Whether you see Windows Vista and Windows 7 Gadgets as handy tools or a blight upon a pristine desktop, you might want to shut them off for safety's sake. Mickey Shkatov and Toby Kohlenberg have found that the desktop widgets' web-based code have flaws that would allow malicious Gadgets, or even hijacked legitimate Gadgets, to compromise a PC without having to go through the usual avenues of attack. Microsoft's short-term answer to the vulnerability is a drastic one, though: a stopgap patch disables Gadgets entirely, leaving just a barren desktop in its wake. There's n
