The Windows Vista sidebar has two display methods:
- Always there – in the mode it blocks up a couple of inches at the right-hand edge of the screen and all your applications behave as though the sidebar is the edge of the screen.
- sometimes there – when you bring it to the foreground it merges seamlessly with the background, with a good default opacity, highlighting gadgets as you roll over them and allowing the data in them to be visible at all times without being instrusive. However, when you click on an application, it will disappear.
Now guess which, with an amendment, I’d prefer.
The fact that there is no option for “always on top in opaque mode” is frustrating as hell.
Not only that but the default, laughable, “sticky notes” application is non-resizable so even if your sidebar is completely empty, it can still only be an inch or so high.
I can see masses of potential in the sidebar, but it’s just like they want me to hate it.