Using Gadget Pack on Windows 11

OAT · Tuesday at 8:44 AM

Stroppy said:
I don't know how to put an exception into Avast Premium.

I am sorry but I only use MS built-in Security.

spapakons · Tuesday at 8:49 AM

It's been a long time since I last used Avast Antivirus, but it should be in the security settings.

Stroppy · Tuesday at 8:50 AM

OAT said:
I am sorry but I only use MS built-in Security.

I Googled the answer and made all the changes. Also in Malwarebytes. Made no difference. Thanks anyway. I hope someone comes up with a solution as this is driving me nuts!

Stroppy · Tuesday at 8:51 AM

spapakons said:
It's been a long time since I last used Avast Antivirus, but it should be in the security settings.

I worked it out. I am just fed up with not being able to solve this but I greatly appreciate everyone's input. I just wish the developer would get back to me.

MisterEd · Tuesday at 9:26 AM

May I ask why you are using two antivirus programs at the same time? Could doing so be causing your problem?

BTW, I am have the paid version of Malwarebytes. I am not having any problems with GadgetPack 38.0.

spapakons · Tuesday at 9:38 AM

Using two antiviruses will force checking each other all the time severely degrading your system's performance.

Stroppy · Tuesday at 9:59 AM

MisterEd said:
May I ask why you are using two antivirus programs at the same time? Could doing so be causing your problem?

BTW, I am have the paid version of Malwarebytes. I am not having any problems with GadgetPack 38.0.

I use Malawarebytes because of its superior Malware detection. Avast I use because it is great at blocking infected files. I haven't really noticed any degradation in performance. I must reiterate that up until a couple of weeks ago GadgetPack worked fine (and that's without any changes to Malawarebytes or Avast in terms of configuration) and then something happened. I suspect it was a Windows update which mucked things up but I rolled my PC back via system restore and that didn't fix things either. I am at a loss. I suppose I can continue to start the pack manually each time I start my PC but it is a pain in the butt. Thanks to all who tried to help.

Stroppy · Tuesday at 10:28 AM

I removed two posts wherein I reported that disabling the first section of realtime protection in MB fixed the problem. It did, for one reboot but then on a cold boot the problem came back. I give up. I don't know what else to do. Thanks to all respondents.

MisterEd · Tuesday at 11:45 AM

Stroppy said:
I removed two posts wherein I reported that disabling the first section of realtime protection in MB fixed the problem. It did, for one reboot but then on a cold boot the problem came back. I give up. I don't know what else to do. Thanks to all respondents.

Have you tried uninstalling Avast to see if that makes a difference?

Stroppy · Tuesday at 12:41 PM

MisterEd said:
Have you tried uninstalling Avast to see if that makes a difference?

I wouldn't uninstall it but I could deactivate all the shields. I will give it a try. P.S. I like your screen handle. I was kind of partial to Mr. Ed and Wilbur as a kid.

Stroppy · Tuesday at 12:55 PM

MisterEd said:
Have you tried uninstalling Avast to see if that makes a difference?

No difference.

Stroppy · Thursday at 6:33 AM

Update: I have uninstalled the GadgetPack. The developer did not email me as requested and try as I might nothing worked. So I did a bit of research and I found out that there is a gadget pack available in the Windows store called "Widget Launcher" that does much the same thing as Gadgetpack did. I have installed it and it works AND it restarts every time you boot into Windows. Here's a link:

Widget Launcher - Free download and install on Windows | Microsoft Store

Widget Launcher is the next generation of Gadgets for Windows 11 (requires .NET Desktop Runtime). This redesigned Widget Launcher (formerly Widgets HD) is now better than ever before. This app also supports extensions! So you can download additional skins and widgets right here in the...

apps.microsoft.com

spapakons · Thursday at 8:34 AM

However, this cannot use old Windows Vista or Windows 7 gadgets, like 8gadgetpack v37 does. If you want to use such a gadget in Windows 8 or higher, the only solution is 8gagdetpack up to version 37. New version 38 DOESN'T support old 32-bit gadgets, so it is rather pointless and useless.

Stroppy · Thursday at 9:27 AM

spapakons said:
However, this cannot use old Windows Vista or Windows 7 gadgets, like 8gadgetpack v37 does. If you want to use such a gadget in Windows 8 or higher, the only solution is 8gagdetpack up to version 37. New version 38 DOESN'T support old 32-bit gadgets, so it is rather pointless and useless.

The gadgets I used were just fine in Windows 11. This wasn't the issue. The gadgets would just not start when booting the computer and I had to start the pack manually. The new pack I have linked to (from the Windows store) does everything I need... I wanted the analog clock, the weather gadget, the CPU meter and the calendar. The new pack does all of that. Problem solved.

spapakons · Thursday at 5:01 PM

I'm just reminding everyone else who might want to use old gadgets.

Morph000 · 2025-04-05T00:06:59-0400

I had the same issue - won't load or loads then closes.
Turned out to be the ALL CPU app - the sort of app that needs to be VERY well designed to interact with the CPU these days or you'll get weird issues like black screens or BSODs..
Simple test - disable all the gadgets that load except for something harmless like a clock or calendar app then see if it all loads ok.
If yes, then it's a problematic app.
If no, then have you run the command "C:\Program Files\Windows Sidebar\sidebar.exe" /showGadgets ?

Jabiru · 2025-04-05T09:38:02-0400

I'm also a long time user of GadgetPack and I too have had this problem occasionally, but typing "Gad" and restarting Gadgetpack always seems to fix it where subsequent system starts reloads the gadgets. I haven't had the problem where that occurs evey time a boot process starts. Just to confirm it, I'm using "7 Sidebar v2,90" from "8 GadgetPack.net" where it's stored on my system in "C:/Program Files/Windows Sidebar". In that folder I have 2 "Applications", 8GadgetPack.exe Version 33 (64 bit) , and sidebar.exe. In my Task Manager The actual startup file is "sidebar.exe" with the path "C:\Program Files\Windows Sidebar\sidebar.exe". I checked in my Task Scheduler and there is no entry for that there.

It's been awhile since I installed this but I assume the installer is what puts the entries in the startup sequence. If it's part of the startup and it's not showing up initially, but will show up when you type "Gadgets", I'd check your startup logs to see what might be preventing it from starting initially. You can check your startup and shutdown logs via the event viewer using the procedure found at: How to check the Shutdown and Startup Log in Windows 11/10.

Hope this helps....

Stroppy · 2025-04-05T10:04:07-0400

Morph000 said:
I had the same issue - won't load or loads then closes.
Turned out to be the ALL CPU app - the sort of app that needs to be VERY well designed to interact with the CPU these days or you'll get weird issues like black screens or BSODs..
Simple test - disable all the gadgets that load except for something harmless like a clock or calendar app then see if it all loads ok.
If yes, then it's a problematic app.
If no, then have you run the command "C:\Program Files\Windows Sidebar\sidebar.exe" /showGadgets ?

Thanks for the suggestion but before coming here I checked for any CPU-draining apps. Nothing. Problem is now solved. I moved over to the new Windows Widget Launcher for Windows 11 by Chan Software which is free in the Windows store.

Stroppy · 2025-04-05T10:06:21-0400

Jabiru said:
I'm also a long time user of GadgetPack and I too have had this problem occasionally, but typing "Gad" and restarting Gadgetpack always seems to fix it where subsequent system starts reloads the gadgets. I haven't had the problem where that occurs evey time a boot process starts. Just to confirm it, I'm using "7 Sidebar v2,90" from "8 GadgetPack.net" where it's stored on my system in "C:/Program Files/Windows Sidebar". In that folder I have 2 "Applications", 8GadgetPack.exe Version 33 (64 bit) , and sidebar.exe. In my Task Manager The actual startup file is "sidebar.exe" with the path "C:\Program Files\Windows Sidebar\sidebar.exe". I checked in my Task Scheduler and there is no entry for that there.

It's been awhile since I installed this but I assume the installer is what puts the entries in the startup sequence. If it's part of the startup and it's not showing up initially, but will show up when you type "Gadgets", I'd check your startup logs to see what might be preventing it from starting initially. You can check your startup and shutdown logs via the event viewer using the procedure found at: How to check the Shutdown and Startup Log in Windows 11/10.

Hope this helps....

Thanks for the suggestions but I did try all of that and I just couldn't pin down the non-start cause so I had to restart manually each time I started Windows. There's a new gadget pack lookalike in the Windows Store called "Widget Launcher" by Chan Software and it does the job with similar looking gadgets and starts on each start of Windows.

Widget Launcher - Free download and install on Windows | Microsoft Store

Widget Launcher is the next generation of Gadgets for Windows 11 (requires .NET Desktop Runtime). This redesigned Widget Launcher (formerly Widgets HD) is now better than ever before. This app also supports extensions! So you can download additional skins and widgets right here in the...

apps.microsoft.com

dacrone · 2025-04-05T10:16:51-0400

if gadgetpack starts manually, then its not being blocked. if it doesnt run properly at startup, just create a scheduled task to run it or create a batch file to launch it and throw that in your shell:startup folder...

Using Gadget Pack on Windows 11

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