Microsoft discontinued all desktop gadgets for Windows Vista and Windows 7 due to serious vulnerabilities. We recommend following Microsoft’s guidance and NOT using any desktop gadgets.
The DriveInfo gadget is one of our favorite system utility gadgets for Windows. There are plenty of useful options including several background and icon choices, but overall it’s still an easy to use Windows gadget.
The DriveInfo gadget displays the remaining free space on your hard drive(s) in both percentage and GB format. There’s even a handy progress-type bar that graphically displays used disk space.
Pros & Cons
Aside from missing a small option, DriveInfo is a must-have system utility gadget:
What We Like
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Isn’t confusing to use
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Very simple to read
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Contains several background and icon choices
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Several options provide flexibility in drives displayed
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Doubles as a drive shortcut list
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Can display more than one drive at once
More Information on the DriveInfo Gadget
Here’s some more information on the DriveInfo Gadget:
- Works for the Windows 7 and Windows Vista operating systems only
- The DriveInfo gadget provides a live view of current hard drive usage, showing not only the amount of storage remaining (e.g. 68 GB) but also the percentage of the drive that’s free (like 85%)
- This Windows gadget shows local drives, removable drives, network drives, and media drives. You can customize which drive type is shown or view all of them at once
- A simple, well-designed options interface make customizing this gadget very easy. You can modify the background to make it more or less transparent as well as pick a set of icons to be used for the drives
- Even though there are transparency settings within the options, right-clicking the gadget lets you adjust the opacity like you can with any gadget
- Clicking on a drive’s icon in the DriveInfo gadget opens up the drive contents in a new window
- There are options to also show a link to the Computer and Network settings in Windows so you can quickly open those screens just as easy as you can the drives
Our Thoughts on the DriveInfo Gadget
The DriveInfo gadget is an excellent example of how useful a Windows gadget can be. In a single glance, you can keep track of the available free space on every storage device on your computer, saving you considerable time over manual checks or running another application.
You should never allow the partition that Windows is installed on, usually your C: drive, to become full or near full. Windows and many other applications assume there is a certain amount of “wiggle room” on a hard drive and if there isn’t, issues like some Blue Screen of Death errors and other serious problems can occur.
We’ve tried a few other hard drive space tracking Windows gadgets and we think DriveInfo is the best. All Windows gadgets like this do essentially the same thing but DriveInfo stands out because of its well-designed interface and thoughtful options.
