Note July 25, 2007: The Konfabulator was purchased by Yahoo was renamed ‘Yahoo Widgets’, currently in version 4. The program works much the same the review reflects. You can find Yahoo Widgets at http://widgets.yahoo.com/

For this week’s Freeware Frenzy, I will be taking a look at The Konfabulator version 2.1.1. As part of my continuing search for total convenience and customizability, the Konfabulator’s ability to use hundreds of separate “widgets”, all designed for their own purpose, certainly appealed to me. Even though I liked using the Google Desktop, I prefer the look of widgets and that they do not take up screen space, since I can place things on top of them if need be. In fact, I have since left the Google Desktop in the system tray and replaced it with widgets that do all that it can.
Installation
Very straight forward. The Konfabulator is produced under the GPL and encourages users to create their own widgets for whatever they would like. After installation, The Konfabulator walks you through choosing a directory, and how to start using the program. It comes bundled with a dozen popular widgets, including a plain analogue clock, ToDo list, weather, calendar, computer monitor, stock ticker, picture frame and others. These are certainly staples for most people, but you can quickly go to http://widgets.yahoo.com/ and browse the over 1000 widgets for something unique.
Widgets
I went ahead and kept the calendar, something Google Desktop lacks in my opinion, the weather, and ToDo list. I downloaded some extra widgets; including RSS news feed reader, a chrome clock, a random away message generator for AIM, a stylized recycle bin and a schedule for the OSU Buckeyes. You can see these here:

I also tried out a few others; some for entertainment, some for practicality. You can have widgets for digital clocks, notepads, Google Searches, picture frames, CPU and RAM usage, and a plethora of others. Konfabulator’s gallery of available widgets range from virtual sticky notes, to media players, and from traffic camera feeds to television characters who speak to you. 

Use
Konfabulator is easily customizable. All widgets come with their own preference menu, and the general Konfabulator options for window level, more on this later, and opacity. Each one can be dragged around the desktop at will, sometimes needing the CTRL key held down. Some widgets, such as the included clock allow you to change colors. You can see in my screenshots, I like the default black.
The Konfabulator also includes a mode they call “Konsposé”. When you press the F8 key, your entire desktop fades away, except for your widgets. This mode allows you to easily move around or work with your widgets, without anything else in the way. I mentioned earlier about the “window level” of a widget, well, the Konsposé mode is where this comes in handy. If you want the convenience of a widget, but don’t want it on the desktop constantly, set it to show up only in Konsposé. This can help you avoid a cluttered desktop, but retain the ease of use. You can see below that my desktop icons are in the background, but the widgets have come into focus.

Conclusion
In conclusion, The Konfabulator is a great program. It combines ease of use with practicality, and anyone who has read my columns can tell I find this the greatest combination of characteristics for free software.  My only complaint with the software is that my system tray icon has once or twice failed to load when I boot up, so even though the widgets load and I can use them, I cannot easily open the control menu to add one. A reboot solved the issue, and since it is so infrequent, I’ll forgive them. On a positive note, because of this minor problem, I did find that The Konfabulator has excellent support forums. Others had inquired about this problem, and it is a known issue with the latest version and should be fixed for the next. Should you have a problem with The Konfabulator or want to ask about creating your own widget, the forums are an excellent resource. One final note, The Konfabulator used about 30MB of RAM with 10 widgets open. Each widget uses 1-5MB of RAM. Most of us have plenty of RAM to accommodate this, but for those of you with limited memory, it is a consideration. Since The Konfabulator has made my computing experience more convenient, with minimal input on my part, I’m going to give it a 9/10.