Give Windows Vista the Millennium Group treatment with our new Vista Sidebar Gadget

[Earthnut]

I must have done something wrong when I downloaded the O... gadget because the day count isn't changing. My name is there after "Welcome," but it's locked on 1161 days. Also, when I right click there's no "options." Do I need to remove and re-download it?

[ethsnafu]

Same thing here Darlene,

I'm trying to work out why and if should have any luck I'll share it with you. I promise. I love that little gadget and miss it counting down every day.

Eth

[The Old Man]

Hi folks,

Sorry to hear you have had problems, I have just re-zipped both gadgets as v1.1 and uploaded them both into Downloads. This might fix your problem but see the following paragraph.

It seems some Vista installations don't like gadgets that have been zipped using WinRar, and they refuse to open.

Un-install the current versions you have installed in your Gadgets list (click on the + at the top of the sidebar in Vista top open it), right click on each gadget and choose Uninstall. Then go to the downloads section of TIWWA and grab the latest versions.

The countdown isn't live though, and it will never roll over at midnight by itself. It only runs once when the gadget loads into the Sidebar (on Vista) or desktop (Windows 7), say when you first switch your PC on or log out and log back in again.

So if its 1160 days today and you leave your computer on overnight past midnight, it will still stay 1160 when you see it tomorrow, unless you close the gadget and then restart it again or until the next time you reboot your computer. As the time will have changed it will show the new days remaining. I hope this makes sense, basically it gets the system time once when the gadget loads, its not running live all the time, so its not always counting down. If you left your computer on all the time like in an office perhaps, it would give the impression its stuck!

So I think if you just log out and log in again, it will change for you or just restart the gadget.

[Earthnut]

Graham, you're the greatest. Thanks for all your help.

[The Old Man]

No problem, I hope you got it working okay. Give me a +1 reputation point!

They are simple gadgets, there shouldn't be any real issues. I could include a small button to refresh the countdown but I have left things like that off as it would spoil their appearance.

[Earthnut]

Give me a +1 reputation point!

Done !

Graham, am I understanding you correctly, that every time I reboot or log off it will drop a day, and if I am going to reboot or log off to close the gadget, or do I leave it in the sidebar?

[The Old Man]

Hi,

Every time the gadget loads it works out the number of days remaining from the current date (in your time-zone), as set by you on your computer in Windows.

Yes, just leave it running on your sidebar or desktop, and every time you reboot or switch on your computer you'll see the correct number of days remaining.

You don't have to close it and re-open it unless you want to. You might want to if its gone past midnight, which means its now a day less, but most people wouldn't worry about that as the next time they switch on the computer it would show the correct number of days again.

Graham

[ethsnafu]

Hi guys,

In the spirit of Halloween, Graham has created six new Vista Gadgets and has very kindly allowed BTFB to lead the way in brining them to your attention. You can read all about it here or simply peruse the new gadgets via the download manager. Please go take a look, check them out and put them to apocalyptic use and, most importantly, share you appreciation of them here for Graham to see.

Eth

PS Whilst you are checking out the link leave a few comments at BTFB if you have the time. Graham always drops by and it would be nice to see a few more of you doing so :)

[The Old Man]

Thanks Mark, much appreciated! I hope you like the latest gadgets folks, the flickering pumpkin (the great animation courtesy of ethsnafu) if my favourite at the moment, but even after Halloween has sadly gone by, Lucy Butler will be there to ease you through the rest of Autumn.

[ethsnafu]

Well I'm looking at my flickering Jack-O-Lantern countdown as we speak and it could not be more Halloweeny (which is my new favourite word despite it not being one). I may just keep it there all year at this rate to help with the withdrawal when Halloween is over - doesn't bear thinking about does it. Give these a whirl guys if you haven't already tried them out.

Awesome work!

Eth