Automated Fix It Solutions for Malfunctioning Windows 7 Gadgets

Microsoft is providing Windows 7 customers with automated solutions designed to resolve issues they might have come across, in which their gadgets are not working properly, or displaying erroneously.

The Redmond company has confirmed problems affecting Windows 7 gadgets, and also indicated that in certain scenarios, the gadgets can stop working altogether.

Additional symptoms involve “Gadgets may appear as black squares, may appear to have vertical green lines down the center or may not appear at all and may have a blue exclamation mark next to it, or calendar gadget may display without dates,” the software giant stated.

It appears that the problems are generated by incorrect settings in the Internet Security Zones, with a range of troubleshooting steps, including System Restore, failing to resolve the issues.

In order to resolve the glitches and get their Windows 7 gadgets working under normal parameters again, customers will need to edit the registry of the operating system.

“Serious problems might occur if you modify the registry incorrectly. Therefore, make sure that you follow these steps carefully. For added protection, back up the registry before you modify it. Then, you can restore the registry if a problem occurs,” Microsoft advised.

Still, as I’ve already said, the software giant is providing customers with two automated Fix it solutions, which do not require users to make the registry changes manually.

At the same time, Microsoft also provides guidance to help do-it-your-selvers with instructions on how to perform the necessary registry modifications manually.

Microsoft Fix it 50617 – “This package will change the registry value for Value data in the Zones subkey to 0 for you,” the company informs.

“This wizard may be in English only. However, the automatic fix also works for other language versions of Windows.”

In the eventuality that the Fix it solution above does not work, another solution is offered to users, namely Microsoft Fix it 50618 designed to delete the extra (parasite) zone from the Zones subkey.