Windows 7 Gadgets

Question

I just installed IE11 on my Lenovo Laptop T530 Running Win. 7 Pro.

At this juncture, everything seems to work well except for my Win. 7 gadgets.

The issue is that the Clock and the Weather Gadgets do not display properly.

They are very faint and corrupted.  The Win. 7 Calendar gadget displays properly.

Any suggestions.

Answer 1

IE 11 had no impact on Windows 7 gadgets on any of my systems.

Does the effect on the gadgets occur even if IE 11 is not running?

Try closing and reopening the clock gadget.

Answer 2

I guess they are not corrupted .To increase the brightness you may do this :

Right-click the gadget to open a list, point to “Opacity,” and click the percentage value. For example, click “20%” to display a faint image of your gadget.

Answer 3

Yes it does not matter if the browser is running;  I suspect the issue is related to a changed dll or other OS Kernel level support app (something specifically related the Windows Explorer shell).

My comments posted in another thread; this is not a driver or individual brand issue:

I have tried IE11 on several Win 7 systems and the Gadgets always fail.  Perhaps the difference may be we use 64 bit versions.  By searching the web I have also found a large number of users complaining about this going back to the preview version; many of these complaints are on Microsoft forums.

I realize Microsoft recommended no longer using Gadgets due to security concerns however many users still like them and have been willing to take the risk; as do some of the executives at our company.  We limit Gadgets to those provided with Win7 and I expect Microsoft to provide security updates for those (of course I have not seen any).    See:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/security/advisory/2719662

Restoring to IE10 by using the control panel and uninstalling the program listed under Windows Updates always restores the Gadgets.  Oddly the only "Microsoft" Gadgets that fail to display correctly for me are the Clock, Weather, and  CPU Meter (the most popular around here).

I am not one of those who objects to using IE over other browsers; in fact our company only supports IE so Chrome and the others are not an option (except for our Web Site Developers of course) for the over 4000 desktop systems we maintain. However, that said I personally use Chrome and Firefox, as well as others, and have not been unhappy with them---they each have their benefits. 

The Gadget issue makes me concerned about the probability there are other more significant issues.  I recommend holding off on installing it until it has been in use for a while longer.  I have already recommended we not consider "updating" until at least the second quarter of next year but I do not expect us to adopt it until we are forced to do so.

Just my opinion... 

Michael L. Bell,  Lead Systems Analyst, Level-3 Microsystems Support

Desktop Systems Patch Management/Security