Calendar Gadget in Windows Sidebar is Blank with Orange Background

The Calendar gadget in the Windows Sidebar may display blank content, showing only the plain orange background. Also, the Stocks Gadget may not show up when you add it to the Sidebar. A missing scripting run-time registration usually causes this problem.

Registering VBScript.DLL

Registering the vbscript.dll file from an admin Command Prompt fixes the problem. Follow these steps:

Open admin Command Prompt and run the following command and press ENTER::

regsvr32.exe vbscript.dll

You should see the following message after running the command:

DllRegisterServer in vbscript.dll succeeded.

3. Restart Windows and see if the Calendar and Stocks Gadgets render correctly.



That doesn’t help? Fix the Zones Registry Key

Of late, we’ve seen several cases where an additional IE Security Zone registry key causing this problem. The additional security zone may have been added by Malware, could appear as a pseudo-graphic number listed before zone number 0. The fix listed below is the same as the one documented in post Gadgets are Not Displayed Correctly in Windows 7 and Windows Vista.

Click Start, type Regedit.exe, and press Enter. This opens the Registry Editor. Navigate to the following branch:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\Zones

Under the Zones key, delete the subkey shown with an ASCII character, as in the above graphic. Exit the Registry Editor, log off, and log back in back to your account.


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Ramesh Srinivasan is passionate about Microsoft technologies and he has been a consecutive ten-time recipient of the Microsoft Most Valuable Professional award in the Windows Shell/Desktop Experience category, from 2003 to 2012. He loves to troubleshoot and write about Windows. Ramesh founded Winhelponline.com in 2005.

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