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!

Fed up with Internet Explorer 8 which is unstable at best? Windows Live Mail (WLM) doesn’t work well with IE8 Beta 2 and there are reported cases where WLM Photo E-mail doesn’t work as expected (images are not included in the message)

In Windows Vista, Windows Internet Explorer 8 is not considered to be a ‘program’. Instead, IE8 is categorizing as an ‘update’. Thus, users will not be able to find Windows Internet Explorer 8 in “Programs and Features” of Windows Vista.

To uninstall Internet Explorer 8, go to Control Panel, and click on Uninstall Programs link or Programs and Features icon. Then on Tasks pane on the left, click on View installed updates link. Locate and select Windows Internet Explorer 8 in the list of installed updates, and then click on Uninstall button. Click on Yes when asked that are you sure want to uninstall the update.

How to Uninstall Windows Internet Explorer 8 (IE8) in Vista

Sometimes Windows Vista folder views gets messed up and you seem to lose the customized view of the folder(s). For example, Pictures folder view changes from Thumbnail view to Icons view and the sorting order of the files changes from Order by Last Modified to Type.

For the solution, visit My Digital Life Blog for the full explanation of how this is done.

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