Problem With Sidebar & Gadgets

[Debby Hanoka]

OS: Windows Vista Ultimate SP2, fully patched & updated
System: Dell Inspiron 1545, 4 GB ram, 320 GB hard drive, Intel Core 2 Duo
processor 2 GHz.

Initially, I had a problem with my sidebar gadgets getting out of order each
time I turned on or restarted my computer. I hacked the registry, which
enabled me to keep my sidebar gadgets in order, but now I can't add any new
gadgets except for the ones that either I already had downloaded and
installed (WoW Explorer and App Launcher), or that came with WinVsta
Ultimate.

Allow me to explain: I go to
http://vista.gallery.microsoft.com/vista/SideBar.aspx?mkt=en-us and
download, for example, Fb Explorer. It saves to the Downloads director just
fine, but when I double click on it to open/install, I get the error
message:

Windows cannot open this file.

File: Fbexplorer.gadget

To open this file, Windows needs to know what program you want to use to
open it ...

It's the standard error message one would get when trying to open an
"unassociated" file. My question is this: To what program to I associate
the *.gadget file so that it will open properly and give me the option of
installing it to the list of available gadgets?

Thank you in advance for your time and assistance.

Sincerely,
Debby Hanoka
(e-mail address removed)

 

[Alan Edwards]

Gadgets are opened by Windows Sidebar.
That should be Program Files\Windows Sidebar\sidebar.exe

....Alan

 

[Debby Hanoka]

Alan,

Thank you for your response. I forgot to mention that I am using Vista
Ultimate 64-bit.

I took your suggestion and "associated" the *.gadget files with c:\Program
Files\Windows Sidebar\sidebar.exe, and double-clicked the file to install
it. It did nothing. I got the hourglass for a few seconds, the CPU Meter
gadget fluttered, but the gadget did not open or allow me to install it to
the sidebar. Do you or anyone else have any other suggestions?

Thank you,
Debby Hanoka
(e-mail address removed)

 

[Alan Edwards]

Sorry, but I have no other suggestions, apart from the obvious, which
would be to undo your Registry hack.

....Alan