While gathering links the other day for my “1 Month Later… Software That I Use” article I ran across a really neat trick. Have you ever wanted to test a widget on your computer before actually installing it on your system? The developer of the iStatPro widget blogged about a trick to do just that. I think I’m in widget heaven now! Just follow the instructions outlined below and you’ll be testing widgets like a madman… or madwoman if you prefer :)
Double-click the widget to install it from the Finder. When the widget installer asks “Do you want to install the widget “widget name” and open it in Dashboard?”, simply hold down the Apple and option keys and “Install” will change to “Run”. Click “Run” and the widget will be run from its current location rather than being moved to /Library/Widgets/. Brilliant!
What does this mean to you? Well if you’re like me you are fairly hesitant to install new software in fear of bloating your system. Sometimes I just want to give check out a widget, but don’t because I’m lazy and don’t want to uninstall it if I don’t like it. Now you can check out all the widgets you want and never have to worry about installing them. Just remember that if you do like the widget you’ll need to go back and install it the normal way.
