I've have just fired up my computer and it went thru the norm except at the end of the bootup my gadgets disappeared and a notice came up that 'Gadgets have stopped working'. I then went into Control Panel and a couple of other ways to see if I could get it going but no success - clicking on the icons etc. resulted in nothing. Rebooting the computer just told me the same at the end of the bootup.Does anyone know of, or seen the problem occurring before? Is there a simple solution to this problem?ThanksRooster66

Sorry, it's Rooster again. I should have stated that the Gadgets have disappeared off my desktop - not seized up. The problem is still there though if anyone can help resolve this problemThanks again

Hitry thisClick on the start button then on control panel. In the search box in the control panel screen type gadgetsIn the list that comes up click restore desktop gadgets that came with windows.Now you need to add them to your desktop againmalc

malcp, Your suggestion overcomes the symptoms and does not fix the problem. It will only occur again later. You may find your answer in this thread (within this forum) found by using Google: "gadgets disappear from desktop"http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/w7itproui/thread/3520c769-fae0-46d6-8a3b-22bac34a10a3This seems to be related to either UAC is turned off, or Hide Desktop is disabled.

Thanks malcp, but that didn't work. I even clicked on the view and add features but nothing happened. The mouse pointer thought about it for a few seconds and then the 'little circle' disappeared.

Hi jmhonzell, Thanks for your help so far. I went to the thread and found it helpful but I wasn't able to resolve it still. Show Desktop Items is enabled and also the box is checked for Gadget Platforms. The UAC was turned off so I set it to the first setting but that still didn't solve the problem.Pardon my ignorance but how do I bring up the 'run dialog box'? What's 'WINKEY+R'?

Hi, To load Run, click Start button -> All Program -> Accessories -> Run. You can also press the Windows+R key. Windows Key is beside the left Ctrl key. If suggestions on the above thread do not work, you may test it in Clean Boot mode. If it persists in Clean boot mode, try the following steps: Register DLL files ============== 1. Click Start Menu, type "cmd" (without quotation marks) in the Start Search box. 2. Right-click the exe file and choose "run as administrator". 3. Input the following commands in the DOS prompt window and press ENTER at the end of each line: CD C:\Program Files\Windows Sidebar REGSVR32 ATL.DLL REGSVR32 SBDROP.DLL REGSVR32 WLSRVC.DLL You can also reset the Gadget as below: Reset Sidebar =============== NOTE: the following steps will remove all downloaded Gadgets. Show Hidden File ------------------------ 1. Click the Start Button and click Control Panel. 2. Click Classic View and choose Folder Options. 3. Click View tab, choose Show hidden files and folders and uncheck Hide protected Operating System files and folders box, click Apply and click OK. Delete Sidebar file --------------------- 1. Click Start button -> Computer 2. Go to C:\Users\<user name>\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Sidebar (where <user name> is the user you log into Vista with). 3. Open Settings.ini, press CTRL+A (select all) and press delete. The file is now empty. Save the file. 4. Browse into the Gadgets directory. 5. Select CTRL+A (select all) and delete them. What's the result?Vivian Xing - MSFT

Just got a windows 7 (64 bit) pc and haven't had it 4 days and the gadgets disappeared. Tried your fix and same problem. Get a popup telling me "Windows Desktop Gadgets has stopped working". Then says "A problem has caused the program to stop working correctly. Windows will close the program and notify you if a solution is available." The only thing different today (when problem started) is Norton Internet Security 2009. Came with computer so I installed the trial version yesterday. Hated it so much I uninstalled it today and installed the free Microsoft version. Somewhere along the line the gadgets quit working. BTW, UAC is on.

Hello needle, I gave up in frustration in the end. Luckily my Windows 7 was only a beta. I've since bought the software and reinstalled so I've got my gadgets back - fingers crossed!! I hope one of the other guys can help you.