I like Yahoo! Widgets (formerly known as “Konfabulator”). I use XP for some time to come and thus don’t have the option to use Vista’s widgets (the only thing in Vista that currently has some draw to it is DirectX 10, but I digress..). Every now and then a widget “gets lost”. For example, when starting a program (like a game) that changes the display resolution, the widgets get tossed around seemingly randomly, and sometimes they end up outside of the active (and possibly maximum) resolution of the display. Closing a widget and reopening it won’t help. Uninstalling Yahoo! Widget Engine probably helps, but who wants to do that regularly? There’s an easy registry fix (and if the problem is frequent, one could even write a small batch file that would place the widgets at their desired locations).
Shut down Widget Engine first (also from the system tray), then find the following key in your registry with regedit (you may want to use search especially if the system has many users and thus many SIDs).
The keys that determine the widget locations can be found at
HKEY_USERS \
user’s security ID, or “SID”,
… e.g. S-1-5-21-1482476501-362288127-1801674531-1233 \
Software \
Yahoo \
Widget Engine \
Widgets \
widget name, e.g. “Calendar” \
Windows \
Main Windows \
Positions <- delete this binary value
Then restart Widget Engine (and reload the “lost” widget if it’s not loaded by default). It the default placement is in the middle of the screen (or middle of the “active” screen on some multi-monitor systems).
Disclaimer: As always, the usual disclaimers and warnings apply to any registry mods. Know what you’re doing since it is possible to destroy your Windows installation with careless registry edits.
#1 by Albert on 21 October 2008 - 12:29
Thanks so much for this! I accidentally moved a widget to the side the pressed it’s “close drawer” button and it ended up moving off the screen. I was like… F********************CK!
But yeah. THanks!
#2 by Greg on 28 March 2009 - 21:59
I tried this solution but no luck, the widget is off screen still. I even tried pasting the location of a visible widget in the registry but still no good.
It works fine on my desktop PC but not on my notebook.
Thinking the widget might be bad at the Yahoo site, I copied the one that works from my desktop PC to the notebook. That didn’t work either. Neither did deleting and reinstalling the widget after deleting the entire registry entry for it.
HELP!!!
The widget is Weatherbug.
#3 by Ville Walveranta on 30 March 2009 - 18:44
Hi Greg! Are you sure the missing widget is running and not just off the screen? I’ve had instances where a particular widget is just MIA – doesn’t start for no good reason.
#4 by Scuba Steve on 17 August 2009 - 14:40
I came across this post after I had the same problem and wanted to add something…
It seems that even if you go to the registry and make the change, the widget engine will re-record the current offscreen location of your widget when you close.
I was able to fix it by hitting ctrl-alt-delete and ending the process of the widget you are using. They are all called “YahooWidgets.exe” under the Processes tab so you may have to experiment a few times to find the right one.
Stop your lost widget’s process from here, then go to the registry and either delete the position or copy and paste the position of a working widget. Close registry editor and start the lost widget and it should show up again.
#5 by Justin on 13 December 2009 - 22:27
My Yahoo Weather moved off screen too for some odd reason and could not bring it back till I found your blog entry! THANK YOU!!! MUCH APPRECIATED for posting the solution!
#6 by Matt on 15 January 2010 - 05:18
Awesome, this solved my problems!
Thanks