How to Make Desktop Gadgets Invisible in Windows 7 ?????

Unfortunately, the minimum value available is 20%. Although the gadget becomes barely visible, it’s still not fully cloaked and appears to take up space. It’s time to bend the rules and make its opacity whichever value we want! Here’s an overview of the steps:

1. Set the gadget’s opacity to a distinct value.
2. Kill the Windows Sidebar task.
3. Open the settings configuration file.
4. Change its opacity to 1%.
5. Start the Windows Sidebar task.

Step 1: Set the gadget’s opacity to a distinct value.

Simply change the opacity of the gadget to a value different than all other running ones. This will make it easier for us to identify it later on in step 4.

Step 2: Kill the Windows Sidebar task.

In order for us to be able to save changes made in step 3, the “sidebar.exe“ process shouldn’t be using the file. Hence, the fastest way to end the process is to copy and paste the following in the start menu’s search bar and press Enter:

TaskKill /IM Sidebar.exe

Step 3: Open the settings configuration file.

The user’s storage profile (found in: C:\Users) contains special folders like “My Pictures” and settings for installed applications. These applications include the “Windows Sidebar”, which is the widget engine for the desktop gadgets. The gadgets’ settings are stored in a file called “Settings.ini“. This file holds information about each gadget such as its coordinates on the screen, opacity and any specific settings (e.g.: “Location” for a weather gadget). The fastest way to access this file would be to type the following in the start menu’s search bar, replacing {username} with your username:

C:\Users\{username}\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Sidebar\Settings.ini

If you are having trouble finding out the {username}, type “%LOCALAPPDATA%” and then go to “Microsoft\Windows Sidebar\Settings.ini” from within Windows Explorer.

Step 4: Change its opacity to 1%.

When you open the settings configuration file in Notepad, you might see similar to this:

The settings for each gadget are found under its section (e.g.: “[Section 3]“). Because we’ve set a distinct value for the opacity of the gadget in step 1, you can easily find out its section by searching for (press CTRL + F to display the “Find” window):

PrivateSetting_GadgetOpacity="{n}"

… Where {n} is the value you’ve chosen. For instance, if I set the opacity as 60%,{n} should be replaced by “60″. Now that we’re no longer constrained by the available choices in the GUI, we can set whichever value we want. Want the opacity to be 47%? Just type “47″ in place of {n}. It’s as easy as pie!

You: Well then, let’s set its opacity to 0% to make it invisible.
Me: Not so fast. If you set it to zero, it will become completelyinvisible and it won’t appear when you place the cursor over it.
You: Aha! That’s why you said almost invisible.
Me: Yep, we’re going to set it to 1%.

Unless you’re blessed with extraordinary sight, you won’t be able to see it. Here’s a quick demonstration of different levels of opacity:

Step 5: Start the Windows Sidebar task.

To restart the Windows Gadgets Platform process again, type the following the Run command (press Windows Key + R to display it):

Start Sidebar.exe

eNjOy!