Windows Sidebar Styler is an application which takes advantage of various technologies introduced in Windows Vista in order to provide extensions to the existing functionality of Windows Sidebar.

The Vista sidebar was one of the most popular new features included in Microsoft’s operating system, and it still remains as a very attractive way to display information bits in the shape of customizable gadgets. Now, with Windows Sidebar Styler, you can customize it even more and take advantage of all its possibilities.

Custom styles allow for resizing and customizing the appearance of Windows Sidebar so that it fits other UI elements, such as the Aero Glass colorization or an actual third party theme. Designers could save their visual styles so that other Windows users could apply them. Designers would not necessarily create these files on Windows Vista - Windows Sidebar Styler is backward-compatible with legacy operating systems as well.

Gadgets are mini applications managed by Windows Sidebar. They can now take full advantage of Windows Presentation Foundation - the powerful managed code-oriented framework for presenting rich visual compositions such as vector graphics, 3D drawing, animations and more. In addition to that, it could be used in conjunction with Windows Communication Foundation in order for the Gadgets to connect to services and provide frequently updated information.

Using compiled class libraries also helps developers protect their intellectual property because the actual source code is not distributed.The Sidebar Styler lets you resize the sidebar at will, you can increase and decrease the width of it. This disables the page navigation however which means that you won’t be able to see all gadgets if you have a lot of them in the sidebar. Most users however won’t notice this at all.

The tight integration with the core of Windows Sidebar allows for extending the current set of features in Windows Sidebar by allowing users to customize its appearance and by providing a more powerful framework for building Gadgets and visualizing information.

Since this application is called Vista Sidebar Styler it is able to customize the appearance of the sidebar as well. An automatic back-up file is always created before applying a style so that an earlier version of the executable can be restored.

Pre-requisites:
Windows Vista
NET Framework 2.0

What’s New In Windows Sidebar Styler 2.0.6 :

• Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable Package is now embedded in Setup to minimize prerequisites
• Implemented support for resizing Windows Sidebar
• Implemented support for style authoring and additional style-related options
• Implemented support for application of styles on-the-fly
• Included are translations of the main application user interface:
  Dutch (Netherlands) by Edo Mangelaars
  French (France) by Jean-Marie Houvenaghel
  Greek (Greece) by Idas
  German (Germany) by Michael Frank, Benjamin Staneck
  Spanish (Honduras) by Ricardo Cooper
  Russian (Russia) by “deeper2k”
• Improved compatibility with 64-bit editions of Windows Vista
• Fixed minor issues

DOWNLOAD: (size 6.9 mb)