I’m one of those who firmly believe that Windows 7 is Microsoft’s best operating system ever. Hell, it’s the best operating system out there. But, Microsoft has done some little blunders with it such as the removal of the calendar application that was introduced in Vista ( I know Windows Live Mail has a calendar but it’s for Windows Live users ), and the removal of some very useful sidebar gadgets such as the Notes and Contacts gadgets. I had put up the notes gadget for download long ago, now I’ve finally managed to get off my bum and extract the Contacts gadget from Vista.
Originally introduced with the Vista Sidebar, this nifty little gadget loads up all the entries in your contacts folder in Windows and displays them in a phonebook style. It can be collapsed into a narrower view as well which shows just the names of the contacts and a search field but no details. In the expanded view, you can quickly search all your contacts and see their picture, email or phones numbers at a glance. Clicking on the picture opens up further details of the contact allowing you to access information quickly. Likewise, clicking on the email will open up your default email client, so you’re never more than a few clicks away to send out an email to your contacts.
I’ve been using this gadget on Windows 7 and it works perfectly. You just need to have your contacts directory populated for the gadget to show them. It’s located in this location {your Windows installation drive, probably C:}\Users\{Windows user name}\Contacts. Mine is C:\Users\Hassan\Contacts .
If you have your phone contacts synced with your Windows 7 PC contacts directory, this gadget will be extra handy to quickly find that phone number you’re looking for.
Download Vista Contacts Gadget for Windows 7
[Extract the ZIP file and run Contacts.gadget. It’ll show you a dialogue box asking if you want to install it. Click install, and it should appear on your desktop, or right-click on the desktop and go to gadgets and drag it out. These instructions are for Windows 7 only.]
i have all of my contacts in Vista contact file formate, i m switching back to xp now, how can i use all the contacts and have this gadget in XP also?
thank you sooo much for this!!! i have been trying to copy from my (vista) computer – to no avail… so this is just great!
My contacts are not updating as I add them. Worked fine when first installed with existing contacts, just doesn’t see any that have been added since….Any ideas???
Thanks for a gadget (contacts) that I used in Windows Vista. I found your Contact gadget by going to google but could not find it in the long list of windows gadgets at microsoft. Thanks again.
i’m so sorry… i’ve downloaded the file but i can’t extract it. could you give another link?
Amazing! Thank you
Hello,
I’ve been trying to download this gadget for hours now but it doesn’t seem to work… Actually in the zip folder there is only one file… Is that an error? Could you fix it please?
Thanks!
The file shouldn’t download as zip but as .gadget extension.
I was wondering for ages, and it’s a shame that windows 7 gadget gallery don’t have such a useful gadget!! and the biggest wonder is why did MS remove it@#%$&^^&#
True, this was a great gadget. Someone at Microsoft makes the stupidest decisions for Windows feature sets.