On the right side of your Windows 7 desktop, you will find a vertical bar; this vertical bar is known as the Windows side bar. The Windows 7 help team says that the sidebar contains a lot of small applications that give you quick information, this includes clock, calendar and system performance meters.

How do you remove the sidebar when you feel that you don’t require it? The Windows 7 help team says that this can be done by accessing the Control Panel

Let’s get straight into the procedure by the Windows 7 help team.

Instructions by the Windows 7 help team

1.       To start off with the instructions by the Windows 7 help team, go to the “Start” button and open the “Control Panel” option. Navigate to the “Programs” option.

2.       To continue with the Windows 7 help team’s procedure, select the “Turn Windows Feature On or Off” option; this comes under the “Program and Features” section in the “Programs” window.

3.       Now a new window pops up, find the “Windows Gadgets platform” option. The Windows 7 help team says that you are to remove the check from the box.

4.       To continue with the procedure by the Windows 7 help team, click on the “Ok” button to close the “Programs” window. Close the Control Panel.

5.       According to the Windows 7 help team, all you have to do to complete the procedure is restart your computer.

Once the rebooting procedure is complete, you can right click anywhere on the desktop, you will notice that the “Gadgets” option is no longer available in the list.

Another method that can be used is by accessing the “msconfig” file. You can find this via the search bar in the “Start” menu. When the Window appears navigate to the “Startup” tab and scroll down to the following location without the quotes “C:\Program files\Windows Sidebar\sidebar.exe \autoRun” and uncheck the box.

That should be all the help you will need to turn off the Windows 7 sidebar.