Reinstalling Sidebar

Question

Is there any way to reset or reinstall the Sidebar to fix one that has gone nuts?

Fing · Answer

Is the Icon for Sidebar still on the right side of the task bar?

If yes, Right click on it, and choose Properties.

Try hitting the button for "Restore gadgets installed with Windows" and see if that helps. There is also a button that will "View list of running gadgets" If you know which gadget is causing the trouble, you can easily remove it from that list.

You can also bring up the sidebar properties via the Windows Control Panel.

Fing · Answer

O.K., I've got to ask this... It's a curiosity thing..... Could you please elaborate on your description 'Gone Nuts'.

jimd18ge · Answer

Gone nuts as in crazy.    As for your suggestions, I will try but our previous attempts to do anything results in the system hanging.  In it's present state, sidebar is consuming 50+ of the processor.  It takes several minutes to get the properties window open and if I list gadgets, there are a ton of calendars listed.  I have not been successful in deleting even one of these from the list, hence the question about reinstalling the program from scratch.  This is Vista Home Basic on a new Dell E521.  What I cannot tell at this point is, is this user error or a bug in sidebar.

pcgeek11 · Answer

' there are a ton of calendars listed.'   Sounds like user error. I searched the web and found no other discussions of this being a bug in the sidebar. Did you try to reset the original taskbar gadgets as per the above posters suggestion?   pcgeek11

Fing · Answer

As far as removing the sidebar and reinstalling it... I can't find it anywhere on the list for installed programs or features that would allow us to remove then reinstall it.

Gotta be an easy way to fix it. WITHOUT having to reload the OS. We just gotta find it.

Try accessing the sidebar properties from the control panel. But, first Right click on the icon in the taskbar and choose "exit". If that doesn't work, get mean with it. Right click the taskbar, and open "Task Manager". Select the "processes" tab, Scroll down the list until you get to Sidebar.exe, Hi-light it and hit "End process" Little blah blah window will pop up to confirm you want to kill it. Tell it yes. If there is more than one sidebar.exe listed, kill them all. then try my earlier suggestion via the control panel.

jimd18ge · Answer

Let me give your suggestions a try.  It's a bit difficult as I have to do this remotely and rely on my dear old maw to follow instructions.  It's just a bit too far to drive over and fix.   Thanks for all your suggestions.

Fing · Answer

@jimd18ge wrote:

Let me give your suggestions a try. It's a bit difficult as I have to do this remotely and rely on my dear old maw to follow instructions. It's just a bit too far to drive over and fix.

Thanks for all your suggestions.

LOL! Been there still do that. In-laws on the west coast, me on the east. Soooo much fun. NOT!

smr2112 · Answer

My 'Gone Nuts' - if you mean constantly crashing and restarting gadgets - for no obvious reason - I too have this problem. Sometimes it says that about 6 of the 8 gadgets have died, gives me the chance to restart and sometimes I have dups. It has Gone Nuts! Anybody know if this is a known Vista issue? Could one specific gadget be perturbing the others to misbehave?

jimd18ge · Answer

No, different problem and I think the result of user error.  Somehow she managed to get about 20 plus calendar gadgets going at once.  I've no idea how but it steals so much processor power that the computer barely crawls.  I  had to do what you did and prevent Sidebar from loading.  What I was hoping was a for someone to tell me a quick and easy way to reinitilze the Sidebar to the MS defaults.  There is no way I can delete the multiple items because the system will hang if I attempt it.  Someone mentioned trying the 'Restore gadgets installed with Windows' but this is grayed out and I don't think it really reinitilizes the program anyway, just restores the original bunch of gadgets.    I also have Vista installed on a 640m and have had no issues at all.  Run the clock, weather gadget, stocks and a gadget that monitors memory and CPU.  All seem to work fine.    All I can say is 'it's Windows, your lucky if it works at all'

jimd18ge · Answer

UPDATE:  Issue resolved.   After several months, someone responded to a request I posted on the Windows Vista Community General discussion.  The problem is easliy resolved by exiting Sidebar (if running) and locating the settings.ini file in C:\Users\(your name)\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Sidebar.  Rename the settings.ini file and restart the Sidebar app.  A new settings.ini file will be created.   The new file size was about 2K compared to a 202K file size for the problem file.   I don't know if doing this may resolve other sidebar issues but it at least fixed my problem.  And, I was able to do this via pcAnywhere.   Thanks to dean-dean on the Windows Vista forum.

pcgeek11 · Answer

jimd18ge,   Thanks for the follow up and useful information! Glad you got it fixed! I'm sure Mom is now happy too.   pcgeek11

smr2112 · Answer

I recent windows update pushed out by Microsoft has somehow stabilized by Sidebar from crashing when the computer awoke from hibernate. So without touching the settings, things have stabilized.

Windows General

Reinstalling Sidebar

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