IE11 Appears not to support gadgets. What are the alternatives ?

[z3r010]

It was worth a shot.

 

[AddRAM]

There are plenty of gadgets out there to replace any stock windows gadgets, and some of them look exactly the same.

 

[Mooly]

There are plenty of gadgets out there to replace any stock windows gadgets, and some of them look exactly the same.

This is what I thought but the reality is knowing which are good well written gadgets which are both safe and on safe sites to download from.

It was easy to find a CPU meter and weather gadget (msn one ?) but both files installed malware, pc optimisers, toolbars, frog something or other etc etc despite there being no mention or option to not install this junk.

I use Acronis, so it didn't matter to me, I just had a good play


I'm intrigued by the earlier post where someone mentions editing the XML file. Haven't a clue how to do that but if it can be done I'm a quick learner. I know where the file lives, I can open it in notepad and see zillions of random characters so I'm assuming I need a proper editor. They seem available as freeware. Acronis again But what would I be looking for to alter and replace.

 

[DrDivan55]

I'm intrigued by the earlier post where someone mentions editing the XML file. Haven't a clue how to do that but if it can be done I'm a quick learner. I know where the file lives, I can open it in notepad and see zillions of random characters so I'm assuming I need a proper editor. They seem available as freeware. Acronis again But what would I be looking for to alter and replace.

Make a backup copy of the original file. Open with notepad and delete the whole row that contains the following tag:
<autoscaleDPI><!--_locComment_text="{Locked}"-->true</autoscaleDPI>
Don't leave an empty row in the script, delete it entirely.

 

[Mooly]

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%.
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.

Your a star but I need help

You gave me a clue as to what to look at and I have had some success but I'm stuck on making the gadgets bigger. I saw the word "true" in the file and changed it to "false" and lo and behold the gadgets display correctly. I tried changing the icon size numbers on the weather gadget but it always displays this size.

 

[Mooly]

Lol... now that's a coincidence. We posted together... hadn't seen your message.

 

[Mooly]

I'll try deleting the whole row as you say.

Any idea on how to make them a wee bit bigger ?

 

[robinb9]

i also had the problem but what I did is set the dpi to 100 and the graphic part of the gadget icons came back, and everything is back to normal. What I did do is go in and just make each item in Advanced appearance settings and configured each one to the size I wanted and this way the dpi stayed the same but each item I picked became larger using the font size

 

[stsaerox]

The DPI line worked for me and a specific gadget. But how do we make a gadget larger now?

 

[urbanspaceman1]

I keep an analogue clock and a calendar gadget on my second screen and it became almost mandatory but since IE11 went in, the clock will not launch and the calendar comes and goes with start-ups. Right now the calendar is up but I really miss the clock. I haven't the faintest idea how to edit scripts however. Just to be certain; was it IE11 that did it? Because a large Windows/MS update also went in that day.

 

[DrDivan55]

I had a second look and noticed that the affected gadgets use certain font. According to my opinion the problem is caused by IE11 making some fonts display incorrectly when in a higher DPI setting. This affected some other functions like disabling the Outlook spell-check in certain configurations, etc. So there should be a fix from Microsoft sometime in the future that would address these issues and hopefully that should fix the gadgets too.
As for making gadgets bigger-that's pretty difficult. You should play around first with the css file-that will enlarge the "glass" area around the gadget. Then move to the js file. The scripts that instruct how the gadget should be displayed are at the end of the file: undocked & docked state of the gadgets. I played around with that and the result was pretty ugly. So I would recommend to use the gadgets the way they are for the time being as a fix from Microsoft addressing the font issue should come eventually. If the gadgets look too small however one may click the arrow button below the close button of the gadget(if there is one-the CPU has it, but the Clock-does not) to enlarge them but now they would look unnaturally big. For the Clock-use a different clock style(the blue one seems small but the first clock style is OK for me).

 

[RPmtl]

Make a backup copy of the original file. Open with notepad and delete the whole row that contains the following tag:
<autoscaleDPI><!--_locComment_text="{Locked}"-->true</autoscaleDPI>
Don't leave an empty row in the script, delete it entirely.

I assume the XML files are those buried in the Windows\winsxs folder and that one needs to be logged in via the Administrator account to make modifications?

If those are the Gadget files' XML's, there are both 'amd64_' and 'x86_' versions of the same files. Does one need to modify both if running win7-64?

Thanks

Russell

 

[Bongo]

Make a backup copy of the original file. Open with notepad and delete the whole row that contains the following tag:
<autoscaleDPI><!--_locComment_text="{Locked}"-->true</autoscaleDPI>
Don't leave an empty row in the script, delete it entirely.

I assume the XML files are those buried in the Windows\winsxs folder and that one needs to be logged in via the Administrator account to make modifications?

If those are the Gadget files' XML's, there are both 'amd64_' and 'x86_' versions of the same files. Does one need to modify both if running win7-64?

Thanks

Russell

It will be in the Gadget folder in:
C:\Program Files\Windows Sidebar\Gadgets
and or
C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Sidebar\Gadgets
and or
C:\Users\YOUR USER NAME\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Sidebar\Gadgets


Jerry

 

[Mooly]

I had a second look and noticed that the affected gadgets use certain font. According to my opinion the problem is caused by IE11 making some fonts display incorrectly when in a higher DPI setting. This affected some other functions like disabling the Outlook spell-check in certain configurations, etc. So there should be a fix from Microsoft sometime in the future that would address these issues and hopefully that should fix the gadgets too.
As for making gadgets bigger-that's pretty difficult. You should play around first with the css file-that will enlarge the "glass" area around the gadget. Then move to the js file. The scripts that instruct how the gadget should be displayed are at the end of the file: undocked & docked state of the gadgets. I played around with that and the result was pretty ugly. So I would recommend to use the gadgets the way they are for the time being as a fix from Microsoft addressing the font issue should come eventually. If the gadgets look too small however one may click the arrow button below the close button of the gadget(if there is one-the CPU has it, but the Clock-does not) to enlarge them but now they would look unnaturally big. For the Clock-use a different clock style(the blue one seems small but the first clock style is OK for me).

I think I will leave it for the time being but thanks for the interest and thanks again for pointing me in the right direction. I had a quick play with increasing the image sizes in the files but got nowhere.

 

[Mooly]

Make a backup copy of the original file. Open with notepad and delete the whole row that contains the following tag:
<autoscaleDPI><!--_locComment_text="{Locked}"-->true</autoscaleDPI>
Don't leave an empty row in the script, delete it entirely.

I assume the XML files are those buried in the Windows\winsxs folder and that one needs to be logged in via the Administrator account to make modifications?

If those are the Gadget files' XML's, there are both 'amd64_' and 'x86_' versions of the same files. Does one need to modify both if running win7-64?

Thanks

Russell

There where Jerry and I said, in the program files

Instructions are here in one of my later posts on page 2,

IE 11 Update on Win7 corrupts gadgets - Microsoft Community

 

[urbanspaceman1]

I changed my dpi to 100% and suddenly I had two screens full of clocks. Every time I had attempted to launch a clock it had been installing but I simply couldn't see it. As I'm not experienced enough to start messing with scripts and files I'll have to hope someone comes up with a 'fix-it' script for us dunces.

 

[RPmtl]

There where Jerry and I said, in the program files

Instructions are here in one of my later posts on page 2,

IE 11 Update on Win7 corrupts gadgets - Microsoft Community

Ah, I see. I was thrown off by your post #25 showing a screen grab of the CPU Meter's XML file that's different from the gadget.xml one. That suggested I needed to make the true->false change in each gadget being displayed.

All's good now (haven't tried doing it - just know where to look).

Thanks for the course correction

Russell

 

[Mooly]

I've only altered the CPU and weather gadget. Haven't tried altering any others as I don't use them.

And I'd suggest to anyone... use a good backup program such as Acronis and then you have no worries and can play around as much as you want.

 

[Bongo]

I changed my dpi to 100% and suddenly I had two screens full of clocks. Every time I had attempted to launch a clock it had been installing but I simply couldn't see it. As I'm not experienced enough to start messing with scripts and files I'll have to hope someone comes up with a 'fix-it' script for us dunces.

I changed the XML in the Clock, CPU, Weather Gadgets and made the into gadget installers. Download the zip folder at the bottom of this post and extract it, then double click the gadget to install it.


The new gadgets will have a red # 2 on them.


Jerry

 

[Mooly]

That's terrific work Jerry. I'm sure it will help a lot of folks.