If you have Windows Vista, there is a way to hide the Windows Vista sidebar. This is a great way to keep your desktop clean and organized. To hide the Windows Vista sidebar, open the Control Panel and click on the “System” tab. Then, click on “Appearance and Personalization.” Under “Appearance,” select “Sidebar.” Under “Personalization,” select “Desktop.” Now, under “Desktop,” select the checkbox next to “Hide Windows Vista Sidebar.” Click on OK to close the Control Panel.
This was the question reader Kyle asked me earlier tonight, and after some research I discovered that there wasn’t one… so I wrote a utility with this functionality, assigned to the Ctrl+Win + Space key combination.
So you first used the Win + Space key to bring the sidebar and detached gadgets to the foreground:
Now you can use Ctrl+Win + Space to send the sidebar and all detached gadgets back behind the previous foreground window.
Installation
Download and unzip the file, then copy the VistaSidebarHider.exe application into a directory you’d like to keep it in.
Type the following into the Windows Explorer address bar, which is a shortcut to quickly open your Startup folder.
Create a shortcut in that folder to the VistaSidebarHider.exe application.
Running the Application
Just double-click it.
Usage
Use Ctrl+Win + Space to send the sidebar and gadgets to the back.
Shutting Down the Application
You’ll have to use Ctrl+Shift+Esc to open Task Manager, and then select the process in the list and click on End Process.
Be sure to leave any feedback or complaints in the comments.
Download VistaSidebarHider Utility
