If User Account Control (UAC) is turned off in Windows 7, none of the desktop gadgets would run. Also, when you right-click on the Desktop and click Gadgets, the Desktop Gadget Gallery would not start. This could be a deliberate move by Microsoft to enhance the security by preventing gadgets from running under administrative privileges. By amending a registry value, you can make the gadgets work even if UAC is disabled.
Run Windows 7 Desktop Gadgets with UAC Turned Off
Note: I haven’t studied the possible security implications of this tweak. You use it at your own risk!
1. Click Start, type Regedit.exe and press ENTER
2. Navigate to the following branch:
3. Create a new DWORD value named AllowElevatedProcess
4. Double-click AllowElevatedProcess and set its Value data to 1
5. Exit the Registry Editor.
Registry Fix
Download w7-gadgets-elevate.zip and save to Desktop. Unzip and run the enclosed file w7-gadgets-elevate.reg. To reverse the changes, run undo.reg.
Related Posts
- How to Use Sidebar 32-Bit Mode in Windows 7 and Windows Vista 64-Bit Editions to Run Silverlight Gadgets
- Why There Are Two Instances of Sidebar.exe Running
- How to Fix Sidebar Crash “Windows Desktop Gadgets Has Stopped Working”
- Installation of Windows Sidebar Gadgets Is Managed by Your System Administrator
- Fix Windows Sidebar Does Not Start in Windows Vista
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This is the second time I have seen this suggestion to fix this problem. I am using W7 Home Premium. There is no Settings under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Sidebar.
Also I am running W7 64 bit. Apparently that requires a ‘QWORD’.
Please check and see which version this fix is good for and specify it. Then, since there is an obvious need to have different solutions for the different versions. We need all of the variants in one place so everyone can find the solution here no matter which version they are running. There should also be instructions for the mode (32 or 64 bit) that is being used.
Also, I have tried the suggestion substituting QWORD for DWORD in the Current User (where there is a Setting) instead of Local Machine. It does not work either. Could it be possible you need to reboot for the changed registry to work? If so, no one mentions this either.