Klipfolio is a tool that provides a dashboard for your Windows desktop which you can use to monitor anything - news, weather, RSS feeds, email, or whatever else you can access via a web browser. You can also monitor computer events like your CPU usage or disk space, too. Although the program works on Vista, it’s clearly a Sidebar replacement, so you wouldn’t want to run both at the same time. However, for XP and Windows 2000 users, this program can certainly deliver the sidebar experience, except that instead of gadgets, Klipfolio offers “klips,” downloadable programs which developers can write with as little as 7 lines of XML code.
Like the Vista Sidebar, Klipfolio can be set to auto-hide and can be positioned on the right or left of your screen. Yet, unlike the Sidebar, it can also be moved to the top or bottom or you can have it float on your screen like an AIR app, too. To personalize Klipfolio, you can adjust the font, change the color, and/or choose from a bunch of different skins. As for content, there are currently over 4000 Klips available for download from the Klipfolio website, so you’re sure to find enough of interest to fill up your dashboard and then some.
(Thanks to Social Web Tools for this tip!)