14 DAY TRIAL // Windows 8 brought quite a lot of new features, but also removed some very popular Windows 7 goodies, including not only the Start button and menu, but also the Aero interface and the desktop gadgets.
Most of these removed elements can be brought back in Windows 8 with the help of third-party software solutions, most of which were designed specifically to make the modern operating system look and feel more familiar, especially for beginners, who were having quite a hard time working on their computers without them.
8GadgetPack is one of the apps that are contributing to this restoration of the traditional user interface in Windows 8 by bringing back the desktop gadgets.
As you know, desktop gadgets were introduced in Windows Vista and were still available in Windows 7, but due to security reasons the company decided to remove them in the modern OS flavor.
This little tool, on the other hand, brings them back, and, thanks to an update released today, it does it with almost no bugs and a very straightforward interface that looks very similar to what you could see in Windows 7 a few years ago.
Version 11 doesn’t bring any major changes, but it does fix a critical bug that was causing crashes at startup. At the same time, it also includes updates for some of the built-in gadgets, so it’s pretty obvious that those who were already running the app should upgrade as soon as possible.
Even though it was specifically designed to be installed on Windows 8 devices, be they desktop computers or tablets running the x86 or the x64 version of the operating system, 8GadgetPack works like a charm on Windows 8.1 too, bringing the traditional gadgets on the desktop through the same easy-to-use interface.
There’s not much to configure about the app, so it should take only a few seconds to set it up, but you can still change the default position of the sidebar, the number of monitors you are currently using, the sidebar width, color, and transparency, but also enable peek for previews to better work with your gadgets.
The application is available free of charge and includes the majority of gadgets that were available on Windows 7, including clock, weather, calendar, power options, and many others. Overall, this is an update that should come in handy to the majority of users, so download 8GadgetPack for Windows 8 right now.