It may seem obvious, but some people have written asking how to start or restart their Windows sidebar, and Google sidebar.

For the Windows sidebar you have two options. You can either go left-click the windows button in the bottom left corner of your screen, then click run, and type either sidebar, or sidebar.exe, and click OK …

or you can left-click the windows button in the bottom left corner of your screen –> All Programs –> Accessories –> then Windows Sidebar.

To start or restart the Google sidebar left-click the windows button in the bottom left corner of your screen –> All Programs –> Google Desktop –> then Google Desktop Sidebar.

Side gadgets are very useful, but they can take up a lot of space. You can run sidebar gadgets on the desktop without the sidebar. To get your gadgets to run on the desktop simply left-click the gadget, and drag it onto the desktop. That’s it. You can move the gadget around, or you can even right click and configure the options and close it. After you’ve moved your gadgets off the sidebar minimize the sidebar with a left-click (if it is Google sidebar),

or right-click anywhere on the sidebar, and left-click on close the sidebar (if it is Windows sidebar).

The Google sidebar, and Windows sidebar, both have nice gadgets, but you might find some you like with one, and some you like with the other. You can both sidebars at the same time, but it’s a little tricky. First click the windows button at the bottom left corner of your screen –> All Programs –> Google Desktop –> Google Desktop Sidebar. Activate any gadgets you want, then drag them to the desktop, and minimize the Google sidebar.

To start the Windows sidebar left-click the windows button at the bottom left corner of your screen, and then Run. Type in sidebar or sidebar.exe, and click OK.

Activate any gadgets you want, then drag them to the desktop, and finally right-click on the Windows sidebar, then left-click on Close Sidebar. There will be a small icon in the tray where the Windows sidebar can be maximized.

Now you have your Google and Windows gadgets running on the desktop at the same time.

To bring the gadgets forward you can press the shift key twice for Google, and the shortcut keys Win + Space for Window.

If you maximize the Google sidebar while the Windows gadgets or sidebar are currently running you will see a message that requires you to essentially choose Google’s sidebar or Windows sidebar. Google should really disable this anti-competitive feature, as Microsoft has in their sidebar. If you close one or the other sidebar accidentally, just exit both, and follow the directions above.

Although the Yahoo sidebar gadgets were not covered here, the directions for running Yahoo desktop gadgets alongside others, probably still applies.