Windows 7: Gadgets not working...

Hi, I stumbled accross here yesterday and wow, you guys have a good thing here!

But, as the title suggests, gadgets aren't working on this install!

I have installed build 6801 on 2 machines, a Toshiba Satellite P200 and a Dell Inspiron E1505. The Toshiba runs perfectly, however the Dell is having some issues. I installed on the Dell because of that little sticker "Vista Capable". It had XP Media Center, 512mb of RAM and what not, so I wanted to see the performance of a XP machine to 7. It runs overall pretty well actually!

It is, however, not wanting to use gadgets period. I've right-clicked on desktop I went to the CP and tried from there and nothing, finally, I went to the directory and ran sidebar.exe directly, and still nothing. I understand that the sidebar visual affect is gone, but it is running from sidebar.exe still, right? Anyway, it just refuses to open. I'm wondering if anyone else has this issue?

Hello Waymack91xj, and welcome to Windows 7 Forums.

Check to make sure that UAC is turned on. You might also try the method in this tutorial.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

Yes, I've tried adding the gadgets, and therein lies the problem. I right-click on the desk top, click "Gadgets" and the busy curser flashes, and nothing.

Hello waymack91xj, welcome to Seven Forums!

I know this isn't what you are inquiring about but have a look at this; at the link below. It may help in a roundabout sorta way.

Vista Windows Sidebar - Reinstate on Windows 7












Later Ted

I might do the transfer, however, I would really like to find the break. I think it may be a faulty install, because compatibility wizard is just a blank window. There is absolutely nothing in the event viewer about it at all, and MMC seems to struggle on the machine. I'll try a repair install after a bit, see if that fixes it.

Hello again.

Yes; please post back with the outcome.















Later Ted

Well, repair install wasn't as obtuse as XP and didn't really repair the OS, so I opted for a fresh install. Same problems as before! I used the same disk on both machines, so I don't think it's faulty media. I updated the BIOS to the latest, verified the latest chipset was installed. I do have an "unknown device" in device manager, but it's for the MMC card reader, oddly I'm having problems finding the driver for it...

I'm also wondering if only 512mb of RAM is the cause, is anyone else running with this amount and doing ok? It's really weird, this OS is running faster than XP on this machine, so it just doesn't seem like a hardware issue. It did this before and after updates, and before I installed 3rd party software. Any ideas? I'm going to put more RAM in here within a couple weeks, we'll see if that helps, but I doubt it will.

The gadgets on my installation, still live under Program Files - Windows Sidebar. Do you have that folder?

Yes, I tried running directly from the sidebar.exe and trying again and it still does nothing. I understand that the "sidebar" is gone, but the program remains to run the gadgets (you could float them around in Vista if you chose), but it just refuses to run on the Dell

I,ve been prowling around in my settings. have you tried this one. I am aware that, if you haven't changed anything, the gadgets should be available by default, however:
Look in your Control Panel - Programs - Turn Windows features on ot off (It takes a while) Scroll down to near the bottom. There is an item there "Windows Gadget platform", which should be ticked. Maybe Dell turned it off because of your low memory?