Windows Gadget is a new feature of Windows Vista and 7. The Vista version has a "Sidebar" which contains mini-applications (called "Gadgets")
which are based on a combination of Script and HTML. They may be used to display information such as the system time, CPU/RAM usage and
Internet-powered features such as RSS feeds, and to control external applications such as Windows Media Player. Gadgets can run "docked" in the
sidebar or they can "float" anywhere on the desktop. On Windows 7, gadgets are all placed on the desktop without a sidebar, and arranged in a
slightly different way.
Here we have several original Anime-style gadgets for your desktop. Feel free to download them!
Check out especially System Animator, which is our featured gadget!
This is an analog clock with CUSTOMIZABLE clock background and various settings! We have included several Anime-style backgrounds, but you can use your own
images as background as well! You can choose a folder with images of any kind, and a random (or sequential) image will be picked and cropped automatically to fit
the clock background, and the background image can be set to change at regular interval.
By default, a gadget is shown as "docked" on the sidebar. You can drag it onto the desktop to "undock" it, which will usually be shown in a bigger size.
You can open as many instances of the same gadget as you want. For example, you can open several docked "System Animator" gadgets on the sidebar,
as well as some undocked ones on the desktop, with all of them working independently.
By default, Windows Vista sidebar will only appear when all opened windows are minimized or when you view the desktop. If your screen
resolution is high (above 1024 x 768), you may consider allowing the sidebar to always appear.
Click on "Control Panel".
Choose "Sidebar Properties" icon.
Enable "Keep the sidebar on top of other Windows".
Don't forget to hit the "Apply" button.
Any questions, comments or bug reports regarding our Windows gadgets? Discuss in our forums!
Anime PC Meter
Finding a PC meter/monitoring tool that actually "looks different"? This may be what you are looking for! "Anime PC Meter" is a fully functional CPU/RAM/Drive/Network meter,
with a cute and interesting Anime-style appearance and animated effects. So, when you see the CPU lady glowing in red, you know the CPU is busy :P
FEATURES:
CPU/RAM/Drive/Network meter presented in a cute, Anime-like style!
Multi-core CPU supported
Advanced monitoring details, such as virtual memory/network usage and disk activity (as flashing of bars), through the use of WMI
Interactable interface with extra info and actions available when you place your mouse pointer over or click on various parts of the gadget
This is a cute, Anime-style calendar with all months and dates represented by different Anime gals! You can double-click on it to view the
full calendar.
Design your own animation for a system activity (CPU/network usage, drive activity, etc)! How about a cute Anime gal who dances according to
the CPU usage? An animated flag which waves faster when your drive is busy? The famous Matrix digital rain effect with scroll speed corresponding
to your network traffic? It's up to your imagination!
FEATURES:
PC activity monitor with focus on visuals, animated effects, and FUN!
Supporting the monitoring of "Sound output" to become a customizable music visualizer! (*)
Supporting various animation styles with full customization! Several default animations are included, and hundreds more for download!
NEW: Supporting the use of Microsoft Silverlight and WMP
(Windows Media Player) technologies to serve as a FANCY media player!
(video demo - 01
| 02)
Confused? Check out our Video Demo section and watch this gadget in ACTION!
A: Yes. Windows gadgets work directly on Windows 7. However, the concept of "Sidebar" is gone so basically you just
put the gadgets on your deskop and arrange them in the ways you like.
Q:Does it work on Windows XP?
A: Yes, but you need to install a Sidebar program for XP.
Check out the Installation and Info section.
Q:I have problems installing / setting up the gadget.
Make sure there is NO parenthesis (bracket) in the path of the folder you keep the animation in.
Put animations in your own Windows user folder (or any subfolder within).
Q:64-bit Windows - The Silverlight option is grayed out and I can't use it.
A: By default, 64-bit Windows always loads the 64-bit version of sidebar, but there is currently NO 64-bit version of
Silverlight plugin that it can use. A workaround here is to load the 32-bit version of sidebar instead.
Check out this article for details.
Q:Windows XP - Spectrum Analyser can't find any sound device on my system.
Here is a collection of animations that I made (with a few collected/converted from other sources) for use with System Animator.
To use these animations, download any animation set below, unzip it somewhere,
go to the Settings panel of the gadget and point to the folder of the animation you want to use
(OR you can simply drag and drop the animation folder to the gadget without going through the Settings panel!).
If you still don't understand, check out this video tutorial.
Before you download these animations, make sure that you have the LATEST vesion of System Animator (4.5.2 and up) installed.
Some of the files in the section are in RAR format. Download this program
if you can't uncompress them. Also note that you need to download ALL parts of the same RAR archive before you can uncompress them.
Don't miss the Animated Picture section, with MORE animations of a very different
style!
"Animated Picture" is a new type of System Animator animations supported since version 3.3.0. Basically, they look like static
pictures while idle, with various parts changing color/effect/shape/etc based on the system activity monitored.
Check out these YouTube videos for demonstration.
Click any item with the ▶ sign to expand the list. Click any link to preview and download.
(sorting: default by date)
(*) denotes the support of video playback (MP4, WMV) directly inside the animation. Just drag and drop a video file to the animation,
and it will play with mixed visuals. The "Silverlight" option of System Animator needs to be enabled
(supported since version 4.2.1). Check out this video for demonstration.
(**) denotes the support of WMP (Windows Media Player), which means you can play any music files (MP3, WMA, etc) directly inside the animation.
Just drag and drop a music file to the animation, and it will play with mixed visuals from WMP built-in visualization. The "Silverlight" option of
System Animator needs to be enabled, and your System Animator version must be 4.5.0 or higher.
Check out this video for demonstration.
【BG】 denotes a special variation of "Animated Picture" animation supported since version 3.5.2. These animations were generated
from two or even just one static image. They are intended to be simple and and easy to make, easy enough for an average person to create their
own animation in just a few minutes! Check out the Make Your Animation section for more info.
Most of the animations are resizable. Resizable animations are displayed at a smaller size when
docked to the Sidebar. The display size can be changed manually by double-clicking on the animation.
Wanna make your own "Animated Picture" animation? All you need are one picture, some image editing skills, and IMAGINATION! Check out the
Make Your Animation section for more info.
System Animator supports the use of user-made "Face Pattern" skins for MacFace and VistaFace. You can download them
here.
Uncompress any skin you downloaded, and make sure the name of the final folder ends with ".mcface". Then you can go the Settings panel of the gadget and
point to that folder.
System Animator supports the monitoring of sound output of your computer. Imagine a cute Anime gal dancing to the beats
when you play a MP3 song... pretty cool, right? ^_^
In order to let System Animator monitor sound output, you must install the "Spectrum Analyser" gadget (by
Jon Abbott). The version of Spectrum Analyser required by System
Animator is a modified version, which can be downloaded below. After installing this gadget, you can then choose to monitor sound output in the
settings panel of System Animator.
To achieve the best results, you may want to adjust the "Update interval" of System Animator to 0.1 second. You can also try changing
the "Monitor sensitivity" setting on System Animator and the "Gain" setting on Spectrum Analyser to fine tune the effects.
For existing users, to know the version and revision number of the "Spectrum Analyser" gadget you are using, open the Gadgets window,
choose "Spectrum Analyser" and click "Show details" at the bottom.
The latest version includes a special Anime-themed skin (credits go to sun)
with many Anime pictures as background (you can use your own pictures) and various customizable bars and options.
These YouTube videos show System Animator in ACTION! They demonstrate System Animator as a multi-purpose PC activity monitor, as well as a
music visualizer, with interesting and fully CUSTOMIZABLE animation!
For existing users, you may want to check out the following video demos to know more about what's NEW in the recent updates.
Version 4.0(supporting the use of ANY image directly as animations)
Can't find what you want in the Extra Downloads section? Why not make your own
animation? Check out the following video tutorials for making your own animation for System Animator.
You are also recommended to take a look at those animations I made as examples.
The latest version of System Animator allows you to simply drop an image or video file and use it directly as desktop animation! Yeah, it is
just that SIMPLE! Check out the following video tutorials for details.
Normally, you should use the second method above to create music animation using image files, which is simpler, but if your images have
transparency, you may want to use "System Animator EQP Generator" instead, a simple tool to create similar animations.
You also need "ImageMagick", a command-line image-processing tool.
Go to its binary releases page and download a version
suitable for your system. The last "portable" version is recommended, which doesn't require installation.
Simply unzip it somewhere on your computer.