How to Put a Windows News Ticker on Your Desktop

Whether in print, on television or on the Internet, we get our news fix on a daily basis. Information on current events all over the world is at our fingertips online. But with many windows open at one time, personal or working, our desktop can get cluttered quickly. A Windows news ticker solves that problem and gets you the latest news. Windows has many free gadgets to download for your desktop, including different news tickers.

Things You'll Need

• Windows XP or Vista

Instructions

1. Find your desktop toolbar on the bottom of your screen. Scroll your mouse over each icon until you find "Windows Sidebar," and click to open it. The standard sidebar will include gadgets such as a clock, news feed headline and a photo album.

2. Find the "plus" icon on the top of the Sidebar, click it and a window of your gadgets will appear. Click the "Get more gadgets online" link, located on the bottom right-hand corner. An Internet Explorer window will open and take you to the Windows Live Gallery page.

3. Go to the search option and type "Windows New Ticker," and a few gadgets will appear. Go to the MSDN Ticker gadget. Hit the download button and install. The Windows task bar will open it for you. The download and insertion of the news ticker should take no more than 30 seconds.

4. Right-click over the news ticker and you will get the option "Detach from Sidebar." Click that and your news ticker will appear separately on your desktop. Move around the ticker for desired position on your desktop.

Tips & Warnings

• There are many other news ticker options to choose from off the Windows Live page. Select the one that best fits your news tastes.

References

• Windows Live Gallery
• University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire: Windows Vista; Working with the Sidebar
• Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health: News Feed Descriptions

Resources

• Towson University: Windows Vista Sidebar and Gadgets