It would be very nice if somebody with the right skills writes something that shows you the status of the server and the current players in it .
Windows Gadget's are pretty easy to make (I've made one to open my back gate). Best thing I could think of is using .Net Gadget (WPF) to access the TcpClient class to check like I did for Path's service checker.
http://skcraft.com/threads/pinger-v1-2-simple-ping-requests-and-more.2623/#post-24331 Pretty much the same thing minus the players
I am currently working on some code that shows the server status (including MOTD and players). Works in a windows app, just gotta move that into a gadget.