Repair Windows Vista Sidebar

All of a sudden my Windows Vista’s Sidebar stopped working and while I don’t care much for the many “Shiny” Gadgets found on http://vista.gallery.microsoft.com/vista/SideBar.aspx , I find the CPU Meter and Network Meter gadgets.

I searched the web and non of the suggested solutions worked….EXCEPT  “Solution 3” listed below…

Solution 1

• Click Start.
• Type Sidebar in Vista’s Start Menu Search bar and press Enter.
• Now you should be able to see the sidebar.

Solution 2

If this doesn’t work try this other trick:

1. Click Start.
2. Type Sidebar in Vista’s Start Menu Search bar and press Enter.
3. Click Windows Sidebar Properties.
4. Make sure  that Start Sidebar when Windows starts is checked.
5. Click OK.

Solutions 3

If this doesn’t work as well, try this last trick here:

1. Click Start.
2. Type CMD in the Start menu Search and press Enter.
3. Click on the CMD icon and click on Run as Administrator.
4. In the Command prompt copy and paste this piece of code and press Enter: regsvr32.exe atl.dll
5. Copy and paste these codes too, one after another and press Enter after each of them:
6. cd /d “%programfiles%\Windows Sidebar”
7. sidebar.exe /regserver
8. regsvr32.exe sbdrop.dll
9. regsvr32 wlsrvc.dll

Source (Windows Sidebar doesn’t start in Windows Vista | Web Talk)

When I ran the Disk Cleanup wizard I accidentally checked “Hibernate Files” to be deleted. The next thing I know was that Hibernate Button was gone from Windows Vista power options and start menu.

This was easy to fix in Windows XP but needs a bit digging to fix in Windows Vista.

I ran the Command Prompt windows as Administrator and typed :

powercfg /hibernate on

If you have UAC enabled, follow these steps:

Click the Start button.

2. Select All Programs.

3. Select Accessories.

4. Right-click on Command Prompt.

5. Select Run as Administrator.

6. When the UAC prompt appears, click Continue.

7. Type powercfg /hibernate on and press Enter on your keyboard.

8. Close the Command Prompt window.

9. Reboot your PC.

Thanks to http://www.tech-recipes.com/rx/2106/vista_restore_hibernate_option/ for the tip!