Vista Sidebar Gadgets Broken

Hi guys,

Today I started experiencing some strange problems with Vista's sidebar. I've never had this problem before and I've spent hours trying to fix the problem. Basically the problem I'm having looks something like this:


I've just dragged a few of the default gadgets to the sidebar to show you the problem I'm having. The Weather gadget seems to be the only one that is functioning correctly. I also cannot install user created gadgets from gallery.live.com.

I've already tried the many different combinations of re-registering various DLL files that I've seen around on the Internet but this hasn't made a difference. Could this be a problem with Java or XML? Is there a way of totally reinstalling the Vista Sidebar without having to a) do a System Restore or b) create a Vista installation disk to do a repair with?

Cheers for your help.

If no luck with the dlls (sbdrop.dll wlsrvc.dll atl.dll sbdrop.dll wlsrvc.dll scrrun.dll jscript.dll msxml3.dll) right, the problem could come from Java or xml, try reg the dlls mentioned.
I've seen also problems with Kaspersky and Mcafee

Hi sidney1st,

I've tried all of those DLLs before, what other ones are you referring to? If it's an XML problem what should I reinstall to see if that's the problem?

Hi Greenie,

Try moving the broken gadgets around, I have noticed on my comp sometimes the GUI od the gadgets gets messed up and needs its positions to be changed before they show correctly?

Steven

Then, try to reinstall or update Java.

EDIT:

Try this trick:
Close sidebar
Go to C:\Users\your_username\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Sidebar\Settings.ini
Rename settings.ini to settings.ini.ex for example
Restart sidebar, a new settings.ini will be created, then re-configure if necessary

Hey guys,


What does Java have todo with the sidebar?

With the sidebar.exe, nothing but it has to do with gadgets

Thanks for the tips. Unfortunately nothing worked

I tried reinstalling Java and moving the gadgets around but they still look exactly the same as they do in the image I posted. Also renaming the settings.ini file didn't have any effect either.

If it's a problem with XML what should I reinstall to see if that was the problem? Also, could it be a problem with the registry. Could there be some value missing from it that are required for the Sidebar to function correctly?

Humm,
XML is surely working fine as, if it was not, all your Vista would be messed up.
Let me check the registry entries for the sidebar and i come back.

Looking at the clip you posted looks like the gadget is not sizing itself correctly to the available space of the sidebar. This could be because of screen resolution or missing fonts. Have you changed any display settings lately??

Nope nothing has changed at all. I'm not missing any fonts either.

I wonder when we were talking about the dlls if you tried to register them with an elevated comman prompt.
Try this (doesn't cost anything)
Open Command Prompt with Administrative rights and execute:
Regsvr32 scrrun.dll
regsvr32 jscript.dll
regsvr32 msxml3.dll
one by one

Yeah that's exactly how I tried it when I was reading through a few other articles on the web. The only other thing I can think of is that there is something wrong in the registry but I wouldn't know where to begin looking for the Sidebar entries.

Nothing special in the registry as anyway the problem cannot come from a sidebar entry.
Question: When you drag/drop a gadget on your desktop, is it looking right?

If I drag and drop them to the desktop they still look the same. The ones that get bigger when on the desktop do resize but still look broken like in the image I posted.

greenie said:

I also cannot install user created gadgets from gallery.live.com.

Click to expand...

Do you receive an error for that ?

No, custom gadgets from gallery.live.com seem to be working just fine now. It's the default Windows ones that fail (excluding the Weather gadget oddly).

Does anybody have any more ideas as to what the problems might be?

Then, the last idea i could have would be to uninstall those gadgets and try to reinstall them after a reboot and a cache clean.

Yeah I've tried that and still no luck. I've even deleted the contents of my C:\Program Files\Windows Sidebar folder and replaced it with a friends but still nothing. Any other suggestions would be much appreciated!