Weather Gadget

A wrote:
FredW wrote:
On Wed, 04 Feb 2015 16:53:26 +0100, A wrote:
FredW wrote:

Drag the extracted file to your desktop.
Double click on the icon and the gadget will be really installed.
It will now appear with the other gadgets.
(I had to reinvent this procedure myself.)

Tried that too. Didn't work.

Did you drag the *.gadget file to the desktop?
It worked for me.


Yes, didn't work.


So then, whatever subsystem is responsible for .gadget,
has been turned off.

Did you perhaps, use a FIXIT from Microsoft, back when
gadget vulnerabilities were first reported ? It's possible
there was an emergency regedit, to kill the subsystem.
I don't keep records of such things, so get out your
search engine and start looking. There has to be an
explanation for why the .gadget is no longer honored.

Do any gadgets currently run on your system ?
Does any of that stuff work ?
Does your login account belong to administrators group
or some lesser-privileged account ?

Paul

On 2/4/2015 9:53 AM, Paul wrote:
A wrote:
Bruce Hagen wrote:
"pjp" wrote in message
...


Anyone else's weather gadget seem to not be updating? Doesn't seem able
to connect to server, all else internet wise is fine.




I never liked the built-in weather gadget and installed this in late
2009.

Pro Weather Gadget
http://win7gadgets.com/weather/pro_weather_gadget.html


I can't seem to install it. I tried both "download and install" and
"download". When I double click on it, it asks if I want to install, I
say Install and nothing happens. It's not in the Gadgets file or
anywhere except where I downloaded it. How did you do it?


The only link I see is "Download and Install", with a red background.
Using the "wrong browser" here, there is no red color and no button,
but that area on the screen is still sensitive (if I clicked it).

I got this:

http://win7gadgets.com/media/g/g0858...adgets-com.zip

It's a ZIP file. 3,651,270 bytes. (Which is HUGE for a function like this.)
I'm always naturally suspicious of huge downloads, because

1) How can someone afford to give away a download like that ?
2) Is there Adware inside ? It's big enough to have a "payload".
3) Virustotal scan is clean. Not a surprise. Adware would
not necessarily be flagged that way.

When you unzip the ZIP file, you get

pro-weather-gadget.gadget

And I expect the extension on the end of the file will
be part of the magic. Right-click on the unzipped .gadget
file and see what options are offered.

If you use 7ZIP and dig down further (do an "Open Inside" on
the .gadget extension file)...

There is a metric ton of icons and image files.

The Javascript payload is 130KB. That's good.

One Readme file is in English, Ukrainian, Russian, and
gives credit to a "ProMethusPrime".

Localization for the installation also provides those three languages.
So the gadget can display text in those three.

One Readme file gives installation instructions, which are
still not all that clear.

Installation:
You can install to one of three places
%systemdrive%\Program Files\Windows Sidebar\Shared Gadgets
(recommended)
%systemdrive%\Program Files\Windows Sidebar\Gadgets (second
recommendation)
%systemdrive%\Users\%user%\AppData\Local\Microsoft \Windows
Sidebar\Gadgets (third recommendation)

If installing to the first or second option above, you (as
Administrator)
need yo give WRITE access to the group 'Users' to the Shared
Gadgets and/or
Gadgets directory

Error logging and Persistent settings require this (Gadget needs
these to
perform, may change in next version)

Install supplied fonts to the %SystemRoot%\Fonts directory

So if right-clicking on "pro-weather-gadget.gadget"
isn't giving you a useful option, you now have pointers
to folders on the computer containing existing gadgets.

If you extract the "js" folder, that has the Javascript to
run the gadget. This would be where your security exposure would
be hiding. To the author's credit, no attempt is made to
obfuscate the code. You can open each file in Notepad and
take a look. Lots of Javascript sent to your browser, along
with web pages, is a thick unreadable unpunctuated mess,
designed so you cannot follow what the code is doing.
"Commercial" javascript is a model of compression,
in that all semblance to source code is gone. Whereas
the weather gadget code you can actually read it.

I'm not going to install this. Too much work.

(If I seriously needed a weather gadget, I would set up a
VM with Win7 SP1 in it and test it there... You can
run an OS unactivated long enough, to do a test if
you want.)

Continue on with your 7ZIP "pick it apart" analysis.

The .xml files are supposed to be manifests, but it's not
clear, looking through the files on this one, whether
that's sufficient for a Windows installer to automate
the whole process or not. Or just have to save the
entire gadget or something, to a folder. The gadget seems
to use the HTML files for the main function, the "js" and
"css" for web rendering. And these are similar to the
technologies that App Store metro tile designers use now.
(No more C, C#, C++)

*******

For more inspiration, you can see someone working on their
own "Hello World" .gadget here.

https://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Fo...ll-not-install

Well, I'll be damned! It really did install: on the toolbar and as a
miniscule icon, supposed to represent a thermometer, I guess.


--
Jim Silverton (Potomac, MD)

Extraneous "not." in Reply To.

Paul wrote:
A wrote:
FredW wrote:
On Wed, 04 Feb 2015 16:53:26 +0100, A wrote:
FredW wrote:

Drag the extracted file to your desktop.
Double click on the icon and the gadget will be really installed.
It will now appear with the other gadgets.
(I had to reinvent this procedure myself.)

Tried that too. Didn't work.

Did you drag the *.gadget file to the desktop?
It worked for me.


Yes, didn't work.


So then, whatever subsystem is responsible for .gadget,
has been turned off.

Did you perhaps, use a FIXIT from Microsoft, back when
gadget vulnerabilities were first reported ?

No.

It's possible
there was an emergency regedit, to kill the subsystem.
I don't keep records of such things, so get out your
search engine and start looking. There has to be an
explanation for why the .gadget is no longer honored.

Do any gadgets currently run on your system ?

All of them.

Does any of that stuff work ?

Yes.

Does your login account belong to administrators group
or some lesser-privileged account ?

Paul

Administrator.

--
A

On Tue, 03 Feb 2015 21:05:46 +0000, Stormin' Norman
wrote:

Try using the built-in "Restore Gadgets" function. See this for further
information:

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials...t-gadgets.html


No joy. Uninstalled Weather gadget and then tried this suggestion.
Still get "Cannot connect to service" message.

In article ,
lid says...

On Wed, 04 Feb 2015 15:37:03 -0500, RW wrote:

On Tue, 03 Feb 2015 21:05:46 +0000, Stormin' Norman
wrote:

Try using the built-in "Restore Gadgets" function. See this for further
information:

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials...t-gadgets.html


No joy. Uninstalled Weather gadget and then tried this suggestion.
Still get "Cannot connect to service" message.

Take a look at this MS support page. Download the second "FixIt" 50907 and
execute it on your system. If your gadgets have been disabled, this should
re-enable them. Regardless, it will not harm anything.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2719662

I'm original poster asked if anyone else has same problem.

The "Error cannot connect to server" implies to me that something has
changed on the server the gadget uses to retrieve it's info. Without
source code, that makes the gadget obsolete unless one can convince
whoever runs that server to reinstate old "interface".

No screwing with Windows gadgets, services etc. will help that
situation.

Doesn't explain why some don't seem to be getting the error message.
Implies different locations use different servers?

On Wed, 4 Feb 2015 20:36:55 -0400, pjp wrote:

The "Error cannot connect to server" implies to me that something has
changed on the server the gadget uses to retrieve it's info. Without
source code, that makes the gadget obsolete unless one can convince
whoever runs that server to reinstate old "interface".

Are you sure you don't have the source code?

I opened a .gadget file as an archive (with 7-zip) and saw lots of xml,
html, and js files...

But I'm not ready (nor qualified, I bet) to figure out what's there.

Anyway, I don't have a weather gadget to look at to see if I can figure
out which site it's accessing.

--
Gene E. Bloch (Stumbling Bloch)

Gene E. Bloch wrote:
On Wed, 4 Feb 2015 20:36:55 -0400, pjp wrote:

The "Error cannot connect to server" implies to me that something has
changed on the server the gadget uses to retrieve it's info. Without
source code, that makes the gadget obsolete unless one can convince
whoever runs that server to reinstate old "interface".

Are you sure you don't have the source code?

I opened a .gadget file as an archive (with 7-zip) and saw lots of xml,
html, and js files...

But I'm not ready (nor qualified, I bet) to figure out what's there.

Anyway, I don't have a weather gadget to look at to see if I can figure
out which site it's accessing.


Try the "js" folder.

// URL for weather data
var WEATHER_DATA = "http://gadgets.weather.com/";

function getXML(loc_ID) // gets the XML page from the server

xmlURL = WEATHER_DATA + "weather/local/" + newLoc
+ "?cc=*&dayf=" + NUM_FORCAST_DAYS
+ "&unit=s&hbhf=" + NUM_FORCAST_HOURS;

So it would appear the gadget goes to that site, and crafts some
kind of URL to access the data.

Paul

In article , lid
says...

On Wed, 4 Feb 2015 20:36:55 -0400, pjp wrote:

The "Error cannot connect to server" implies to me that something has
changed on the server the gadget uses to retrieve it's info. Without
source code, that makes the gadget obsolete unless one can convince
whoever runs that server to reinstate old "interface".

Are you sure you don't have the source code?

I opened a .gadget file as an archive (with 7-zip) and saw lots of xml,
html, and js files...

But I'm not ready (nor qualified, I bet) to figure out what's there.

Anyway, I don't have a weather gadget to look at to see if I can figure
out which site it's accessing.

I already know a few languages, verious assembler, C, C++, Pascal even
Fortran and Basic as well as dBase derived stuff, Excell macro's etc.
Retired about time Internet really took off and never really had any
interest in coding for internet, therefore java, xml and javascript
ability all very limited. Not worth the bother, so I run Weather Meter
instead.

Snip
Well, I'll be damned! It really did install: on the toolbar and as a
miniscule icon, supposed to represent a thermometer, I guess.

Here is another one that you can try, I went to it when the normal
weather gadget quit working.

http://www.softpedia.com/get/Windows...Forecast.shtml

Norm

On 2/5/2015 3:16 AM, Norm Fowler wrote:
Snip
Well, I'll be damned! It really did install: on the toolbar and as a
miniscule icon, supposed to represent a thermometer, I guess.

Here is another one that you can try, I went to it when the normal
weather gadget quit working.

http://www.softpedia.com/get/Windows...Forecast.shtml



The system became most peculiar with the weather gadget I mentioned
installed. Commercial messages and all sorts of junk even if the gadget
worked. I decided to restore the system to its last point and all seems
OK even if I don't have the weather.

--
Jim Silverton (Potomac, MD)

Extraneous "not." in Reply To.

On Thu, 05 Feb 2015 00:48:38 -0500, Paul wrote:

Anyway, I don't have a weather gadget to look at to see if I can figure
out which site it's accessing.


Try the "js" folder.

Which JS folder? there are probably many here. And why would stuff about
a weather gadget be in one of them?

BTW, I was wrong - I do have Weather gadgets, in the 32- and 64-bit
program folders. I should have realized MS would have thrown them in
without asking me :-)

But that's OK, I'm actually not planning to investigate the question any
further for pjp or anyone else.

--
Gene E. Bloch (Stumbling Bloch)

On Thu, 05 Feb 2015 12:56:28 -0600, Char Jackson wrote:

On Thu, 05 Feb 2015 17:17:17 +0000, Stormin' Norman
wrote:

On Thu, 05 Feb 2015 10:46:52 -0600, Char Jackson wrote:

On Thu, 05 Feb 2015 16:48:58 +0100, FredW wrote:

On Thu, 05 Feb 2015 14:42:29 +0000, Stormin' Norman
wrote:
On Wed, 4 Feb 2015 20:36:55 -0400, pjp wrote:

Just fired up a W7 machine, installed the MS weather gadget and it is working
nominally in southern California.


Checking my TCP/IP traffic, the gadget is pulling data from "The Weather
Channel" (weather.com). There are potentially numerous explanations for the
problem you are experiencing. Eliminating the easiest possibilities is always
my first approach to this kind of troubleshooting. Speaking of which, have you
tried setting a different location for your gadget? For example, New York City,
Zip Code 10017, which is the zip for the Grand Central Terminal post office.

I just tried the above zip and it pulled the weather data just fine.


Are you sure you use the standard Microsoft gadget?
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/gadgets

The standard Microsoft weather gadget is iWeather.
I tried your zip code with iWeather and iWeather 2.0.
Both gadgets report 'Location not found'
and stay on status 'Cannot connect to service'.

This suggests you use do not use the original Microsoft weather gadget,
but a similar gadget.

I don't know what iWeather is, but on my Win 7 systems the weather gadget is
simply called Weather, and the version is 1.1.0.0. There are two 100%
identical copies located at Program Files and Program Files (x86). Their
locations make it appear that there might be a 32-bit and a 64-bit version,
but they are both the same, bitwise.

C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Sidebar\Gadgets\Weather.Gadget
C:\Program Files\Windows Sidebar\Gadgets\Weather.Gadget

If you're using something called iWeather, that could explain why 'weather'
works for some of us but not all of us.

I believe Fred was asserting his original MS Weather gadget was connecting to
"iWeather" for data.

Could be, I can't tell even after going back to read it again. Still, I
don't know what iWeather means in this context. That's apparently the name
of an Android weather app, but I'm not aware of a Win 7 gadget by that name,
nor am I aware of an online weather service by that same. *shrug*

One of the XML files in one of my Weather.gadget files claims that the
author is Microsoft, a well-know software company :-)

--
Gene E. Bloch (Stumbling Bloch)

On Thu, 5 Feb 2015 11:17:28 -0800, "Gene E. Bloch"
wrote:

On Thu, 05 Feb 2015 12:56:28 -0600, Char Jackson wrote:

On Thu, 05 Feb 2015 17:17:17 +0000, Stormin' Norman
wrote:

On Thu, 05 Feb 2015 10:46:52 -0600, Char Jackson wrote:

On Thu, 05 Feb 2015 16:48:58 +0100, FredW wrote:

On Thu, 05 Feb 2015 14:42:29 +0000, Stormin' Norman
wrote:
On Wed, 4 Feb 2015 20:36:55 -0400, pjp wrote:

Just fired up a W7 machine, installed the MS weather gadget and it is working
nominally in southern California.


Checking my TCP/IP traffic, the gadget is pulling data from "The Weather
Channel" (weather.com). There are potentially numerous explanations for the
problem you are experiencing. Eliminating the easiest possibilities is always
my first approach to this kind of troubleshooting. Speaking of which, have you
tried setting a different location for your gadget? For example, New York City,
Zip Code 10017, which is the zip for the Grand Central Terminal post office.

I just tried the above zip and it pulled the weather data just fine.


Are you sure you use the standard Microsoft gadget?
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/gadgets

The standard Microsoft weather gadget is iWeather.
I tried your zip code with iWeather and iWeather 2.0.
Both gadgets report 'Location not found'
and stay on status 'Cannot connect to service'.

This suggests you use do not use the original Microsoft weather gadget,
but a similar gadget.

I don't know what iWeather is, but on my Win 7 systems the weather gadget is
simply called Weather, and the version is 1.1.0.0. There are two 100%
identical copies located at Program Files and Program Files (x86). Their
locations make it appear that there might be a 32-bit and a 64-bit version,
but they are both the same, bitwise.

C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Sidebar\Gadgets\Weather.Gadget
C:\Program Files\Windows Sidebar\Gadgets\Weather.Gadget

If you're using something called iWeather, that could explain why 'weather'
works for some of us but not all of us.

I believe Fred was asserting his original MS Weather gadget was connecting to
"iWeather" for data.

Could be, I can't tell even after going back to read it again. Still, I
don't know what iWeather means in this context. That's apparently the name
of an Android weather app, but I'm not aware of a Win 7 gadget by that name,
nor am I aware of an online weather service by that same. *shrug*

One of the XML files in one of my Weather.gadget files claims that the
author is Microsoft, a well-know software company :-)

How does that help? I think we knew that already. :-)

--

Char Jackson

On Thu, 05 Feb 2015 17:18:21 -0600, Char Jackson wrote:

I believe Fred was asserting his original MS Weather gadget was connecting to
"iWeather" for data.

Could be, I can't tell even after going back to read it again. Still, I
don't know what iWeather means in this context. That's apparently the name
of an Android weather app, but I'm not aware of a Win 7 gadget by that name,
nor am I aware of an online weather service by that same. *shrug*

One of the XML files in one of my Weather.gadget files claims that the
author is Microsoft, a well-know software company :-)

How does that help? I think we knew that already. :-)

FredW said

QUOTE
Are you sure you use the standard Microsoft gadget?
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/gadgets

The standard Microsoft weather gadget is iWeather.
I tried your zip code with iWeather and iWeather 2.0.
Both gadgets report 'Location not found'
and stay on status 'Cannot connect to service'.
/QUOTE

Others disagreed and I provided that bit of documentation to support
them.

--
Gene E. Bloch (Stumbling Bloch)

On Thu, 5 Feb 2015 18:19:50 -0800, "Gene E. Bloch"
wrote:

On Thu, 05 Feb 2015 17:18:21 -0600, Char Jackson wrote:

I believe Fred was asserting his original MS Weather gadget was connecting to
"iWeather" for data.

Could be, I can't tell even after going back to read it again. Still, I
don't know what iWeather means in this context. That's apparently the name
of an Android weather app, but I'm not aware of a Win 7 gadget by that name,
nor am I aware of an online weather service by that same. *shrug*

One of the XML files in one of my Weather.gadget files claims that the
author is Microsoft, a well-know software company :-)

How does that help? I think we knew that already. :-)

FredW said

QUOTE
Are you sure you use the standard Microsoft gadget?
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/gadgets

The standard Microsoft weather gadget is iWeather.
I tried your zip code with iWeather and iWeather 2.0.
Both gadgets report 'Location not found'
and stay on status 'Cannot connect to service'.
/QUOTE

Others disagreed and I provided that bit of documentation to support
them.

Cool, I see what you mean. Thanks.

--

Char Jackson