Vista Sidebar Gadgets Won't Update...

[Thrash]

Well, this is annoying. I don't have any other issues with Vista, so I guess one was bound to crop up eventually. I understand that several of the built-in sidebar gadgets are RSS-based such as the stock ticker and weather gadget, and all of them have quit updating themselves. My weather gadget and RSS reader are still stuck with the data from several weeks ago and nothing seems to get them to update. I've tried deleting the gadgets from the bar and making new ones and that doesn't seem to make any difference. If I change my weather gadget to a new city, it gets current information from that city once but then never updates it again, either.

For the record, I'm using Vista Ultimate x64 and other gadgets such as the calendar, CPU meter, etc. all work just fine.

Any ideas?

[-=Antimatter=-]

Did you restart the Sidebar process? Reboot the computer?

[Thrash]

Yes. Have rebooted several times and independent restarts of the process didn't seem to change anything.

[Q-BZ]

http://www.vistax64.com/vista-general/90416-sidebar-rss-feed-gadget-won-t-update-automatically.html

Might be something there for you.

[JC634]

Check your Windows Defender settings. It is probably blocking internet access to these sidebar gadgets.

[Kowan]

Have you tried emailing the user who made those?
Maybe a updated version is needed.

[XboxodX]

Have you tried emailing the user who made those?
Maybe a updated version is needed.
These are the stock Microsoft gadgets, not 3rd party ones.

[Kowan]

Then I'm not sure why his isn't updating. Mine are working as intended. Before and after running SP1 RC1.

[dreamer3kx]

Y2K8

[Thrash]

http://www.vistax64.com/vista-general/90416-sidebar-rss-feed-gadget-won-t-update-automatically.html

Might be something there for you.

I'm not sure I was following all the instructions there correctly because some of the posts get a little confusing, but I did something to get my RSS feed reader to update. I'm not sure if it'll keep updating or if it will get stuck again, but at least that's progress. Didn't seem to make any difference with the weather gadget which I had thought also operated via RSS... Hmm...

Thanks for the link, in any case.

Check your Windows Defender settings. It is probably blocking internet access to these sidebar gadgets.

Given that these are Microsoft gadgets that came with the OS, do you still think that is a possibility? I wonder if something got corrupted that might have done this. How do I verify that Defender isn't the culprit?

Then I'm not sure why his isn't updating. Mine are working as intended. Before and after running SP1 RC1.

Little bit of a tangent here... Did SP1 change anything with the sidebar? Is RC1 relatively complete and good enough to go ahead and download, or should I wait for the final release?

[Kowan]

No it didn't seem to change the sidebar. I just listed it incase you had installed SP1 RC1 and was having trouble after.
So far, SP1 RC1 is stable. The only drawback is, it must be uninstalled when SP1 Retail is released. :p

[JC634]

Given that these are Microsoft gadgets that came with the OS, do you still think that is a possibility? I wonder if something got corrupted that might have done this. How do I verify that Defender isn't the culprit?

Control Panel -> Windows Defender. There should be a setting option which should lead you to an area on what programs are allowed access to the internet. I can't verify the actual steps, as I have MS OneCare (free to me thru my ISP), which replaces Defender.

Actually, I did have this happen to me recently when I cloned my OS to a larger HD. It kinda screwed up these settings. I denied access and then reallowed access, which seemed to make things good again.

[Thrash]

I just checked Defender and there wasn't a single item in the list... Weird.

I don't see any option for adding items, either.

[JC634]

Hopefully, someone else can chime in on this, as OneCare replaces Defender. I have no way of going thru the motions to see how Defender works in this area.

Sorry.

[Finn]

That's a blessing in disguise - now you can just disable the annoying blobs from taking space on your desktop.

One of the most futile 'improvements' in Vista IMO. A feature best disabled, pretty much like whole Vista.

[DeaconFrost]

I'm using OneCare and not having any issues with my Gadgets updating. You could try going to the Firewall tab and specifically adding Sidebar.exe to the exceptions list.