This was the question reader Kyle asked me earlier tonight, and after some research I discovered that there wasn’t one… so I wrote a utility with this functionality, assigned to the Ctrl+Win + Space key combination.

So you first used the Win + Space key to bring the sidebar and detached gadgets to the foreground:

Now you can use Ctrl+Win + Space to send the sidebar and all detached gadgets back behind the previous foreground window.

Installation

Download and unzip the file, then copy the VistaSidebarHider.exe application into a directory you’d like to keep it in.

Type the following into the Windows Explorer address bar, which is a shortcut to quickly open your Startup folder.

 

Create a shortcut in that folder to the VistaSidebarHider.exe application.

Running the Application

Just double-click it.

Usage

Use Ctrl+Win + Space to send the sidebar and gadgets to the back.

Shutting Down the Application

You’ll have to use Ctrl+Shift+Esc to open Task Manager, and then select the process in the list and click on End Process.

Be sure to leave any feedback or complaints in the comments.

Download VistaSidebarHider Utility