News Microsoft kills Sidebar, Gadgets over security concerns

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/bits/2012/07/13/microsoft-kills-sidebar/1

 

Given that I've never actually used it (I'm a minimalist in terms of aesthetics) I don't see it being a problem. But the CPU monitor was a nice addition.

 

No loss. Rainmeter and other programs are better.

 

Great, hadn't long downloaded a gadget that recorded my CPU and GPU usage while gaming. Oh well

First message though!

 

LOL, must be one hell of an engineering job to fix this if the best quick solution they can come up with is to disable the entire feature.

 

Surely this should be an optional or even forced update through Windows Update? How many people are actually going to read about this and then visit the Microsoft site to fix it? Not that many.

I really hope they get this fixed through Windows Update and quick, this sort of thing only brings publicity to a security hole which unless its been properly patched for the bulk of the userbase isn't a smart move.

 

Did anyone actually use it?

 

It is more like "we don't have any spare programmer to fix that". MS already stopped some time ago their own page with gadgets, and when this vulnerability came up, they decided to kill it, especially considering they are soon releasing Windows 8 with live tiles, which is a turbo version of these gadgets.

 

I've never used this.....

 

I like and use this, I like having the analogue clock on the top right of my screen. I also use the weather, news-feeds, share-price tracker and currency tracker, and the little screen of rotating images is a nice touch. Maybe it's not popular with users here, but I'm suspicious of Microsoft saying it's unpopular as literally everyone I know uses it in some form or other.

Frankly I'm irritated that they couldn't be arsed to fix it. Seems just plain lazy to be honest.

Also, like Speed says, if this is such an important issue then it should be in their update program. How many home users are also avid PC enthusiasts who regularly read tech press? One percent? Two percent? Not many more I suspect.

Very bad form Microsoft!

 

I use a couple of gadgets - a CPU and memory usage meter and temperature monitor, a similar one for the GPU, and a little control thing for Daemon Tools.

The issue seems to be around the fact that they run with the same privileges as the user account. Well, so do all my other programs don't they? I wouldn't go grab a gadget from some random untrusted page on the net in the same way I wouldn't just run some random executable.

I'd be ignoring the hotfix and keeping my gadgets thanks, unless they force it out (in which case I'll be annoyed) or they introduce something to replicate the functionality I already use.

 

Well, I am a bit upset by it and if im honest, I would not liket to see it as a forced update as I like it and use it a lot.

My desktop system, my workl laptop and a Windows Server 2008 R2 (use the Vista sidebar installer for the server) I like to use CPU, Network, disk and battery monitoring gadgets, on a server this is very useful when working with iSCSI as you can see in realtime the bandwith and data through put going over the iSCSI network NICs. I like to see how much RAM I have and CPU I am using. I think this idea of kill it is a very short sighted move from M$. I believe that because the are chaning there game face with Win8, this is a move to push Devs to start learing how to make these live tiles instead.

I would like to see it fixed rather than dispanded but also agree for those who will loose sleep over it there should be an optional update to remove it.

If tey make it a move to remove it as a forced update I just hope they offer an option to reload it for those who want it. I am glad I kept my vista sidebar installer exe

 

You may as well use rainmeter as previously mentioned in this thread as it does all of what you want and looks a lot better than windows gadgets.

 

I wrote a lot of the gadgets I use.. use the sidebar from vista in 7- it's much better in a lot of ways.. launch apps- get realtime weather and views of the sun and moon are updated in realtime

realtime monitoring of my dvd and virtual mounts.. clipboard keeper- holds a history of things you copy.. that's used a lot

the thing is it uses flash/javascript and explorer.. you write mainly in js- can see security concerns over that- but why not keep it in as an option..

eh I'll keep my desktop luffagus free

 

There are better widget programs out there. Oh well...

 

I use it. I have a cpu & gpu monitor, top 5 processor tasks, a weather app, volume widget and a notes widget - all useful additions to my second monitor.

 

It's just an excused or their way of saying. If you want your gadgets back, get W8.

 

People used that crap?

 

I like that, on the KB article, you have to click "Enable" to disable the Sidebar, and "Disable" to enable it again.

 

I doubt it, there probably was a security risk on this one as it wouldn't be difficult to make a plugin for the sidebar and have it inject a virus given that it had pretty much all the permissions. Couple it with auto-update and you could easily be poofed.

That said, I'd use it for my 2nd monitor, but I turn it off when I'm gaming. Purely because of electricty.