The site was officially retired on October 1, 2011. Originally, Microsoft provided a link to a web site called Windows Live Gallery where additional Sidebar gadgets that have been created by third-party developers could be downloaded.

Windows 7 adds a Media Center gadget and removes the Contacts, Notes and Stocks gadgets. Several other gadgets available during the Vista beta such as App Launcher, Feed Viewer, Number Puzzle, Recycle Bin and Egg Timer never made it to the final release of Windows Vista. Windows Vista ships with eleven gadgets: Calendar, Clock, Contacts, CPU Meter, Currency Conversion, Feed Headlines, Notes, Picture Puzzle, Slide Show, Stocks, and Weather. Windows Vista and 7 sidebar also works on Windows XP. It is also possible to run multiple instances of a gadget simultaneously. In Windows 7, they can 'float' anywhere on the desktop. In Windows Vista, gadgets can run 'docked' in the sidebar. Their use cases include displaying system time, downloading and displaying RSS feeds, or controlling other software such as Windows Media Player. It hosts mini-applications or 'gadgets' which are a combination of scripts and HTML code. Windows Desktop Gadgets is a feature of Windows Vista and Windows 7 (excluding the Windows Server family of the operating system).

Instead, on 10 July 2012 (which is in the intervening time between the last beta of Windows 8 and its final release), Microsoft issued security advisory to disable Sidebar and Desktop Gadgets on Windows Vista and 7 because of a security vulnerability that could allow remote code execution. Windows Desktop Gadgets was included in all beta releases of Windows 8 but did not make it to the final release. In Windows 7, Windows Sidebar was renamed Windows Desktop Gadgets, and the sidebar itself was not included in Windows 7.

Some reviewers and Macintosh enthusiasts have pointed out the Sidebar's similarities in form and function to Konfabulator (later Yahoo! Widget Engine), which appeared several years previously, and the Dashboard widget engine first included with Apple Inc.'s Mac OS X v10.4, which had been released a few months earlier. Windows Sidebar was rebuilt and began to appear in Windows Vista builds in the second half of 2005. Windows Sidebar appeared in build 3683 of Windows Vista circa September 2002 and was originally intended to replace the notification area and Quick Launch toolbar in Windows, but these plans were scrapped after the development reset in mid-2004. It included a clock, traffic reports, and IM integration. Windows Sidebar originated in a Microsoft Research project called Sideshow (not to be confused with Windows SideShow.) It was developed in the summer of 2000, and was used internally at Microsoft.

Weather gadget not working