Thread: Put Your Pidgin Buddy List into the Windows Vista Sidebar

Have you ever wondered how to get Instant Messenger contacts in the Vista Sidebar? Of course, you can use the already mentioned AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) Sidebar gadgets for Vista, but what if you are a fan of client Pidgin Multi-protocol instead?

The solution is a small Windows Sidebar Gadget called Pidglet that network with an integrated plug-in for Pidgin.

Installing Pidglet

Before installing the gadgets you require to install plug-in Pidgin. If you do not set in the correct order you will receive error messages, but do not concern, because it is easy.

After downloading and extracting Zipfile, you have to look to your installation directory Pidgin, and find the directory plugins:

C:\Program Files\Pidgin\plugins

Once you have, after that you require to copy pidglet.dll file in a folder (by clicking through the UAC prompts, if you have not +stopped UAC for now)



Now you require opening Pidgin and going to Tools \ Plugins and enabling Pidglet (Note that you require to have a quite recent version of Pidgin)





Now you require opening Pidgin and going to Tools \ Plugins and enabling Pidglet (Note that you require to have a quite recent version of Pidgin)



And after that drag the Pidglet gadget anywhere on the desktop.

At this point you will have a little gadget on the desktop with your contacts, Pidgin, and you want to click on the small key that appears when you hover over it:



In Settings dialog you can adjust the color, but more importantly, you can change it to show everyone on your list, or at least more than 4 contacts.



Advanced option lets you specify user profiles Pidgin folder, most likely you will not require worrying about.