It will be always in our hearts.

This misses the best feature of the sidebar, which is that windows respects it when maximizing – even windows that don’t allow custom sizing. So I can use full size windows and still see my gadgets.

Um… This is flatly wrong. They didn't drop Gadgets from windows 7, that's true. But, the sidebar was the static container for gadgets, and they most certainly did drop it. And I think you're missing many of the benefits of that container for people with multiple screens (like being able to be in full screen mode in one and still see your gadgets in the other), but, I'm not sure there's any point in arguing with someone who thinks that "Truthfully" Microsoft didn't drop the sidebar. That's exactly what they did. The gadgets are still there, and they're now compatible with Aero Snap (which has its own host of problems with multiple monitors that makes it unusable), but that old gadget container, the one on the side of the screen, that one called "Sidebar" – doesn't exist anymore. They dropped it. PERIOD.

As far as I know, after creating your gadget, all you should have to do is to make sure it is named properly and put in the correct folder. Once that's done, you can just right-click anywhere on your desktop, go to Gadgets on the popup menu and your Gadget should show up there for you to pick from. When you spot it, double-click on it and it should install for you. Any Gadget you create should have a file extension of .gadget and the folder Windows expects to find it in is c:Program FilesWindows SidebarGadgets Try that out. If you don't see your gadget at all, its probably because it doesn't have the .gadget file extension or it may be in a different folder.