Gadgets broken

I installed the update for Internet Explorer 11 this morning and gave it a quick look, then went on with my day. Got back on my computer later and noticed my CPU Meter gadget on the desktop had a new look. I exited the CPU Meter and opened it again with the same results.

The Weather, Headline Feeds and Currency gadgets are broken also.

A System Restore to a time before the IE11 install failed.

The only gadget I use is the CPU Meter so it's not a big deal, but I like for things to work properly. Is it possible that IE11 broke my gadgets?

Thanks for the quick reply Jerry!

Looks like MS is serious about doing away with gadgets!

Good to know the problem is not just mine!

Wow! Setting the DPI to 100% fixed the gadgets.

I normally have the DPI at 125% because of my tired old eyes.

The same IE11 update killed my Gadgets too and setting text to 100% makes them re-appear -- as well as the 6 other clocks I added when I was trying to fix it. Thanks for the workaround !!


With fonts set to 100% the onscreen type's pretty small. So I'm stuck with choosing between legible onscreen text and having the Clock and Weather gadget. While the gadget issue is minor, I wonder what else the IE11 update might be causing problems with.

Anyone know of a registry hack that will enlarge the UI type while not affecting the Gadgets?

Let's hope it's a problem that extends beyond Gadget display and Microsoft will issue an update to correct whatever's misbehaving.

Russell

Found the Reg key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop, Name=LogPixels and tried setting it to 120 (=125%) and the symptom returned.

I've settled on using a custom setting of 110% which still has the desktop Gadgets appearing but causes a small purple smear to appear on the tip of the clock's minute hand. I can live with that for now and the type size is better than the teeny tiny type displayed at the 100% setting.

Is this really the best place on this forum to post this bug?

Russell

The problem is indeed caused by the DPI settings of the PC. Gadgets appear incorrectly if the DPI value is set above 100%, although one may use a custom value of 110% and gadgets seem to appear almost correctly. The reason for the problem is that the default gadgets in Windows 7 have a DPI-locking tag. So there are two ways to resolve this issue:
1. Set the DPI value to 100-110% as mentioned above.
2. The second one requires some basic XML editing skills. One has to delete the locking tag from the XML file completely as setting the value to auto will not resolve it. I am not sure, but this however, might be against Microsoft's policy. In case someone wants to try this one, please, at least make a backup copy of the original file.

How to fix gadgets broken by IE 11 when desktop magnification is higher than 100%.

[You have to be a local admin to do this]
1. Copy the original gadget.xml file from C:\Program Files\Windows Sidebar\Gadgets\[Gadget you want to fix]\gadget.xml to a temporary folder of your choice. Open it with notepad.
2. Find & entirely delete the row containing the tag:
(autoscaleDPI)(!--_locComment_text="{Locked}"--)true(/autoscaleDPI)
Do not leave an empty row in the script, just delete the whole row that has that tag.
3. Reboot and strike the F8 key during reboot to get to the Safe Mode screen.
4. Choose 'Repair my computer'.
5. Log on with an administrative account.
6. Choose 'Command Prompt' from the bottom of the list of recovery options.
7. Now copy your edited gadget.xml file to C:\Program Files\Windows Sidebar\Gadgets\[Gadget you want to fix]\gadget.xml (example syntax: Copy c:\temp\gadget.xml "C:\Program Files\Windows Sidebar\Gadgets\Clock.Gadget\en-US\gadget.xml")
8. Reboot and you should be seeing the gadgets once again.
I was very pleased to get my clocks back!!!!!!!!!