Product Reviews

If you want to make the most of Vista's desktop Sidebar and gadgets, you'll need to go beyond those that come preinstalled with the OS. The Windows Live Gadget Gallery (http://gallery.live.com) is the place to go, with thousands of free downloads to wade through. This month, though, we've done the job for you.

The Sidebar is blessed with numerous news service gadgets, but choices are scarcer for UK users. We narrowed it down to two options. The BBC News 24 gadget sounded promising. It should have allowed us to watch News 24 video in the Sidebar, but served just a blank box on each system we tried - let us know if you see any different.

This left us with the Sky News gadget, which did work. It provides headlines sorted by category (main, UK, world, business and strange) that use a flyout to give more detail when you click on the headline. The news is updated every five minutes, and jumping between categories is quick and simple via the News icon, although the in-depth stories require a visit to the Sky News website. Just note the disappointing lack of Sky Sports.