Desktop Gadget feature was first introduced with Windows Vista. As we all know, desthe ktop gadgets offer various information at a glance and are low on system resources as well. Windows 7 comes with a bunch of quality gadgets and supports installing third-party gadgets from the web.

Desktop gadget feature, one of the most used features of Windows 7, is not available in Windows 8, Windows 8.1, and the latest Windows 10. The feature was discontinued citing security reasons. Microsoft, in fact, has been providing a tool to completely uninstall desktop gadgets from Windows 7 operating system.

Live tiles in the newer versions of Windows act as desktop gadgets to some extent. For instance, the weather app’s live tile offers the same or more information than the weather gadget.

Although live tiles in Windows 10 work better than these desktop gadgets, we need to switch to the Start menu or Start screen in order to get access to these live tiles.

Install desktop gadgets in Windows 10

If you have upgraded from Windows 7 to Windows 10 and missing those desktop gadgets, you’ll be happy to know that desktop gadgets can be installed in Windows 10 with the help of a third-party installer.

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There are actually a bunch of applications out there to get desktop gadgets in Windows 10, but some of the programs are not good enough to be installed.

The following are the two applications you can use to install native gadgets of Windows 7 in Windows 10.

Important: A lot of users have reported that these desktop gadgets don’t work after installing a feature Windows 10 update. If you’re also having issues with the desktop gadgets after installing a Windows 10 feature update, please uninstall and reinstall the desktop gadget program again.

Desktop Gadgets Installer

We have already talked about Desktop Gadgets Installer in one of our previous articles, and it’s our favorite software to get desktop gadgets in Windows 10.

Desktop Gadgets Installer brings all the native desktop gadgets available in Windows 7 to Windows 10. Racist crackhead in hollywood gets hit by train. All you need to do is install Desktop Gadgets Installer. As you can see in the picture below, it installs Feed Headlines, Picture Puzzle, Slide Show, Weather, CPU Meter, Currency, Calendar, and Clock gadgets.

In addition to installing those gadgets, it also adds Gadgets option to the desktop context menu (right-click), so you can quickly access all installed gadgets, just like in Windows 7. Also, when you right-click on the desktop and click the View option, you’ll see an option to show or hide desktop gadgets.

To install more gadgets, you can visit the download page of Desktop Gadgets Installer by clicking Get more gadgets online link provided in the Gadgets window that appears when you right-click on the desktop and click Gadgets. The website features over 500 cool desktop gadgets.

The setup of Desktop Gadgets Installer comes with no strings attached, meaning it doesn’t offer you install any toolbar and other junkware.

Desktop Gadgets Installer is fully compatible with Windows 10, both x86 and x64.

8GadgetPack

Just like the above software, 8GadgetPack is another free application to install gadgets in Windows 10. Although 8GadgetPack was developed for Windows 8/8.1, it’s compatible with Windows 10 as well.

Download and install 8Gadgetpack to see a sidebar containing your favorite desktop gadgets. A total of 45 gadgets are installed when you install 8GadgetPack, including clock, calendar, currency, clipboarder, custom calendar, app launcher, and all CPU meter. This one also adds gadget options to desktop context menu and is very easy to use.

Caution before downloading gadgets from the web

After installing one of the above applications, you will be able to download and install hundreds of desktop gadgets from the web. And since Microsoft is no longer offering gadgets and suggesting against them, you need to be cautious while downloading gadgets from third-party websites.

We recommend you download gadgets only from trusted sources as many of the gadgets available on the web are nothing but malicious programs.