Windows Vista Lost my Notes.Gadget AGAIN

Sometime back: Lost my Notes gadget
This is gonna sound stupid I know, but I just acquired a Gateway laptop running Vista Home Premium and in fiddling with the Sidebar Gadgets, I installed the Notes gadget, which I liked very much. BUT in what I thought was an action to only remove the Notes from the Sidebar display, it turned out I inadvertently deleted the thing altogether. Notes no longer displays as a choice in the Add Gadgets Gallery and I can't find it as anywhere existent on the hard drive via Search.

Previous recovering solution from Matt "” Right click on Gadget Properties and click "Restore Gadgets Installed with Windows" "” worked. Now, "Restore Gadgets Installed with Windows" is grayed out.

I've read another solution which is search for and find earlier Settings.ini to past into Program Files\Windows Sidebar. I found such an earlier Settings.ini which when opened in Notepad shows the earlier entry of Notepad.gadget.

Thing is when I try cut-and-paste into present Settings.ini I get access denied, need administration privileges, which I am already sole user and administrator. Of course, for a .ini file I can't just right-click and choose Run as Administration, as with a .exe file.

I suspect there is a way to paste in the earlier Settings.ini, but don't know what the solution is. Any help you can give me to ungray "Restore Gadgets Installed with Windows" OR paste the earlier Settings.ini over the current Settings.ini version would be much appreciated.

Thanks for your time and attention,

Timothy

 

hi tvjohns,

If Sidebar.exe process is running, you wouldn’t be able to write to its settings file. Launch Task Manager (taskmgr.exe), select the sidebar.exe process and terminate it if it’s running.

I don't know what your using for reference but please have a look at this and read it carefully. You may not be able to retrieve any past notes based on the description of what you have done already.
http://www.winvistaclub.com/t42.html

 

I used the file you told me to read. Used the technique to find older Settings.ini which does show any entry for original Notes.gadget. Copied that, opened Program Files\Windows Sidebar folder. Still could not paste in older, desired Settings.ini to replace newer version. No permissions granted.

Of course with sidebar.exe shut down, I cannot Right click on Gadget Properties and click "Restore Gadgets Installed with Windows" to see "Restore Gadgets Installed with Windows" which was grayed out. I assume this still might be grayed out if I run Sidebar.exe.

Any further tips or advice?

 

I did some testing. Try right-clicking on the settings.ini file and choose Edit. You might not be able to directly replace the file, but you might (should) be able to edit it. Make a backup of the original file...just in case, copy it to another location.

After you make the changes, go to File -> Save, but Notepad will want to save it as a .txt file, in the Save as type box (at the bottom), choose All Files.

...I am under pressure!

Matt