Download Excel Services Gadget
Technology keeps you connected everywhere you go, helps you capture every moment & makes your life a bit easier; stay up-to-date with tips & tricks from eHow. They are designed to show flows through a network, and are sometimes called flow diagrams. In this example we will take some Excel data and directly create an.
Gadgets We all love them. They not only dress up our Windows Desktops, but they serve a useful purpose, too. They will show you the weather, time and date. You can monitor your computer health with them. You can follow stock tickers, RSS feeds, and the list seems to be endless. Now, they’re gone. Beginning with Windows 8.x, Gadgets have been deprecated and Microsoft no longer supports them.
They consider Gadgets to be a risk too severe to outweigh the benefits. In Windows 8.x, and Windows 10, too, there is a work-around. You can download a third-party utility that will resurrect our favorite Gadgets. The utility is called.
I’ve been using it on my computers for a couple years now and it has done its job flawlessly– until now. I recently acquired an older HP laptop with Windows 10 installed and, of course, after the more important stuff was installed, I immediately zeroed in on my beloved Gadgets. For some reason, even though they worked fine on my desktop PC, there were all sort of quirks on that laptop. The right-click ‘Gadgets’ option wouldn’t work. I had to use the Control Panel to access the utility. Bottom line is that I needed another solution. There was no way that I was going to live without my Gadgets.
Rainmeter Having read many positive articles and reviews over the years I decided to give Rainmeter a try. There were several Gadgets that I wanted to replace with the Rainmeter solution and it turned out to be fairly straight-forward. I must warn you that Rainmeter is not child’s play. I discovered this early on. The jargon is different to what we are used to. For example, what we have called a Gadget our entire computer lives, is now called a ‘Skin’. That is one point that bothers me because I know what a ‘Skin’ is, and it’s not the same thing as a Gadget.
We must change with the times, I guess. We just want it to work, right? Another bit trickier part is how you go about changing settings for these ‘Skins”. It seems that you need to edit.ini files to accomplish this in many cases. Right-click on a Skin (ew, I hate that word), and choose Edit skin from the context menu. You will be presented with a mess like this: It is now up to you to drill through this file and find the particular setting you are interested in changing. Believe me when I tell you that his can be time-consuming and cumbersome, at best.
I should point out that there are some minimalistic settings available by clicking on a little Wrench Icon that will show up when you hover your mouse over the so-called Skin. This is not true of all Skins, however. The above image shows what’s waiting for you if you choose to edit the Network Meter Skin. That Skin has a Wrench Icon and, if you click it, you will be able to change the size, opacity, colors and a few other basic features. If you really want full control, though, you will have to learn how to navigate those darn ini files. Skin is not the only new word you’ll need to wrap your head around. A Gadget is now called a Skin.
A group of Skins in a single bundle is called a Suite. Your whole Rainmeter setup is called a Layout and can be backed up and copied to other computers if you like. It’s a very flexible system. With that flexibility comes a learning curve but I can see where the rewards may be endless. Then there are Bangs.
Don’t look at me! I didn’t name it. I haven’t looked into these yet but apparently Bangs are used for Skins that interact with each other. You’ll have to read the manual to find out more. Finding Skins A somewhat frustrating aspect of using Rainmeter is the sheer number of Skins that can be found on the.
Probably thousands of them are waiting for you to hunt down and try out. “Hunt down” are the key words in that sentence. There are so many Skins located in so many places that it can be overwhelming. There are a few places on the Internet that I trust to vet the Skins they provide. Here is a short-list of those: – This link will take you to the Rainmeter site.
There, you will find links to some Skin resources. I’m not sure I would trust Reddit or even the Rainmeter Forums; anybody can submit a Skin there and I don’t know if they are checked for Malware. – This is a quality site and a great place to start – Another place that I trust – Lifehacker is a wonderful site that will help you in many ways. One of them is how to create full Rainmeter desktop setups that are noted for their quality and creativity. These brilliant designs derive from the creative minds of people just like you. Security Another aspect of this is that, with all things Internet, there are scumbags out there who are going to try to screw you somehow.
Yep, once again we have to talk about security. Rainmeter’s own site has this caveat regarding security. Pay it heed: Note: As with anything you download from the internet, a certain amount of caution is advised when downloading and installing Rainmeter skins you get from other than rainmeter.net directly. If you simply must have a third-party Skin, scan it thoroughly with your favorite Antivirus and Malware scanners before installing it. Even that effort may not be enough since these Skins basically seem to be scripted in which case an AV/Malware scanner may not see anything wrong. I guess the best advice is the same advice we always give people– be smart in your actions, and make backups often. A proper backup schedule will make your system bullet-proof.
It always saddens me to think such a glorious work of technology as the Internet, which helps billions of people every day, is sullied by a relatively small percentage of schmucks. Getting Help Thankfully, there is a great Help page that should answer many of your ‘Newbie’ questions, and then some. I’ve been there a lot already. It is well-organized and easy to understand. If you can’t find your answer in the manual, certainly someone in the Rainmeter Forums will help you. I look at it this way– if you’ve got the problem, somebody else has beaten you to it, and there’s probably a solution already waiting for you if you’re willing to dig for it.
My Gadgets (Skins) I have a cat problem. A big orange, snaggle-toothed one– he looks a lot like Morris.
He likes to dump copious amounts of hair inside my computer. I don’t know how he gets through those tiny vents, but he’s quite clever. For that reason, I like to monitor my CPU temperature.
Recently, my connection to the Internet has slowed to a crawl. I still have no idea what’s going on but part of my strategy towards solving this problem is to keep a Network Monitor on the desktop. I like to know what the Weather is doing (doesn’t everyone?), so there’s a Weather Meter there, too. You’ll notice those three meters were all Gadgets at one time, so I had to find Rainmeter Skins to replace them. Well, guess what– there happens to be a Skin (a Suite) that will replace all of them and it’s known by the witty name, “Gadgets”, and you can get is at this.
All the Skins in this package Extra Things I like Rainlendar I like a 3-month calendar sitting on the desktop. If I have to flip from one month to the next to count weeks, for instance, it’s like me walking into a room and forgetting why I went there.
I couldn’t find a Rainmeter Skin that suited this purpose and ended up downloading and installing. Rainlendar will provide you with clocks, calendars and alarms to help personalize your desktop and get things just the way you like it. Kybtec I deal with people from around the globe mainly due to my association with Dave’s Computer Tips. I have to talk to various writers once in a while and don’t want to pester them while they’re counting sheep. For this reason, there are a number of clocks representing various time zones sitting on my desktop. I wasn’t able to find a Rainmeter Skin that provided this ability and was forced to choose a third-party provider. I chose a that filled the bill.
Unfortunately, another solution will have to be found. Kybtec offers their World Clock on a trial basis (I don’t know for how long) which means they ultimately want some kind of payment.
I resist the idea that one should pay for a clock when it was provided before in the form of a free Gadget. For the time being at least, I will have to stick with this one. The Result After all this rambling I’m guessing you might like to see how my desktop currently looks in its final state. Here it is: As you can see, things are pretty minimal– I like it that way. A ‘busy’ desktop does not suit my tastes.
Some people love “busy”. This isn’t my cup of tea, but it certainly demonstrates not only the flexibility of the Rainmeter environment, but also the boundless imagination with which some creative people are blessed. Anyone who likes to dress up their Desktop and make it much more than a place to store boring icons should definitely take a close look at Rainmeter. It’s an amazing playground.
Way back in 2008, I wrote an article titled. Now it's 2010 and I'm running Windows 7, and although I still use most of the gadgets I was using back then, I've also discovered a few new ones that deserve mention. Here are my favorites. Note: This article is also available as a and as a.
1: All CPU Meter The gadget I used to monitor my dual-core computer running Vista wasn't available in a quad-core version, so I switched to ( Figure A). It supports up to eight cores (so I have room to grow).
All CPU Meter isn't as complex as some, but the simplicity works in its favor. It monitors your memory usage as well as CPUs, and it packs a lot of information into a small space. I also like that you can change the background color to match your preferences. Figure A All CPU Meter really does monitor all of your CPU cores — up to eight of them.
2: Windows Orb Clock During all the time I used Vista and the first year I used Windows 7, my analog clock gadget of choice was the electric blue version of the one that comes with the operating system. But now I've switched to a much cooler model: the ( Figure B). Of course, the same orb is also on the Windows 7 Start menu. I love its clean look and the nice symmetry of having it just across from my Start Menu orb (since I have my Taskbar set to the vertical position. Figure B After years with the electric blue clock gadget, I've replaced it with the Windows Orb.
3: Clipboard Manager I've also replaced the Clipboard gadget I was using with Vista. I liked being able to access previous Clipboard items — without opening an Office app — but the old one was a little cheesy looking and limited in its functionality. Clipboard Manager ( Figure C) looks slick and is feature-rich. You can customize the background to fit your desktop, and not just the color; you can use a photo as the background if you prefer. You can save up to 999 clips (that's a lot of clips!) and you can delete any clip or send it to the Clipboard or to your Favorites list with a right click. The Favorites feature lets you create boilerplate text you use often. Инструкция Для Китайского Iphone 4s На Русском Языке.
I also like the ability to mark clips with timestamps. And unlike the old Clipboard gadget, this one supports images as well as text. It even has a privacy mode, which prevents clips from being displayed on the main gadget so that passers-by who glance at your desktop can't see what you've saved to the clipboard. This little gadget has a big fly-out that packs a lot of functionality into a small package. 4: Facebook Explorer One big change in my online life since 2008 is that I've become thoroughly immersed in social networking. Much of the discourse that used to take place through email discussion lists now occurs via Facebook. A Facebook gadget seemed like almost a necessity, but the first one I tried (Facebook Sidebar 1.5) didn't work.
It never picked up my info even though it said it was connected. So I tried, which worked nicely. It can be configured to run in a smaller or larger width and one of three heights, and you can specify how often you want updates (from every one to 60 minutes). It gives you a compact view of your own status and information or friends' activities, as shown in two views of the gadget in Figure D.
You can also update your status in the flyout. Figure D Facebook Explorer can be adjusted to the size that best fits your desktop.
5: Ultimate Explorer lets you search popular sites from your desktop without having to go to those sites first in your browser. It's a compact little gadget with that can search Google, YouTube, Wikipedia, eBay, Amazon, Digg, and many more.
You can make it larger if you have plenty of desktop real estate, and you can select up to eight search sites for 'snap search,' which enables you to 'snap' quickly from one search engine to another. It also includes a flyout calendar and events feature. And unlike the vast majority of gadgets, it even has a flyout Help section, as shown in Figure E.
Figure E Ultimate Explorer lets you search many sites quickly and easily. 6: App Launcher.
One aspect of Windows 7 that annoyed and frustrated many users was the omission of the Quick Launch toolbar. If you're like me, for years you've relied on the Quick Launch bar to access your frequently used programs. There is a way to, but unlike with previous versions of Windows, you can't separate the Quick Launch bar from the main Taskbar. That means it takes up precious space on the Taskbar that you might need for open programs, system tray items, etc. Enter the ( Figure F). It serves the same purpose as the Quick Launch bar but can be placed anywhere you want on the desktop. You can add whatever programs you want by dragging them to the gadget, configure the number of icons to display per row and whether to center them, and change the background image.
Figure F App Launcher v3 makes a nice little replacement for the missing Quick Launch toolbar. 7: MiniTV Want to take a break and catch up on the news? The allows you to choose from a number of stations (many of which I've never heard of, as well as familiar ones, such as NBC News and C-SPAN). You can watch the program in the tiny gadget window ( Figure G) or you can double-click it to display full screen. Just double-click again to get out of full screen mode.
Figure G MiniTV lets you watch television in a tiny gadget window or full screen. 8: Traffic by Bing Maps is a simple little gadget that can be useful if you're about to head out into the big, bad world. I don't use it as much as some folks would, since I work from home. But I still have to venture onto the major freeways now and then, and it's nice to know in advance if there are going to be problems along a particular route. One caveat is that you need to live in (or be traveling in) a major metro area to use it. You can zoom in or out, and clicking the traffic info button (which is represented by the red light icon in Figure H) will take you to a full sized map of the area on Bing Maps, complete with the traffic data.
Figure H Traffic by Bing Maps helps you avoid congestion when venturing into metro areas. 9: Magic Folder Okay, granted, the icon isn't the most professional looking, as you can see in Figure I.
And many folks won't like the idea of having a folder make decisions about where to save their files. But for those who always seem to end up with dozens of files sitting on the desktop because they never get around to moving them into appropriate folders, could be a godsend. You just drag your files to the magic folder and it examines the file extensions and sends the files to the 'right' folder. For example,.doc files go to the Documents folder;.jpg,.gif, and other image files go to the Pictures folder. The nice thing is that you can add or remove the file extensions recognized by the gadget, change where specific extensions should be put, and you add your own folder locations. If you want to maintain more control, you can set the gadget to prompt you before it moves a file to a folder. Roy Jones Body Head Bangerz Rarity there. Oh, and you can also change the appearance of the folder icon to something a little less.
Figure I The Magic Folder gadget might have a goofy looking default icon, but it can help disorganized people get more organized. 10: Open/Close DVD is utterly simple. But it's handy to have if your computer is sitting under your desk like mine, making it difficult to get to the button for opening the DVD drive door.
Just click the open button (the down-pointing arrow shown in Figure J) and it opens; click the Close button (the up-pointing arrow) and it shuts. It doesn't get any simpler than that. One thing to watch for: If you have more than one drive attached, it will open/close both of them — there is no option to select a particular drive. Figure J The Open/Close DVD gadget does exactly what its name says, no more and no less.
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