I know not everyone is enamored of the Windows Sidebar and Gadgets, but I use them all the time, on every computer I own. I like the CPU monitoring as well as Hard Disk monitoring, so that I can easily see at a glance if my computer is doing something in the background, or if it is really frozen and needs a restart. This is especially true on my Windows 8 Atom tablet, which is much slower at processing things that my i7 desktop and laptop!
8Gadget Pack is a free utility that you can install to bring back the gadgets into Windows 8 or Windows 8 Pro, but NOT on Windows 8 RT, as it requires an executable file to run on the desktop. There are currently 48 included gadgets that you can choose from included with their package. If you backed up copies of gadgets you liked before you upgraded to Windows 8, you can also install them, and there are still sources online for you to be able to downloads them from, although Microsoft has taken down the page that they used to host for them.
If you like gadgets on your desktop, and you’d like them back on your Windows 8 or 8 Pro computer, then 8Gadget pack is for you!
Company Website: http://8gadgetpack.bplaced.net/
Cost: Free
What I Liked: Gave me my gadgets back!
What needs improvement: No way to use on Windows RT