gadgets

On 10/27/2014 2:45 PM, chicagofan wrote:
Linea Recta wrote:
"housetrained" schreef in bericht
...
sidebar gadgets appear intermittently. sometimes after a re=start
they are there, other times they are not. Is there a way to make them
work EVERY time?






I use the same 4 gadgets in Windows Vista and Windows 7.
They a round clock, calendar and two weater gadgets.
In Vista they always appear without problems.
In Windows 7 every now and then they fail to appear.

In Windows 7 that happened to me occasionally, usually after MS
updates. I moved Gadgets up in loading priority, and have only had it
to happen once in the last few months. I know the security conscious
might worry about this, not knowing what it precedes, but I didn't try
to determine that.
bj

The rather useful weather gadget appears to have stopped responding on
Thursday, 30th.

--
Jim Silverton (Potomac, MD)

Extraneous "not." in Reply To.

On Fri, 31 Oct 2014 17:10:27 -0400, James Silverton
wrote:

On 10/27/2014 2:45 PM, chicagofan wrote:
Linea Recta wrote:

I use the same 4 gadgets in Windows Vista and Windows 7.
They a round clock, calendar and two weater gadgets.
In Vista they always appear without problems.
In Windows 7 every now and then they fail to appear.

In Windows 7 that happened to me occasionally, usually after MS
updates. I moved Gadgets up in loading priority, and have only had it
to happen once in the last few months. I know the security conscious
might worry about this, not knowing what it precedes, but I didn't try
to determine that.
bj

The rather useful weather gadget appears to have stopped responding on
Thursday, 30th.

My system clock shows 10/31/2014 and the weather gadgets are still working.

--

Char Jackson

On 10/31/2014 4:10 PM, James Silverton wrote:
On 10/27/2014 2:45 PM, chicagofan wrote:
Linea Recta wrote:
"housetrained" schreef in bericht
...
sidebar gadgets appear intermittently. sometimes after a re=start
they are there, other times they are not. Is there a way to make them
work EVERY time?






I use the same 4 gadgets in Windows Vista and Windows 7.
They a round clock, calendar and two weater gadgets.
In Vista they always appear without problems.
In Windows 7 every now and then they fail to appear.

In Windows 7 that happened to me occasionally, usually after MS
updates. I moved Gadgets up in loading priority, and have only had it
to happen once in the last few months. I know the security conscious
might worry about this, not knowing what it precedes, but I didn't try
to determine that.
bj

The rather useful weather gadget appears to have stopped responding on
Thursday, 30th.


Working just fine here.

On 10/31/2014 5:57 PM, Char Jackson wrote:
On Fri, 31 Oct 2014 17:10:27 -0400, James Silverton
wrote:

On 10/27/2014 2:45 PM, chicagofan wrote:
Linea Recta wrote:

I use the same 4 gadgets in Windows Vista and Windows 7.
They a round clock, calendar and two weater gadgets.
In Vista they always appear without problems.
In Windows 7 every now and then they fail to appear.

In Windows 7 that happened to me occasionally, usually after MS
updates. I moved Gadgets up in loading priority, and have only had it
to happen once in the last few months. I know the security conscious
might worry about this, not knowing what it precedes, but I didn't try
to determine that.
bj

The rather useful weather gadget appears to have stopped responding on
Thursday, 30th.

My system clock shows 10/31/2014 and the weather gadgets are still working.

Well, its 10:05PM on 10/31/2014 and the weather gadget shows "Getting
data" as it has for the last 6 hours.

--
Jim Silverton (Potomac, MD)

Extraneous "not." in Reply To.

In message , James Silverton
writes:
On 10/31/2014 5:57 PM, Char Jackson wrote:
On Fri, 31 Oct 2014 17:10:27 -0400, James Silverton
wrote:
[]
The rather useful weather gadget appears to have stopped responding on
Thursday, 30th.

My system clock shows 10/31/2014 and the weather gadgets are still working.

Well, its 10:05PM on 10/31/2014 and the weather gadget shows "Getting
data" as it has for the last 6 hours.

Suggests the gadget is working fine, but the link between your PC and
the server that supplies the data is broken. Of course, if that's
hard-coded into the gadget, then the gadget may be describable as
broken, but since it's working for others such as Char, it suggests it's
either only your copy of the gadget, or (to me more likely) some routing
in your or your ISP's system(s), that is.
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

"I'm very peachable, if people know how to peach" - Sir David Attenborough (on
being asked if he was tired of being described as impeachable), on Desert
Island Discs, 2012-1-29.

On 11/1/2014 6:35 AM, J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote:
In message , James Silverton
writes:
On 10/31/2014 5:57 PM, Char Jackson wrote:
On Fri, 31 Oct 2014 17:10:27 -0400, James Silverton
wrote:
[]
The rather useful weather gadget appears to have stopped responding on
Thursday, 30th.

My system clock shows 10/31/2014 and the weather gadgets are still
working.

Well, its 10:05PM on 10/31/2014 and the weather gadget shows "Getting
data" as it has for the last 6 hours.

Suggests the gadget is working fine, but the link between your PC and
the server that supplies the data is broken. Of course, if that's
hard-coded into the gadget, then the gadget may be describable as
broken, but since it's working for others such as Char, it suggests it's
either only your copy of the gadget, or (to me more likely) some routing
in your or your ISP's system(s), that is.

Curiouser and curiouser; the weather gadget was still "Getting data"
when the computer came out of sleep this morning, but when I rebooted I
got the weather back! However Norton reported 5 attempts to install a
WAJAM virus.

--
Jim Silverton (Potomac, MD)

Extraneous "not." in Reply To.

James Silverton wrote:
On 11/1/2014 6:35 AM, J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote:
In message , James Silverton
writes:
On 10/31/2014 5:57 PM, Char Jackson wrote:
On Fri, 31 Oct 2014 17:10:27 -0400, James Silverton
wrote:
[]
The rather useful weather gadget appears to have stopped responding on
Thursday, 30th.

My system clock shows 10/31/2014 and the weather gadgets are still
working.

Well, its 10:05PM on 10/31/2014 and the weather gadget shows "Getting
data" as it has for the last 6 hours.

Suggests the gadget is working fine, but the link between your PC and
the server that supplies the data is broken. Of course, if that's
hard-coded into the gadget, then the gadget may be describable as
broken, but since it's working for others such as Char, it suggests it's
either only your copy of the gadget, or (to me more likely) some routing
in your or your ISP's system(s), that is.

Curiouser and curiouser; the weather gadget was still "Getting data"
when the computer came out of sleep this morning, but when I rebooted I
got the weather back! However Norton reported 5 attempts to install a
WAJAM virus.


When discussing Gadgets, there are a couple possibilities. A user could
be using nothing but Microsoft gadgets. They would presumably be designed
with security in mind. Or, a user could be collecting third party gadgets,
in which case some are poorly designed.

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1...-vulnerability

"Execution of ActiveX and Java within a Gadget is subject to the Security
settings in Internet Explorer. If your security settings allow a Gadget
to do something, most of those functions are exploitable within a plugin
or Java app as well."

https://labs.mwrinfosecurity.com/sys...2008-02-04.pdf

So then a question would be, well, what happens if you 'reset IE" ?
Does that have any impact on Gadgets, change security settings in
a way that prevents them from working ?

If I was a collector of non-Microsoft gadgets, I'd be Googling them
right now for exploit information. Is a new version available ? One
that is "fixed" ?

Paul

In message , Paul
writes:
James Silverton wrote:
[]
Curiouser and curiouser; the weather gadget was still "Getting data"
when the computer came out of sleep this morning, but when I rebooted
I got the weather back! However Norton reported 5 attempts to install
a WAJAM virus.


When discussing Gadgets, there are a couple possibilities. A user could
be using nothing but Microsoft gadgets. They would presumably be designed
with security in mind. Or, a user could be collecting third party gadgets,
in which case some are poorly designed.
[]
I'm pretty sure the weather one is a Microsoft one. I have it (actually
two, for two different locations) at work, and I don't think my employer
would allow any that aren't either MS or their own, and I don't think
they'd write their own one for something as frivolous as the weather.
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

"The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's
money."

On 11/1/2014 12:51 PM, J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote:
In message , Paul writes:
James Silverton wrote:
[]
Curiouser and curiouser; the weather gadget was still "Getting data"
when the computer came out of sleep this morning, but when I rebooted
I got the weather back! However Norton reported 5 attempts to
install a WAJAM virus.


When discussing Gadgets, there are a couple possibilities. A user could
be using nothing but Microsoft gadgets. They would presumably be designed
with security in mind. Or, a user could be collecting third party
gadgets,
in which case some are poorly designed.
[]
I'm pretty sure the weather one is a Microsoft one. I have it (actually
two, for two different locations) at work, and I don't think my employer
would allow any that aren't either MS or their own, and I don't think
they'd write their own one for something as frivolous as the weather.

An official edition of Windows 7 Home Premium was installed when I
bought (rather, had built) the computer. Over three or so years certain
gadgets just disappeared like the News Headlines. I am willing to
believe that certain of the gadgets might be prone to hacking attacks
but I would much prefer that MS would tell me so rather than just
quietly disappearing them during updates and leaving me to wonder about
their honesty.

--
Jim Silverton (Potomac, MD)

Extraneous "not." in Reply To.

James Silverton wrote:

I am willing to believe that certain of the gadgets might be prone to
hacking attacks but I would much prefer that MS would tell me so
rather than just quietly disappearing them during updates and leaving
me to wonder about their honesty.

There were lots of articles 3 years ago announcing Microsoft's decision
to discontinue distributing and supporting their Gadgets in Windows 7.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows/gadgets

Because Gadgets were considered vulnerable, Microsoft issued an update
over 2 years ago that would disable them; see:

https://technet.microsoft.com/library/security/2719662
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2719662

Lots of articles over 2 years ago (but after the fact) mentioned that
update, too.

Obviously Microsoft doesn't issue e-mails to their customers about
discontinuing a product or service or to announce and describe updates,
especially since they don't have the e-mail addresses of most of their
customers. Those announcements are made public and you'll have to read
about them.

Users who act as their own administrators are responsible for reading
the description of the updates before applying them. The WU page has
links to read the description and tech details of each update. How more
obvious could Microsoft make it to provide info to users about the
updates? That you choose not to read the descriptions of the updates
is, well, your choice.

Gadgets did not "quietly disappear" as you contend.

humor
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy:
People of Earth, your attention, please. This is Prostetnic Vogon Jeltz
of the Galactic Hyperspace Planning Council. As you will no doubt be
aware, the plans for development of the outlying regions of the Galaxy
require the building of a hyperspatial express route through your star
system. And regrettably, your planet is one of those scheduled for
demolition. The process will take slightly less than two of your Earth
minutes. Thank you.
(humans screaming and protesting)
There¢s no point in acting surprised about it. All the planning charts
and demolition orders have been on display at your local planning
department in Alpha Centauri for 50 of your Earth years, so you¢ve had
plenty of time to lodge any formal complaint and it¢s far too late to
start making a fuss about it now.
(more screaming and panic)
What do you mean you¢ve never been to Alpha Centauri? Oh, for heaven¢s
sake, mankind, it¢s only four light years away, you know. I¢m sorry, but
if you can¢t be bothered to take an interest in local affairs, that¢s
your own lookout. Energize the demolition beams.
/humor

In message , VanguardLH
writes:
[]
Obviously Microsoft doesn't issue e-mails to their customers about
discontinuing a product or service or to announce and describe updates,
especially since they don't have the e-mail addresses of most of their
customers. Those announcements are made public and you'll have to read
about them.

Users who act as their own administrators are responsible for reading
the description of the updates before applying them. The WU page has
links to read the description and tech details of each update. How more
obvious could Microsoft make it to provide info to users about the
updates? That you choose not to read the descriptions of the updates
is, well, your choice.

Gadgets did not "quietly disappear" as you contend.

humor
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy:
People of Earth, your attention, please. This is Prostetnic Vogon Jeltz
of the Galactic Hyperspace Planning Council. As you will no doubt be
aware, the plans for development of the outlying regions of the Galaxy
require the building of a hyperspatial express route through your star
system. And regrettably, your planet is one of those scheduled for
demolition. The process will take slightly less than two of your Earth
minutes. Thank you.
(humans screaming and protesting)
There‚s no point in acting surprised about it. All the planning charts
and demolition orders have been on display at your local planning
department in Alpha Centauri for 50 of your Earth years, so you‚ve had
plenty of time to lodge any formal complaint and it‚s far too late to
start making a fuss about it now.
(more screaming and panic)
What do you mean you‚ve never been to Alpha Centauri? Oh, for heaven‚s
sake, mankind, it‚s only four light years away, you know. I‚m sorry, but
if you can‚t be bothered to take an interest in local affairs, that‚s
your own lookout. Energize the demolition beams.

(Mutters: "Apathetic bloody planet, I don't know ...")
/humor
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

Experience is the comb life gives you after you lose your hair. -Judith Stearn

On 11/1/2014 2:47 PM, VanguardLH wrote:
James Silverton wrote:

I am willing to believe that certain of the gadgets might be prone to
hacking attacks but I would much prefer that MS would tell me so
rather than just quietly disappearing them during updates and leaving
me to wonder about their honesty.

There were lots of articles 3 years ago announcing Microsoft's decision
to discontinue distributing and supporting their Gadgets in Windows 7.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows/gadgets

Because Gadgets were considered vulnerable, Microsoft issued an update
over 2 years ago that would disable them; see:

https://technet.microsoft.com/library/security/2719662
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2719662

Lots of articles over 2 years ago (but after the fact) mentioned that
update, too.

Obviously Microsoft doesn't issue e-mails to their customers about
discontinuing a product or service or to announce and describe updates,
especially since they don't have the e-mail addresses of most of their
customers. Those announcements are made public and you'll have to read
about them.

Users who act as their own administrators are responsible for reading
the description of the updates before applying them. The WU page has
links to read the description and tech details of each update. How more
obvious could Microsoft make it to provide info to users about the
updates? That you choose not to read the descriptions of the updates
is, well, your choice.

Gadgets did not "quietly disappear" as you contend.

MS owed me at least a note in *my* mail saying which gadgets would
disappear. I see no reason to read many computer magazines tho I do from
time to time, even the brown-nosed Apple ones. The gadgets have not all
disappeared yet; weather and computer usage are still there. An article
saying they just might go sometime is very little use since if they stop
working like weather did yesterday I cannot tell whether it is a glitch
or a real turn off.


--
Jim Silverton (Potomac, MD)

Extraneous "not." in Reply To.

James Silverton wrote:

VanguardLH wrote:

Gadgets did not "quietly disappear" as you contend.

MS owed me at least a note in *my* mail saying which gadgets would
disappear.

How would they know your e-mail address?
How would they know your postal address?
Have you ever received an e-mail from Microsoft on any of their updates?

I see no reason to read many computer magazines ...

Then start reading the info links for each update to know what each one
does. It is, after all, still your decision to install each one or not.