Windows 7 weather gadget

[Jeff 100]

I have for about a year now have had the windows 7 weather gadget work after following a community fix to add a file called "config.xml" to a location that the gadget reads. The gadget no longer updates any of its weather info anymore. Does anyone know if there was a update to the msn weather servers at mircosoft, or have any fix that might work?
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[MisterEd]

According to the MSN Weather website the MSN Weather app only supports Windows 10 or above. I don't know but that may mean that they don't support the MSN Weather gadget any more for Windows 7.

On one of my Windows 7 computers I verified that the MSN Weather gadget can't connect to the server. However, an alternate one the My Weather gadget still works with Windows 7.



On my Windows 11 laptop the MSN Weather gadget works fine. Also, the My Weather gadget works also.



BTW, I use a program called 8 Gadget Pack to enable gadgets on my Windows 10 & 11 computers. It includes the MSN Weather gadget. I added the My Weather gadget from its website.


MSN Weather app
MSN Weather - Free download and install on Windows | Microsoft Store

My Weather gadget
00ff00 - Mit Liebe zum Internet

Update:

The screenshot I showed is for the Weather gadget not the MSN Weather gadget. Sorry about that. See Post #8 to see how to get the MSN Weather gadget for Windows 7.

 

[michael diemer]

I tried installing the My Weather (German one), but it won't display. I am able to display the calendar so I know that my gadgets do work. On the Gadget control panel, the My Weather gadget does look kind of grayed-out, not sure what that means...

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In the meantime, I installed the Weatherbar app from Dark Skies. It installed and runs, but seems to have trouble with my location, even though it lists it correctly.

 

[MisterEd]

I don't know why the My Weather gadget is not working for you. I just downloaded and installed it this morning on my Windows 7 desktop computer.

Note the My Weather gadget doesn't automatically find your location. You have to go into the settings and change it from its default.

Also, I tried the My Weather gadget on a Windows 7 virtual machine. It works fine on it also. On the screenshot note that the MSN Weather gadget runs but can't connect to the server.



Update:

The screenshot I showed is for the Weather gadget not the MSN Weather gadget. Sorry about that. See Post #8 to see how to get the MSN Weather gadget for Windows 7.

 

[sh20000sh]

It was also happened July last year. At back then, it was off for a week and silently came back. And the MSN gadget MisterED mentioned is user modified version. Which is still working on Windows 7 (Seems like it gets data from yesterday tho), with lack of location relate services tho.

 

[MisterEd]

It was also happened July last year. At back then, it was off for a week and silently came back. And the MSN gadget MisterED mentioned is user modified version. Which is still working on Windows 7, with lack of location relate services tho.

What do mean by user modified version? In Windows 7 the MSN Weather gadget is the standard one from gadgets. This is the one not working.

With Windows 7, I installed the MSN Weather gadget from the Windows gadgets app. It couldn't find the MSN server. Is there a reason it is not able to do this.

With Windows 10 and 11, I installed the program "8 Gadget Pack". It adds Windows 7 gadgets. I installed the MSN Weather gadget from it. This gadget works fine and loads data from the server.

Update:

The screenshot I showed is for the Weather gadget not the MSN Weather gadget. Sorry about that. See Post #8 to see how to get the MSN Weather gadget for Windows 7.

 

[sh20000sh]

With Windows 10 and 11, I installed the program "8 Gadget Pack". It adds Windows 7 gadgets. I installed the MSN Weather gadget from it. This gadget works fine and loads data from the server.

Layout from that gadget is actually from Vista. It was modified because original gadget wasn't serviced in certain regions. Interesting point is - it still needs config.xml workaround even if it got modified.

EDIT: I searched more about backstory about that modification, version that has five dates when enlarged was result of modification. They said original cache had too many unused information. I'd just used that one if it had 'find location automatically' option.

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If we have to modify original gadget to work, seems like it'd work when we touch code related with variable 'oMSN', still couldn't figure out how.

 

[MisterEd]

Layout from that gadget is actually from Vista. It was modified because original gadget wasn't serviced in certain regions. Interesting point is - it still needs config.xml workaround even if it got modified.
EDIT: I searched more about backstory about that modification, version that has five dates when enlarged was result of modification. They said original cache had too many unused information. I'd just used that one if it had 'find location automatically' option.
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If we have to modify original gadget to work, seems like it'd work when we touch code related with variable 'oMSN', still couldn't figure out how.

I just realized something. I just checked the gadgets on my Windows 7 computer and the MSN Weather is not even there. I was looking at a gadget called Weather. That is the one that didn't work.



Now for the good news. 8GadgetPack not only works in Windows 10/11 but it also works in Windows 7. I installed it in my Windows 7 Pro computer. The MSN Weather gadget in 8GadgetPack does work in Windows 7 as shown in the screen shot below.

 

[michael diemer]

Thank you Mister Ed, the 8 gadget pak works perfectly. When I installed it, there were instantly about 7 clocks on my desktop, along several instances of the weather app that actually works (My Weather? - I'm currently on Linux so I'm trusting to memory here). Evidently I kept trying to get them on my desktop, and they wouldn't show, until I installed the gadget pak.

At first I wondered if it was safe, but there were articles on it from several sites I generally trust, so I figured it's probably OK. Really cool. I prefer the My Weather gadget to the MSN one, since it displays humidity etc. MSN does also, but you have to click something, and then it's hard to read.

 

[MisterEd]

Thank you Mister Ed, the 8 gadget pak works perfectly. When I installed it, there were instantly about 7 clocks on my desktop, along several instances of the weather app that actually works (My Weather? - I'm currently on Linux so I'm trusting to memory here). Evidently I kept trying to get them on my desktop, and they wouldn't show, until I installed the gadget pak.

At first I wondered if it was safe, but there were articles on it from several sites I generally trust, so I figured it's probably OK. Really cool. I prefer the My Weather gadget to the MSN one, since it displays humidity etc. MSN does also, but you have to click something, and then it's hard to read.

I don't remember whether the My Weather gadget came with 8GadgetPak or if I installed it separately. In any case you can update it if there is a new version available. I have v.8.2 which was released recently.

 

[sh20000sh]

I checked default gadget and modified gadget and both of them seems trying to get information from 'weather.service.msn.com'. Server seems operating normally. I suspect wlsrvc.dll makes error.

 

[sh20000sh]

If anyone still wondering about the original weather gadget, I made it working by modifying server's response. Gadget seems can't decode UTF-16 encoding. I used pydivert to modify request(for response is not being zipped) and response.

import pydivert

print("started")


with pydivert.WinDivert("tcp.SrcPort == 80 or tcp.DstPort == 80") as w:
        for packet in w:
                
                
                payload = packet.tcp.payload


                if packet.is_inbound:
                        payload = payload.replace(b"<?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"utf-16\"?><weatherdata>",b"<?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"utf-8\"?> <weatherdata>")
                if packet.is_outbound:
                        payload = payload.replace(b"Accept-Encoding: gzip, deflate", b"Accept-Encoding: ")

                packet.payload = payload
                packet.recalculate_checksums(0)
                
                w.send(packet,recalculate_checksum=True)

 

[jhonny82]

If anyone still wondering about the original weather gadget, I made it working by modifying server's response.

Gadget seems can't decode UTF-16 encoding. I used pydivert to modify request(for response is not being zipped) and response.

import pydivert

print("started")


with pydivert.WinDivert("tcp.SrcPort == 80 or tcp.DstPort == 80") as w:
        for packet in w:
                
                
                payload = packet.tcp.payload


                if packet.is_inbound:
                        payload = payload.replace(b"<?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"utf-16\"?><weatherdata>",b"<?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"utf-8\"?> <weatherdata>")
                if packet.is_outbound:
                        payload = payload.replace(b"Accept-Encoding: gzip, deflate", b"Accept-Encoding: ")

                packet.payload = payload
                packet.recalculate_checksums(0)
                
                w.send(packet,recalculate_checksum=True)

Is possible to modify gadget file directly? example modify the js files (weather.js) to redirect this?

 

[sh20000sh]

Is possible to modify gadget file directly? example modify the js files (weather.js) to redirect this?

Looks like it gets data from server via ActiveXobject. Code that we need to touch are not visible on .js files.

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I added code to make target packet more specific. I compiled it into exe and makes it running background via task scheduler. Other network activity works smoothly and gadget activity is bit jamming but at least works.

                payload = packet.tcp.payload
        
        if len(payload) == 0:
            w.send(packet)
        if payload.find(b"weather") == -1:
            w.send(packet)




                if packet.is_inbound:

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And now, sever removed first tag that saying about UTF-16. It'll work without packet modifying I think.

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As server removed header tag so it is working on weather displaying. But I thought about broken search feature on weather gadget. Interestingly, it works searching by zip code. So I compared results and result from name search lack of variable zipcode.

import pydivert


print("started")




with pydivert.WinDivert("tcp.SrcPort == 80 or tcp.DstPort == 80") as w:
        for packet in w:
                
                
                payload = packet.tcp.payload


                if len(payload) == 0:
                        w.send(packet)
                if payload.find(b"weather") == -1:
                        w.send(packet)


                if packet.is_inbound:
                        if payload.find(b"zipcode") != -1:
                                w.send(packet)
                        if payload.find(b"weatherfullname") == -1:
                                w.send(packet)
                        payload = payload.replace(b"weatherfullname",b"zipcode=\"\" weatherfullname")
                        payload = payload.replace(b"searchlocation",b"ion")                      
                if packet.is_outbound:
                        if payload.find(b"find.aspx") == -1:
                                w.send(packet)
                        if payload.find(b",%20") != -1:
                                w.send(packet)
                        payload = payload.replace(b"Accept-Encoding: gzip, deflate", b"Accept-Encoding: ")


                packet.payload = payload
                packet.recalculate_checksums(0)
                
                w.send(packet,recalculate_checksum=True)

I had to touch name of variable "searchlocation" for not breaking XML structure by adding variable "zipcode". Which is used on search by location. So I had to make an exception when search query includes ",%20" (comma and space) for search by latitude and longitude.

After running packet modifier, it works now!

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And I found it during debugging, I found when search query includes ", "(,%20), it works with original response. So if you want use search from original weather gadget, add comma and space for no reason to make search works. It was done because comma was processed before sending query.

 

[sh20000sh]

Possible errors are found when packet is divided on targeted string, or some of search results includes object that lack of variable "weatherlocationname". As this workaround is modifying data during transmission, I think won't fix them for performance.

 

[jhonny82]

Possible errors are found when packet is divided on targeted string, or some of search results includes object that lack of variable "weatherlocationname". As this workaround is modifying data during transmission, I think won't fix them for performance.

Now seems to work again without any modification....

 

[sh20000sh]

Now seems to work again without any modification....

Gadget itself was became working since last week. After that, I changed its code for its "Select current location" feature.

 

[Jeff 100]

Gadget itself was became working since last week. After that, I changed its code for its "Select current location" feature.

Are you saying that the gadget work for you now without a fix? Or it works after what you have done. How could I do what you did on my pc, to get the gadget working again? Currently it is not working for me.

 

[sh20000sh]

Are you saying that the gadget work for you now without a fix? Or it works after what you have done. How could I do what you did on my pc, to get the gadget working again? Currently it is not working for me.

Displaying weather would be work now without a fix, as weather.service.msn.com result removed first XML tag that causes malfunctioning. (example - it should start with <weatherdata> tag when viewing page source. When it was broken, it was starting with <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-16"?> and gadget couldn't decode utf-16.)

What I currently applied is on post #14, which is some kind of additional fix for searching location feature, which I done is compile its python code to .exe (with admin privilege required) via pyinstaller and made it running background.

If it is still not working for you, try some old workaround. Such as emptying AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Sidebar\Cache\

I tried location on first post, it should be look like this now.

 

[MisterEd]

How does it compare to the one that comes with 8GadgetPack?