Aren’t gadgets unsafe? After all, Microsoft removed them for a reason?

Gadgets can contain viruses like any other software. Despite the warning when installing a gadget, people seemed to think that it is safe to run any gadget (e.g. like it is to view a website). That is not the case. Opening a gadget is as dangerous as it is to run an .exe file. But this is not a security hole. If an attacker wanted to access your computer, he’d need to convince you to open his prepared .gadget file. As long as you trust the source of the gadgets you install, and you use anti-virus software, you should be safe.

How to enable Windows Desktop Gadgets in Windows 11/10/8.1

To re-enable Sidebar Gadgets on Windows 11/10/8.1 follow this instruction — how to enable sidebar gadgets in Windows 10.

After unzipping the downloaded archive with the gadget file, double-clicking on the .gadget file had no effect. What is wrong?

Go to Windows Security and switch OFF “Check apps and files” temporarily. Download the archive with gadget and switch ON “Check apps and files” if you really need it.

Since the 1709 version of Windows 10, the read and write data counters (with small arrows) do not get back to zero between two windows sessions. What can I change to impose a reset for these totalizations?

Windows 10 starts by default on HiberBoot (FastStart) and the HDD counter doesn’t go back to zero. To reset the values you must do a restart but not stop and start.

After updating the video driver, the GPU Monitor showed “Library error!” message and doesn’t work.

Now we know two solutions to this issue:
Solution 1:
Try to reinstall the sidebar program. It will help in most cases.
Solution 2 (thanks to Martin Ruppe):
1. Removing the Siedebar.exe shortcut from the Windows Autostart.
2. Made a new task in the scheduler: starting sidebar.exe with user logon and a delay of 30 seconds.

System Monitor II shows a “Load library error” message even when I run CoreTemp.

You must install .NET Framework 3.5 to fix this issue.

Gadgets not displaying correctly.

1. Download Reset_Gadgets.bat file here.
2. Click on Save (if prompted), and save the .bat file to your desktop.
3. Right click on the downloaded .bat file and click on Run as administrator.
4. If prompted by UAC, then click on Yes.
5. You will see a command prompt flash open and close as the .bat file runs.
6. When finished, restart the computer to apply.

Some gadgets are giving me a weird screen.

Why does System Monitor II show my CPU speed not correct in Turbo mode? Other utilities like CPUID show it correctly.

As you may know, gadgets are HTML+JavaScript only. They can limit access to other Windows components. System Monitor II can get information that is provided by Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) only. For some unknown reason, WMI can’t provide right information about CPU clocks in Turbo mode. It means my gadget can show only this wrong information. Unfortunately, I can not fix this issue. Sorry for the inconvenience.
You can use the following method to fix this. Run the CoreTemp application in the background. Go to #4 settings tab and check the “Allow getting CPUID and clock from CoreTemp” box. Press the OK button.

Some gadgets (e.g. Drives Monitor) are consuming 15-20% CPU time on my Win7. Have tracked it down WMI queries via WmiPrvSE.exe.

It may be connected with the wrong WMI database. Try to rebuild it. Do follow:
1. Click Start, expand All Programs, and expand Accessories.
2. Right-click Command Prompt, and then click Run as administrator.
3. At the command prompt, type lodctr /r, and then press ENTER.
4. If you use x64 Windows after that type cd .. ENTER then cd SysWOW64 ENTER then type lodctr /r, and then press ENTER again.

I see the “No WMI info” string in Drives Monitor. What is wrong?

If you see an error message: “No WMI info” it means that base performance counters on your system are corrupted for any reason. For fix this do follow:
Solution 1:
1. Click Start, expand All Programs, and expand Accessories.
2. Right-click Command Prompt, and then click Run as administrator.
3. At the command prompt, type lodctr /r, and then press ENTER.
4. If you use x64 Windows after that type cd .. ENTER then cd SysWOW64 ENTER then type lodctr /r, and then press ENTER again.
Solution 2:
These counters can be disabled in the registry. Just set
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Perfdisk\Performance\Disable Performance Counters to 0 and reboot.
Or you may delete Disable Performance Counters key in brunch HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Perfdisk\Performance and create new Disable Performance Counters key of type REG_DWORD with a value of 0.
Some details see Broken WMI and Performance counters are disabled, they use Exctrlst.exe

I see “PerfOS is disabled!!!” string in Top Process Monitor. What is wrong?

If you see an error message “PerfOS is disabled!!!” it means that base performance counters on your system are corrupted for any reason. For fix this do follow:
Solution 1:
1. Click Start, expand All Programs, and expand Accessories.
2. Right-click Command Prompt, and then click Run as administrator.
3. At the command prompt, type lodctr /r, and then press ENTER.
4. If you use x64 Windows after that type cd .. ENTER then cd SysWOW64 ENTER then type lodctr /r, and then press ENTER again.
Solution 2:
These counters can be disabled in the registry. Just set
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\PerfOS\Performance\Disable Performance Counters to 0 and reboot.
Or you may delete Disable Performance Counters key in brunch HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\PerfOS\Performance and create new Disable Performance Counters key of type REG_DWORD with a value of 0.
of type REG_DWORD with a value of 0 and reboot.
Some details see Broken WMI and Performance counters are disabled, they use Exctrlst.exe

My gadget shows: “Broken WMI”. How do I fix this?

Try to rebuild the WMI database, as maybe it’s connected with the wrong one. Do the following:
1. Click Start, expand All Programs, and expand Accessories.
2. Right-click Command Prompt, and then click Run as administrator.
3. At the command prompt, type lodctr /r, and then press ENTER.
4. If you use x64 Windows after that type cd .. ENTER then cd SysWOW64 ENTER then type lodctr /r, and then press ENTER again.
Some details see Broken WMI

In Drives Monitor read and write data counters do not get back to zero between two windows sessions.

Read our Enable/disable disk performance counters article.

I see a “no connected device” message in Network Monitor II interface for monitoring. Why and how can I fix this?

Most likely, the performance counters are turned off. There are a few ways to turn these back on, including the registry editor. The easiest way however is the following:
1. Download and install the following program: Exctrlst.exe.
2. Run the program installed, and it will bring up a list.
3. Search through the list looking for anything to do with the network options. The most likely one you are looking for is TCP/IP.
4. Select this up and then look at the bottom to see if it is enabled (will have a tick in the checkbox). If not, then tick the checkbox and exit the program.
5. Shutdown and restart the computer.
Some details see Performance counters are disabled, they use Exctrlst.exe

I see “A semi colon character was expected” (Error: -1072896760) string in BOINC Monitor. Why?

If you see the error message: “A semi colon character was expected” it is connected with client_state.xml problem is that it contains non-ASCII characters (>127). Error appears when you abort some WU or BOINC detect “calculate error”. I ask developer Dr. David Anderson about that. His answer: I made the fix, but it won’t appear until the next client release. To fix this error now try to go to BOINC and press Project -> Update button. Then in most cases error disappear and the gadget works proper. This error was fixed in BOINC version 6.12.28 or later.

I change the gadget’s size or/and other settings and after that gadgets are in size 1, and I can’t change them. When I tried to enter the right size, nothing happened. Some fields in settings are blank. Can I do something?

It connected with the wrong Windows Sidebar’s settings file (sometimes this file writes wrong). To fix this, do follow:
1. Close Sidebar or restart Windows in a safe mode.
2. Go to the folder %UserProfile%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Sidebar
3. Delete file Settings.ini
4. Run Sidebar or restart Windows.

Upgrading older versions of some gadgets. When I try to install, I’m asked if I want to upgrade, but the new version never shows as installed. How can I upgrade my gadget with the new version?

It may cause problems with System Monitor II, Network Monitor II, Mouse Monitor, Keyboard Monitor and GPU Monitor. To fix this problem, do follow:
1. Close all instances of the Gadget.
2. In Vista — Restart Windows or kill the “sidebar.exe” process by using the Task Manager.
3. In Windows 7/8.1/10/11 — Right click Desktop, View, uncheck “Show Desktop Gadgets”.
4. Go to %UserProfile%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Sidebar\Gadgets and delete the appropriate folder, e.g. SystemMonitorII.gadget or NetworkMonitorII.gadget
5. Start Sidebar again from the Desktop context menu (right click Desktop).
6. Install new version (upgrade).

I want to reinstall my Windows. Where can I find the gadget's settings files?

Gadgets save settings into special *.ini files. Each gadget use an individual ini-file. You can find this file in folder %AppData%. Files have names GadgetName_Settings.ini

Gadgets on a desktop assume an air of white squares and can’t run WMP

Just run follow .cmd file with administrator rights:
CD %programfiles%\Windows Sidebar
regsvr32 -u sbdrop.dll
regsvr32 -u wlsrvc.dll
regsvr32 atl.dll
regsvr32 sbdrop.dll
regsvr32 wlsrvc.dll
regsvr32 scrrun.dll
regsvr32 jscript.dll
regsvr32 msxml3.dll
Then use regedit.exe
Go to the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\Zones and delete ALL keys (folders) except numerical.

Gadgets are not correctly represented and work services are not represented.

Just run follow .cmd file with administrator rights:
regsvr32 atl.dll
regsvr32 corpol.dll
regsvr32 dispex.dll
regsvr32 jscript.dll
regsvr32 scrrun.dll
regsvr32 scrobj.dll
regsvr32 vbscript.dll
regsvr32 wshext.dll
regsvr32 wshom.ocx
regsvr32 msxml3.dll
regsvr32 ole32.dll
regsvr32 oleaut32.dll

Gadgets can not connect to the internet, but the Internet in other applications is accessible.

With IE still open, Click FILE and check that “WORK OFFLINE” does NOT have a checkmark next to it. If it does, just left click it once.

Network Monitor II says “firewall off” but I use an external firewall, and it is on. What is wrong?

Network Monitor II can monitor the Windows Firewall only and not any 3d party Firewall.