I have recently started using Windows 7 Beta and sometime during the installation of some software (not sure which) I lost my Sidebar and cannot get it to re-enable. Can anyone help?

With Windows 7, the sidebar is the entire desktop. But I'm assuming that you probably already know that already.Did you, per chance, turn your UAC settings to OFF...? If so, that is the problem. You will need to re-enable UAC to at least the minimum setting.

I was not aware that the sidebar was the entire desktop. Thanks for that piece of info. I also did not realize that turning off the UAC would shut down the gadgets. Upon turning the UAC back on (I am using minimum setting) my gadgets were restored. Thank you for your help.

You're welcome...Yeah... They did away with the sidebarbar. Gadgets now live on the desktop. It appears you could do the same under Vista, but that wasn't quite so obvious. UAC is required in some way shape or form for the sidebar.exe to work. Without UAC, the Sidebar doesn't run.

Leave UAC on. Although it may present a minor annoyance, it is really there to make the OS much more secure than 2K/XP. When you turn off UAC, you effectively make the OS no more secure than a default install of XP. Once you get used to UAC and how it works, you wont even notice it.

It isa minor annoyance but I don't see how you cannot notice something that throws up a window whenever you want to run a program. :) It would be nice if it only asked about running a program the first time you try to run it and give you the option to "Always trust [Program Name]". It does do that sometimes though for some publishers.BTW. Is there an "Administrator Account" (like the one in Vista) that can be turned on and if so how?

Yeah... it's an annoyance, but IMO, better safe than sorry. It's better to be slightly annoyed than royally P.O.'ed because my system got infected by something or other. The idea of always trusting an app... It's got it's merits, but apps can and do change - updates, etc... Yes... There IS an Administrator account. It can be activated by going to the Local User Manager either by digging through the control panel (Start | Control Panel | All Control Panel Items | Click "User Accounts"| Click "Manage User Accounts" | Click Advanced Tab | Click Advanced button in the middle ) Or you could simply click the Start orb, and type "Local" and click on the item called "Edit Local Users and groups" to get to the same place.From there you simply Click Users | Right-Click Administrator |Click Properties | Uncheck "Account is disabled | Click OK until you're back to the desktop.

DarienHawk67 - I beg to differ on UAC; it is not a "minor annoyance" it is a MAJOR PIA. When it pops up (on the minimum setting) EACH time that Avast! wants to update AV definitions, EACH time that I want to run Ccleaner, etc., it is not useful, only annoying. The only way to get a "pleasant user experience" is to turn it all the way off. If it had some "intelligence" and only spewed it's annoyances for a couple of times then "learned," I might use it; but, it isn't programmed that way that I can tell.

drmsucks - Funny... I had Avast! installed on the Beta - and it never once threw up a UAC warning when it was time to update itself- In fact, the ONLY UAC warning I got from it was when I installed it. And that was with UAC turned on FULL blast.Now seriously... How often DO you have to run CCLEANER? If you have to run it maybe once a month or once a week, that's fine, but how much of an annoyance is it to click the UAC then? I can see it being rather annoying is if you have to run something every 5 minutes. There IS method to it's apparent madness. UAC is there to protect you. Not so much from yourself - but to protect you from rogue programs modifying things they shouldn't be.

Hope this helps ... http://nes.bplaced.net/sidebar7.html