For Windows 7 users.......

For all of us using Windows 7, and who prefer to turn off the User Accounts Control (UAC), and who then discover that they've lost the Sidebar and its gadgets - because the two features are linked, to prevent downloading malware - here's how to get your Sidebar and gadgets back:-

In the Search box above Start, type "regedit.exe" and click Enter. Navigate to HK Local Machine\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Current Version\Sidebar\Settings. In the right-hand pane, create a new Dword (32-bit) named "AllowElevatedProcess" and then click on it to modify, and set its value to "1"....(no quotation marks, please) - then close the registry. Your Sidebar will now be enabled again, and you can restore your gadgets. It works for me!