered that it did not have the gadget I wanted, namely the simple Calendar gadget from Windows 7, but I had a copy of it (as a folder) from my old Windows 7 pc, so I just copied the folder to Windows Sidebar and voila! There it was when I right-clicked the desktop and selected “Gadgets”. Yay!
Thanks for your kind comments, Alicia, and for bringing into my attention this nice Calendar gadget. Simple Calendar is now included by default, but, those who downloaded Gadgetarian before January 28, 2014 they can download the Simple Calendar gadget separately and add it to the other Windows gadgets.