Vista SP2

[Terry60]

Has anyone else noticed quirky behaviour in Vista since SP2 installed ?

My gadgets (seven fitting neatly down one column) have always been in the same order, and shuffle themselves back into place as they start at boot time (with perhaps a 1-2% failure rate where one gadget is hiding behind another).

Since SP2, at boot, they adopt a completely different order, and I have to drag them back the way I want them. Boot again, and they adopt the wrong order again.

This morning, after rearranging them, I stopped for a cup of tea, and when I came back they'd rearranged into the same wrong order, suggesting that the PC had self-rebooted while I was absent, or that some kind of auto-restart had occured in the Sidebar.

It seems that SP2 sidebar has adopted a memory of the positions (not from me), and its mind cannot be altered by dragging gadgets around.

Either that, or it's dynamically adopting a positional hierarchy based on some fixed attribute of the gadget (creation date for example).

Anyone else noticed anything similar ?

 

[mqudsi]

I never got a chance to try out SP2 final - I've been using Windows 7 for a while.

But SP2 beta never gave me any of the problems you described.... Sorry I cannot be of more help!

 

[Terry60]

Since SP2 support is free, like WUD generally, I've raised it with MS today.
Awaiting response "within the next working day".

 

[mqudsi]

But this is the sort of behavior they love to classify as "Could Not Reproduce"

 

[JustinW]

I've seen this before, but unpinned gadgets dragged manually to the desired location seems to do the trick. Granted you than have a useless sidebar on your screen and re-adjusting resolution means you'lll need to re-drag stuff around. I've stopped using gadgets though

Once I do a full backup here I'll install SP2 and give the gadgets another go to see if I'm getting the same issue.

 

[Terry60]

I just had a reply from MS giving me a polite brush-off for contaminating their SP2 feedback with an XP problem !!!.
Not only does SP2 cause the shuffle mentioned, but their activeX control seems to find the wrong system information.
Despite me saying with absolute clarity in the text that this was a problem with Vista and SP2, they seem only to have noticed the little "system Windows XP" footnote, which they added to my text.

It's gone back with highlighting, that it's Vista SP2, and that they appear to have another problem with their feedback page.

I guess that's another working day to wait.

 

[HaZe303]

High terry, I have the same damn issue. Its really annoying to be dragging the gadgets to youre wanted order everytime you boot. Please do tell if you got some answers from MS, as you already said MS is no fun to be in contact with so I would really be happy if I didnt need to go down that path as well...

Thx in advance.

 

[Terry60]

Sorry Haze, despite my getting back to them and assuring them that it's an SP2 problem, the next reply was "I don't have the technical expertise to deal with this problem, why don't you phone the help line"
My reply, more politely than this, was in essence "What the h*ll are you doing manning an SP2 fault reporting facility then ?"
I told them I didn't need help dragging gadgets, I was merely trying to report a bug in their code, which should be drawn to the attention of the appropriate department.

I've heard no more.

Perhaps if you report it too, it will add some more weight.

 

[Coolname007]

My reply, more politely than this, was in essence "What the h*ll are you doing manning an SP2 fault reporting facility then ?"

:lol: Sounds just like Microsoft to put an unqualified person in charge of tech support...

 

[JustinW]

Terry,

I'm going to do some playing around with it to see if I can find a solution, but in the meantime would removing and re-adding the gadgets in the order you want fix this problem?

 

[HaZe303]

Thx Terry for youre reply, I will try to contact MS as well so this issue gets some attention.

And thx kairozamorro, please try finding the answer if you can!! Thx in advance!

 

[Terry60]

That was one of the 1st things I tried Jus, but it makes no difference. My assessment is that the order is determined by order that the gadget-startup finishes in. 1st one takes the top, then gets pushed down by the next and so on till they've all started, and the 1st one is now bottom and the last to start is top.
The code that remembered the screen position from a previous boot seems to have disappeared completely. (this is on x64 btw - don't know whether x86 is the same)

 

[JustinW]

Well on x86 I don't seem to be getting this problem, but you can try the above mentioned workaround and maybe...

With everything rearranged as you like it close (right click on sidebar icon in system tray and select exit) sidebar and start it again (staying logged in of course) and see if everything appears as expected. If it does, reboot and see if the changes stick.

Unpin the gadgets from the sidebar and re-pin them (rather than drag them) in the order you perfer.

Addendum:

This is about the only MS topic I could find on it. It appears to be 64-bit Windows specific. They've got a few other things to try beyond what I've posted so far.


Addendum:


Ok, sidebar loads and saves its settings in a settings.ini file located at:

%userprofile%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Sidebar\

All the info for each gadget you add to the sidebar needed by sidebar when its started is located in individual ini sections in the file. Example:

[Section 1]
PrivateSetting_GadgetName=%PROGRAMFILES%\windows sidebar\gadgets\Clock.gadget
PrivateSetting_Enabled=true
PrivateSetting_GadgetTopmost="false"
PrivateSetting_SidebarDockedState="Docked"

The above is the entry for the clock gadget.

Everytime you add a new gadget, its assigned a section number that isn't in use and placed under a new ini section above. Somewhere near the top of the file you should find a line similar to this:

SidebarDockedPartsOrder="0x1,0x3,0x2,"

With the way I've got stuff configured I've got three gadgets, with the first gadget I added (Gadeget under ini section 1 or "[Section 1]") displaying at the top, the last gadget I added displaying in the middle, and the gadget before last displayed below the others.

So to adjust the order, close sidebar all together, open this file in notepad, change the SidebarDockedPartsOrder line to reflect the order you want the gadgets to display in, and Sidebar should than respect the order you wanted the gadgets in. You'll need to save the file elsewhere and copy back over unless you open Notepad elevated and navigate to the file.

Here's my entire ini file for gadgets to help everyone see what I'm talking about:

[Root]
SettingsVersion="00.00.00.01"
SidebarShowState="Imploded"
SidebarDockedPartsOrder="0x1,0x3,0x2,"
Section0=1
Section1=2
Section2=3
SidebarAutoStart="false"
SidebarDockedPartsPage1="3"
SidebarDockSide="2"
SidebarAlwaysOnTop="false"
SidebarDockMonitor="0"
OneTimeHideMessageShown="true"
OneTimeExitMessageShown="true"
PickerPosX="352"
PickerPosY="183"
[Section 1]
PrivateSetting_GadgetName=%PROGRAMFILES%\windows sidebar\gadgets\Clock.gadget
PrivateSetting_Enabled=true
PrivateSetting_GadgetTopmost="false"
PrivateSetting_SidebarDockedState="Docked"
[Section 2]
PrivateSetting_GadgetName=%PROGRAMFILES%\windows sidebar\gadgets\SlideShow.Gadget
PrivateSetting_Enabled=true
PrivateSetting_GadgetTopmost="false"
PrivateSetting_SidebarDockedState="Docked"
[Section 3]
PrivateSetting_GadgetName=%PROGRAMFILES%\windows sidebar\gadgets\RSSFeeds.Gadget
PrivateSetting_Enabled=true
loadFirstTime=defaultGadget
PrivateSetting_GadgetTopmost="false"
PrivateSetting_SidebarDockedState="Docked"
[Hashes]
C:\Program Files\windows sidebar\gadgets\SlideShow.Gadget="%7B59359FCA-B88E-AD0A-3EB8-B038FDE8999D%7D"
C:\Program Files\windows sidebar\gadgets\RSSFeeds.Gadget="%7B0CAA575C-DB1B-53EB-F504-44707D59EE12%7D"
C:\Program Files\windows sidebar\gadgets\Clock.gadget="%7B5E077F07-C6CC-ED04-FC31-319239EC1788%7D"
C:\Program Files\Windows Sidebar\Gadgets\Calendar.Gadget="%7B75F65C69-AD5B-6CC0-C6D7-AB4B78E86669%7D"

 

[HaZe303]

Thx for youre help KairoZamarro, I tried what you said, but still after changing the ini it still starts up with the gadgets in wrong order. I even tried to make the ini read-only, but that didnt work either. If I close the sidebar and edit the ini, as soon as I start the sidebar again and open the ini, the ini is changed back to the way it was before my changes?? Thx for you efforts, please if you have any more ideas im all ears!

Ps. It seems like sidebar writes the ini at start instead of just reading it? Here is a copy of my settings.ini file. And im on Vista x64 as well.



[Root]
SettingsVersion="00.00.00.01"
SidebarShowState="Imploded"
SidebarDockedPartsOrder="0x3,0x2,0x4,0x1,"
SidebarAutoStart="true"
SidebarDockedPartsPage1="3"
OneTimeRemoveGadgetMessageShown="true"
SidebarDockSide="2"
SidebarAlwaysOnTop="true"
SidebarDockMonitor="0"
PickerPosX="462"
PickerPosY="237"
OneTimeCloseLastDockedMessageShown="true"
Section0="1"
Section1="2"
Section2="3"
Section3="4"
OneTimeExitMessageShown="true"


[Hashes]
C:\Program Files\windows sidebar\gadgets\SlideShow.Gadget="%7BD798CD33-0E8F-DCBF-B977-24F2B1E9531C%7D"
C:\Program Files\windows sidebar\gadgets\RSSFeeds.Gadget="%7B37A07E85-4CC3-6F27-06AC-A2D50575B2BB%7D"
C:\Program Files\windows sidebar\gadgets\Clock.gadget="%7B9FE5FCA0-159D-CC2E-FA6E-5F6D3B09D070%7D"
C:\Users\HaZe303\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Sidebar\Gadgets\XDSystemA1 (visar alla 8, stor).gadget="%7B3B383CBD-5A56-C68A-C0EC-0F6F50285C97%7D"
C:\Users\HaZe303\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Sidebar\Gadgets\TopProcess.gadget="%7BA3C9106B-7F78-BAA1-959A-B18381A8C5F1%7D"
C:\Users\HaZe303\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Sidebar\Gadgets\htCpuMem2 (gröna) (visar alla 8 cores).gadget="%7B30B4FA2A-B5D2-21C8-4858-714CDEC79351%7D"
C:\Program Files\Windows Sidebar\Gadgets\Stocks.Gadget="%7B918FD8B6-643B-066A-6174-F750501C7AE2%7D"
C:\Users\HaZe303\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Sidebar\Gadgets\EVEREST.Gadget="%7B7B6BE2D1-7386-BF0F-B2D2-2E4C81134402%7D"
[Section 1]
PrivateSetting_GadgetName="C:%5CUsers%5CHaZe303%5CAppData%5CLocal%5CMicrosoft%5CWindows%20Sidebar%5CGadgets%5CEVEREST.Gadget"
PrivateSetting_Enabled="true"
Skin="black"
PrivateSetting_GadgetTopmost="false"
PrivateSetting_SidebarDockedState="Docked"
[Section 2]
PrivateSetting_GadgetName="C:%5CUsers%5CHaZe303%5CAppData%5CLocal%5CMicrosoft%5CWindows%20Sidebar%5CGadgets%5CTopProcess.gadget"
PrivateSetting_Enabled="true"
PrivateSetting_GadgetOpacity="60"
numProcesses="4"
updateInterval="3"
noFade="True"
resourceType="memory"
PrivateSetting_GadgetTopmost="false"
PrivateSetting_SidebarDockedState="Docked"
[Section 3]
PrivateSetting_GadgetName="C:%5CUsers%5CHaZe303%5CAppData%5CLocal%5CMicrosoft%5CWindows%20Sidebar%5CGadgets%5CTopProcess.gadget"
PrivateSetting_Enabled="true"
PrivateSetting_GadgetOpacity="60"
numProcesses="4"
updateInterval="3"
noFade="True"
resourceType="cpu"
PrivateSetting_GadgetTopmost="false"
PrivateSetting_SidebarDockedState="Docked"
[Section 4]
PrivateSetting_GadgetName="C:%5CUsers%5CHaZe303%5CAppData%5CLocal%5CMicrosoft%5CWindows%20Sidebar%5CGadgets%5ChtCpuMem2%20(gr%F6na)%20(visar%20alla%208%20cores).gadget"
PrivateSetting_Enabled="true"
di="2"
dt="1"
da="False"
dc="False"
dm="False"
dh="True"
dg="True"
dr="True"
dp="True"
de="True"
hg="True"
at="0"
sa="True"
PrivateSetting_GadgetOpacity="60"
sc="True"
PrivateSetting_GadgetTopmost="false"
PrivateSetting_SidebarDockedState="Docked"

 

[Terry60]

The problem seems to be deeper than the ini file Jus.
I just had a look at mine, which was so complex it prompted me to uninstall a load of things I'd tried once and abandoned, but were still available to add.
I left just the 7 I use, dragged them into the right place, and looked at the ini file again, and everything had changed, so it seems that the storing of the information gets recorded. The problem seems to be that x64 sidebar doesn't read and act upon that info at boot, just positions the gadgets itself and rewrites the ini.
Mine, btw looks considerably more complex than yours. No simple 1 to 7 numbering

[Root]
SettingsVersion="00.00.00.01"
SidebarShowState="Imploded"
SidebarDockedPartsOrder="0x1f,0x1e,0x1d,0x20,0x3,0x1c,0x17,"
Section0="3"
SidebarAutoStart="true"
SidebarDockedPartsPage1="7"
OneTimeRemoveGadgetMessageShown="true"
Section1="6"
PickerPosX="707"
PickerPosY="437"
SidebarDockSide="2"
SidebarAlwaysOnTop="false"
SidebarDockMonitor="0"
OneTimeHideMessageShown="true"
Section2="8"
Section3="9"
Section4="16"
Section5="21"
Section6="23"
OneTimeCloseLastDockedMessageShown="true"
PickerDefaultPackageSkipList="Stocks.Gadget,Contacts.Gadget,CPU.Gadget,RSSFeeds.Gadget,PicturePuzzle.Gadget,Weather.Gadget,Currency.Gadget,Clock.Gadget,SlideShow.Gadget,"
Section7="28"
Section8="29"
Section9="30"
Section10="31"
Section11="32"
[Section 3]
PrivateSetting_GadgetName="C:%5CProgram%20Files%5CWindows%20Sidebar%5CGadgets%5CNotes.Gadget"
PrivateSetting_Enabled="true"
PrivateSetting_SidebarDockedState="Docked"
0="Set%20up%20multi-generation%20backup"
NoteCount="9"
SettingsExist="True"
NoteState="8"
ColorSaved="yellow"
FontSaved="Segoe%20UI"
SizeDockedSaved="12"
SizeUndockedSaved="12"
PrivateSetting_GadgetTopmost="false"
1="52.29%20%2052.22%20%2052.37%0D%0A51.30%20%2051.48%20%2051.29%0D%0A%0D%0A"
2="Harepath%20Cottage%0D%0ASU225(60)606(88)%0D%0AW%201%BA%2040'%2039%22%20%0D%0AN51%BA%2020'%2041%22"
3="Marshalsea%0D%0APoirrot%0D%0ADome"
4="RFFTV-J6K7W-MHBQJ-XYMMJ-Q8DCH%0D%0AW7%20key"
5="TRR36,PDTHB,9XBHC,PPYQK,GBPKQ%0D%0ATHIS%20KEY%20IS%20UNIVERSAL%20KEY"
6="update%20income%26tax.123"
7="Windows%207%20RC%2064-bit.%0D%0AProduct%20key:%20MVYTY-QP8R7-6G6WG-87MGT-CRH2P%0D%0A%0D%0Aor%206JQ32-Y9CGY-3Y986-HDQKT-BPFPG%0D%0A%0D%0A"
8="Pico%20+%0D%0ARMA%205146"
[Hashes]
C:\Program Files\Windows Sidebar\Gadgets\Calendar.Gadget="%7BAF1A8B73-AFFC-B5ED-E7E2-EAF1024D0780%7D"
C:\Program Files\Windows Sidebar\Gadgets\Notes.Gadget="%7B331A1952-3CAF-F745-6F51-EBBFC27AFD4C%7D"
C:\Users\Terry\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Sidebar\Gadgets\Moon Phase II.Gadget="%7B46A5DF3A-BF18-6543-EE50-3F5854F95724%7D"
C:\Users\Terry\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Sidebar\Gadgets\Euro Lightning.Gadget="%7B1A2A807A-1DB5-79EC-22C3-5DAB94793143%7D"
C:\Users\Terry\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Sidebar\Gadgets\DigitalDutchClock.gadget="%7B1C2BECA9-25FA-9470-99DD-E026347A640C%7D"
C:\Users\Terry\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Sidebar\Gadgets\ClipboardManager.gadget="%7B1AD7CE0F-7409-6F4C-96C4-EA93553FDC95%7D"
C:\Users\Terry\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Sidebar\Gadgets\BBCRadio.gadget="%7BB7257667-3D7C-69BE-6632-0DBC5546AE88%7D"
[Section 6]
PrivateSetting_GadgetName="C:%5CUsers%5CTerry%5CAppData%5CLocal%5CTemp%5Cmetoffice.gadget.~0000"
PrivateSetting_Enabled="true"
[Section 8]
PrivateSetting_GadgetName="C:%5CUsers%5CTerry%5CAppData%5CLocal%5CTemp%5CMoon%20Phase%20II.Gadget.~0000"
PrivateSetting_Enabled="true"
[Section 9]
PrivateSetting_GadgetName="C:%5CUsers%5CTerry%5CAppData%5CLocal%5CTemp%5CMoon%20Phase%20II.Gadget.~0001"
PrivateSetting_Enabled="true"
[Section 16]
PrivateSetting_GadgetName="C:%5CUsers%5CTerry%5CAppData%5CLocal%5CTemp%5CMoon%20Phase%20II.Gadget.~0002"
PrivateSetting_Enabled="true"
[Section 21]
PrivateSetting_GadgetName="C:%5CUsers%5CTerry%5CAppData%5CLocal%5CTemp%5CAlarmClock.gadget.~0001"
PrivateSetting_Enabled="true"
[Section 23]
PrivateSetting_GadgetName="C:%5CUsers%5CTerry%5CAppData%5CLocal%5CMicrosoft%5CWindows%20Sidebar%5CGadgets%5CClipboardManager.gadget"
PrivateSetting_Enabled="true"
settingsSaved="True"
backgroundFilesCount="88"
backgroundImageIndex="68"
historyCapacity="999"
charsPerItem="99"
fontSize="7"
fontColor="%23222222"
privacyMode="True"
clearOnShutdown="False"
versionIgnored="0.0.0.0"
PrivateSetting_GadgetTopmost="false"
PrivateSetting_SidebarDockedState="Docked"
[Section 28]
PrivateSetting_GadgetName="C:%5CUsers%5CTerry%5CAppData%5CLocal%5CMicrosoft%5CWindows%20Sidebar%5CGadgets%5CBBCRadio.gadget"
PrivateSetting_Enabled="true"
PrivateSetting_GadgetTopmost="false"
PrivateSetting_SidebarDockedState="Docked"
[Section 29]
PrivateSetting_GadgetName="C:%5CUsers%5CTerry%5CAppData%5CLocal%5CMicrosoft%5CWindows%20Sidebar%5CGadgets%5CMoon%20Phase%20II.Gadget"
PrivateSetting_Enabled="true"
PrivateSetting_GadgetTopmost="false"
PrivateSetting_SidebarDockedState="Docked"
[Section 30]
PrivateSetting_GadgetName="C:%5CProgram%20Files%5CWindows%20Sidebar%5CGadgets%5CCalendar.Gadget"
PrivateSetting_Enabled="true"
dockedCalendarView="DAY_DOCKED"
dockedCalendarDivType="dow"
unDockedCalendarView="MONTH_UNDOCKED"
PrivateSetting_GadgetTopmost="false"
PrivateSetting_SidebarDockedState="Docked"
[Section 31]
PrivateSetting_GadgetName="C:%5CUsers%5CTerry%5CAppData%5CLocal%5CMicrosoft%5CWindows%20Sidebar%5CGadgets%5CDigitalDutchClock.gadget"
PrivateSetting_Enabled="true"
SettingsExist="True"
clockName=
themeID="1"
timeZoneIndex="-1"
showDay="True"
showDate="True"
showDigital="False"
secondsEnabled="True"
secondsEnabledDigital="False"
show24="False"
PrivateSetting_GadgetTopmost="false"
PrivateSetting_SidebarDockedState="Docked"
[Section 32]
PrivateSetting_GadgetName="C:%5CUsers%5CTerry%5CAppData%5CLocal%5CMicrosoft%5CWindows%20Sidebar%5CGadgets%5CEuro%20Lightning.Gadget"
PrivateSetting_Enabled="true"
PrivateSetting_GadgetTopmost="false"
PrivateSetting_SidebarDockedState="Docked"

 

[JustinW]

Well it perserve the settings if you start sidebar after placing the modified ini file? What I'm thinking is if it'll do that at this point you guys can create a batch to copy over the modified file from somewhere elese on your systems and than run sidebar, instead of just having sidebar startup on its own. You couls still schedule the batch to run at logon, so its almost the same thing...

I wish I could reproduce the problems here, but I got x86 so it must be the x64 versions.

 

[Terry60]

Yes that link you gave suggests it's exclusively x64.

 

[JustinW]

Does starting sidebar manually with a batch after copying over the ini containing the settings you want on reboot work?

Here's an example batch for it, assuming you've got the settings.ini you want sidebar to use in your user folder:

@echo off
rem #### Copies perferred settings to the correct location, replacing settings.ini there if it already exists
copy /Y "%userprofile%\settings.ini" "%userprofile%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Sidebar\settings.ini"
rem #### Starts Sidebar
start "%programfiles%\Windows Sidebar\sidebar.exe"

Addendum:

Terry, looking over your file it does look complex. Personally I'd delete it and re-add the gadgets so it goes in order like mine and than if there's still problems try the above. Turn off autostart of sidebar on boot all together and reboot to see if you guys are still having issues here.

 

[HaZe303]

Thx for the tip, but that seems almost more time consuming than just rearraning my 4 gadgets to right order? Maybe im wrong?

 

[Terry60]

If my gadgets were vanilla, used as supplied, I'd happily experiment as you describe. Unfortunately several of my gadgets are repositories of information which are there specifically to keep data at my fingertips between boots, so deleting and re-adding them would be extremely counter-productive.
I did do something similar early on with those gagets that are used as supplied, without any customization, but it made absolutely no difference to the way they're numbered or the way the sidebar behaves since SP2.