Windows 7 - Vista Windows Sidebar - Reinstate on Windows 7

Hi,
thanks for all the praise of my gadget

I acutally put it in the gallery here. But mastofdom is guessing right, I'm german and Microsoft seems to seperate the website for different countries.. (although I made a special entry for the english version)

@Paul Grenfell
Yes sorry. Version 1.40 had a bug that caused to occupy one processor when selecting a special skin. Version 1.50 fixes that and also adds some new features. Download here

Ciao
Helmut

Hi,

This is a great hack as I love the Vista sidebar! Are there any fixes for the problem with the flyout menus not working? I would love to have that piece of functionality back.

Thanks in advance!
Klem

Hello Mark,
Greetings from Sunny Sarasota Florida. Your 2008 Article on how to reinstate the Vista Side bar on Windows 7 was absolutely fantastic. It was clearly written with easy to understand steeps and great screen shots. Heck, even I got it working on my first try. Your procedure worked perfectly on three of my computers all running Win 7 Pro 64 bit.
My sidebar holds only a few simple gadgets but I have been unable to find exact Win 7 replacements. I really like the Vista sidebar concept over the Win 7 alternative. Over time, I have grown accustomed and reliant on the sidebar display for quick updated information as I work. The gadgets themselves are simple, (date, weather, time, status, shutdown/restart/hibernate etc.). They are always on top and large enough for even us older guys to see.
Then came the SP1 update earlier this week and the once loved sidebar is gone. Only a few of the gadgets are displayed. They are considerably smaller and do not auto adjust for size nor placement. The ones that are displayed appear graphically truncated either on the top or bottom and the Windows Sidebar icon in the notification area of the taskbar is missing. Restore points are a wonderful thing to get your box back to the last know good condition. My beloved sidebar is back to normal but without SP1.
Just wondering if you experienced similar issues and had any thoughts or suggestions. Do you think the Vista sidebar can return to a Windows 7 SP1 machine?
Thanks again for a wonderful article.
Al

Captian Al,
Just do the same thing again after SP1
If you have lost the file , just Copy the one you have before SP1 and replace after SP1

Thanks Paul, but that was the first thing I tried.

I first tried a folder recovery manuver to both folders that must be modified from my last backup set. When that failed to work, I tried a copy/paste manuver using files from one of my other two Win-7 Pro 64 bit computers that were still working fine and without SP1 update. Both attempts ended with the same failed result.

Of special note was that I could not paste the sidebar.exe and the wlsrv.dll file because both files were in use. Without the gadgets icon in the notification tray, I was unable to shutdown the sidebar. Also right clicking inn the sidebar area did not bring up the usual sidebar dialog menu. Right clicking on the desktop brought up the Gadgets choice but that only allows one to add gadgets, not stop the sidebar.


I wonder if the above 2 files are in fact different. If they were, I could explore other options to stop the sidebar / Gadgets so I could copy those files over.

Regards, and thanks for the speedy response.

Al

Replace the whole Windows Sidebar folder at C/Programs/Windows Sidebar with the pre SP1 copy and then restart the Computer..
It wont kick in until reboot..
Paul

The link is dead to download the reg file for "enabling the Sidebar with UAC off".
Thanks for this tut...

Hello AJ,

It has been removed since there's no need for the REG file since it is not needed in Builds 7048 and newer of Windows 7. Sorry.

Thanks for the quick reply Brink...

Makes sence about the newer releases.. One more question if I may?

I have a 64 bit system for both Vista & Seven and I'm not clear if I just need to stick with just the "Program Files" folder only, or is it necessary to also copy the "Windows Sidebar" folder from the "Program Files (x86)", from Vista into the respective folder in Seven??

Thanks in advance..