Gadgets not loading at all at boot

garycase said:

If you're still having this issue, there's a very simple fix.

First, the issue is that your system is booting "too fast"

The gadgets you've selected actually attempt to load before the sidebar.exe process has been started - so they don't get loaded in the sidebar. That's why a right-click => View => Show Desktop gadgets, repeated twice, will cause them to show okay. That just toggles off the desktop gadget display; then toggles it back on ... but when you do it this way sidebar loads first and all works just fine.

"a right-click => View => Show Desktop gadgets, repeated twice, will cause them to show okay." doesn't work for me.

andreibutilca said:

Restarting the laptop when this problem occurs usually fixes the problem, restoring the gadgets. The same does right click - show desktop gadgets - untick - tick back again, but I'd like a more permanent and stable fix, rather then applying cheap workarounds almost everytime.

"right click - show desktop gadgets - untick - tick back again" doesn't work for me. I cannot untick 'show desktop gadgets'.

A Guy said:

If it was the fixit, I don't believe they would run at all. You can try the enable Fit it here

Microsoft Security Advisory: Vulnerabilities in Gadgets could allow remote code execution

This Hotfix describes what you are experiencing

Gadgets intermittently do not start in Windows 7

A Guy

Doesn't work for me.

Did you try installing 8GadgetPack - Gadgets for Windows 8 / 8.1 and then Msn Weather - Windows 7 Desktop Gadget which has solved the problem on many of my Windows 7 installs which have gadgets crippled by IE11 Security features?

Clicking on Restore gadgets installed by Windows worked one time and not since.

8GadgetPack is my next attempt.

Win 7, 64bit, home.

Lost my gadgets, which had been there. Tried many things, but then disabled sidebar.exe in startup. (I use CCleaner / Tools/ Startup)
Rebooted and found that my gadgets had come back. Startup showed a disabled sidebar.exe together with a new sidebar.exe. Removed the disabled sidebar.exe.

Has booted perfectly since.

Occasionally my gadgets do not load and clicking on 'Desktop Gadgets' in the Control Panel does nothing.
I have tried all of the suggestions presented in the thread, but the easiest remedy is as follows:
1) Start the Windows Task Manager
2) Select the Processes Tab and find the "sidebar.exe" process.
3) Select the "sidebar.exe" process and then click the 'End Process' button.
4) Using the 'File' pull-down, select "New Task(Run...)"
5) In the pop-up window that appears, type "sidebar.exe" in the 'Open:' field and click on the 'OK' button. The above steps usually fix my 'Desktop Gadgets' problem.

Win 7 64 ultimate + 8gadgetpack.

Hello all,
Thank you for all the solutions above. It drove me to my own...
For a more than a couple years, gadgets were not showing up at start up and I had to select "gadgets" on the desktop right clic menu to have them pop up and then close the gadget panel.

This week, I cloned my drive and switched to an SSD (finaly). It was time to make the gadgets work ! This was eased by a 2mn system startup instead of 15mn+

So, the problem was not of using SSD as for some above. Typing sidebar.exe in the win+R was working.
I had some other problems with gadgets in the past 10 years, and uninstalling/reinstalling them made the job.
To have them show at boot, I tried nearly everything as advised on this thread except one : change settings in the "SidebarExecute" task. And this for one of a big reason : IT WAS MISSING.

So here's what I did :
1) Openened task scheduler
Important : as an administrator (right click if using the short cut in the menu), or type "taskschd.msc" in the Win+R.


2) created a task (it's in the menu)
- first tab : "execute when the user is connected", and check "max permission"
- trigger tab : at user log on
- action tab : start/launch a program and browse to

"C:\Program Files\Windows Sidebar\sidebar.exe"
At this point when clicking "browse", I made a research for "sidebar.exe" and I had two sidebar.exe. I choosed this one. If you have also or only the one in "program files (x86)" you might want to try it then.
It has to be the full path with quotes, "sidebar.exe" alone wont work.

And it works !