Help – Windows 7 beta’s sidebar in Server 2008 R2 beta?

Forums Operating Systems Windows Server 2008 R2 Miscellaneous Help – Windows 7 beta’s sidebar in Server 2008 R2 beta?

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    • #43590

      I am looking to use the Windows 7 beta’s sidebar in Server 2008 R2 beta… I have tried copying the sidebar directory from a win7 install to the 2008r2 install and doing the same register of the exe plus the two dlls… I have had zero luck starting it… however, I CAN install the sidebar from vista…

      I’ve also exported the registry for the sidebar folder on win7 and imported it on the 2008r2 box…

      Does anyone know how to get the win7 sidebar working in 2008r2?

      Thanks in advance!

    • #48095

      I thought they removed the sidebar from the next OS, but just left the gadgets in?

    • #48096

      You can use the automatic desktop-convert program developed for WS2008. It’s here somewhere.

    • #48097

      I was asking if anyone has the windows 7 “sidebar” working, as the windows 7 sidebar doesn’t have a sidebar, it just has floating gadgets…

      In the prog files folder, there is still a sidebar folder, when it a run, the gadgets show up….

      I’d like to get the win7 sidebar working in 2008 r2 beta….

    • #48098

      @troels wrote:

      You can use the automatic desktop-convert program developed for WS2008. It’s here somewhere.

      NO you CANNOT. This forum section is for Server 2008 R2, which is based on Windows 7. Not Windows 6 (Vista). Doing that could possibly break the system, as the DWM/Aero service has had many changes.

      In regards to the main question gleep52, I just recently installed 2008 R2 and as soon as I get my workspace and system all installed, the first thing I will be working on is exactly this 🙂

    • #48099

      Just FYI… I forcefully did a LOT of tricks to get the “sidebar” directory from a windows 7 install to work on 2008 r2… so far the only luck I had was NOT bluescreening and still being able to restart – even though no gadgets would work – the sidebar.exe was running in task manager. That was as far as I got. For now I went back to using vista’s sidebar which works fine, just not as cool… FYI – it DOES break the OS and the easiest fix I’ve found is running SFC /scannow and it seems to clear it all up… thankfully that godsend is still fully functional in the beta. yay!

      JonusC I’m excited that you are making the change. I can’t believe more people aren’t using 2008 R2 beta… it’s just wonderful and amazing all around. Even Microsoft is hosting all of it’s public servers with 2008 R2 beta to prove their trust in their own product.

      FYI – SOME of the win converter program that (SAWO?) wrote actually still works in 2008 r2 beta… just not all of it. AND you have to run it with admin rights or else none of it works. *shrugs* no biggie.

    • #48100

      @gleep52 wrote:

      Just FYI… I forcefully did a LOT of tricks to get the “sidebar” directory from a windows 7 install to work on 2008 r2… so far the only luck I had was NOT bluescreening and still being able to restart – even though no gadgets would work – the sidebar.exe was running in task manager. That was as far as I got. For now I went back to using vista’s sidebar which works fine, just not as cool… FYI – it DOES break the OS and the easiest fix I’ve found is running SFC /scannow and it seems to clear it all up… thankfully that godsend is still fully functional in the beta. yay!

      JonusC I’m excited that you are making the change. I can’t believe more people aren’t using 2008 R2 beta… it’s just wonderful and amazing all around. Even Microsoft is hosting all of it’s public servers with 2008 R2 beta to prove their trust in their own product.

      FYI – SOME of the win converter program that (SAWO?) wrote actually still works in 2008 r2 beta… just not all of it. AND you have to run it with admin rights or else none of it works. *shrugs* no biggie.

      Yeah, I don’t personally use Sidebar (Vista one) but it’s still my #1 thing to get the new one for Windows 7 working in our Server! I’m sure there are just some deeply-nested registry keys needed, I will have to Proccess Monitor the Sidebar.exe startup from Windows 7 and sort through it all, cross checking with 2008 R2 registry =)

      Yeah, Windows 7 family is extremely impressive for a beta. I’ve noticed that Internet Explorer crashes occassionally but…. it’s so awesome, it automatically recovers the tabs! Apart from that, i’ve noticed a strange thing when you create a New Folder or New Text File – If you start typing in the name straight away after creation (very quickly) it starts to type in as usual, but then it resets back to “New Folder” or whatever after a second… only does it once, and It’s a really wierd bug! But yeah, minor annoyance – I just gotta slow down a little 😉

      And yeah, I will believe that some of the things in Sawo’s converter do work. I havn’t tried it (I do everything manually) but there are still a lot of similarities in Windows 7 Vs Windows 6. The only concern I was expressing was just the simple “using an older windows’ files on a newer OS” and I don’t recommend it. When somebody does this kind of hack, we call these kinds of computers a “frankenbuild” haha and techies generally stay away from these (and wont help you fix your problem if something goes wrong). If you know what i mean.

      Anyway, yeah. Will take a look at the Sidebar soon.

    • #48101

      Any luck/time for this project yet? 🙂

    • #48102

      Bumpity-bump-bump 🙂

    • #48103

      I’m completely stuck on this. My #1 priority is to try and get Superfetch service into Server 2008, and i’m having problem with that too.

      I’ve never tried this kind of thing on a Beta OS, not to mention when I looked at this stuff on Vista/2008 R1 I had some established resources already on the net, from here and NeoWin for example, and i’ve also moved to a x64 OS for the first time and am still getting my grips on the internal differences between Vista x86 and Seven x64, mainly the registry.

      A lot of things have changed in seven, many registry keys that worked in XP and Vista no longer work in Seven and it sucks. There’s so many little things I need to work out…. =

      Anyway, yeah. I havn’t given up.

    • #48104

      Glad to hear you are working on this. I’m looking forward to get a RTM for my desktop. Will see how it performs.

    • #48105

      I got the Windows 7 RC sidebar completely working in Windows Server 2008 r2 RC!
      http://www.4shared.com/file/105740466/c113a7e3/windows_sidebar.html
      Just extract the archive and run install.cmd as user with Administrator rights.
      Enjoy! 😉

    • #48106

      Im hoping that once they release Server 2008 R2, It will be up on dreamspark. Once I can get that, Ill try to get windows 7 features over to it.

    • #48107

      @Fullmetal99012 wrote:

      Im hoping that once they release Server 2008 R2, It will be up on dreamspark.

      I hope too… 😉

    • #48108

      @AsciiWolf wrote:

      I got the Windows 7 RC sidebar completely working in Windows Server 2008 r2 RC!
      http://www.4shared.com/file/105740466/c113a7e3/windows_sidebar.html
      Just extract the archive and run install.cmd as user with Administrator rights.
      Enjoy! 😉

      MANY THANX ! IMPRESSIVE JOB !

    • #48109

      @AsciiWolf wrote:

      I got the Windows 7 RC sidebar completely working in Windows Server 2008 r2 RC!
      http://www.4shared.com/file/105740466/c113a7e3/windows_sidebar.html
      Just extract the archive and run install.cmd as user with Administrator rights.
      Enjoy! 😉

      Yes AsciiWolf, it works great! Just a note to anyone else though, make sure you extract and run install from the same drive as your system root, usually C: (the same drive where ‘Windows’ and ‘Program Files’ is) otherwise it will not install 🙄

    • #48110

      I’ve been looking everywhere to get this working with no luck, this looks very promising but…

      Link doesn’t work, can someone repost the file for me?

      It would be greatly appreciated.

      Thanks

    • #48111
      Arris
      Moderator

        @madkrupt wrote:

        I’ve been looking everywhere to get this working with no luck

        Why not just take a look at the manual and install the Sidebar without any problems? 😉

      • #48112

        @Arris wrote:

        @madkrupt wrote:

        I’ve been looking everywhere to get this working with no luck

        Why not just take a look at the manual and install the Sidebar without any problems? 😉

        Interesting that I seem to be the only person for whom this has not worked. When I run the provided script, I get what is in the attached gif. The script and folder are on the C: drive, and I am running it as Administrator.

        At one point I did install the sidebar, by looking at what is in the script and manually taking those steps, and it worked – but the only gadget that worked was the calendar. All other gadgets caused the sidebar to stop working. I tried every combination. Only the calendar, only when alone, would work.

        Any thoughts?

        RFT!!!
        Dave Kelsen

        |[ Mainboard: Asrock Extreme-68 ]|[ CPU: Intel i7 920 ]|[ RAM: 6 GB OCZ (3channel 1600) ]|[ GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260 (896 DDR3 MB) ]|[ OS: Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64]|

      • #48113

        You are not running it as administrator. The title bar of the Command Prompt is supposed to have the text ‘Administrator: C:WindowsSysWOW64cmd.exe’.

        Try right-clicking the install.cmd file and choosing Run as Administrator from Windows Explorer instead of PowerDesk. If it still doesn’t work, then something more serious is borked. Enable the Administrator account in User Manager; login to it, disable UAC for that account, and run install.cmd there.

      • #48114

        @JonusC wrote:

        You are not running it as administrator. The title bar of the Command Prompt is supposed to have the text ‘Administrator: C:WindowsSysWOW64cmd.exe’.

        Try right-clicking the install.cmd file and choosing Run as Administrator from Windows Explorer instead of PowerDesk. If it still doesn’t work, then something more serious is borked. Enable the Administrator account in User Manager; login to it, disable UAC for that account, and run install.cmd there.

        Jonus,

        thanks very much. I had tried running from Windows Explorer, and running as ‘the’ Administrator account. What I had not done was disable the UAC. That did the trick, and the sidebar is installed. Thanks again.

        RFT!!!
        Dave Kelsen

        “A man is not old until regrets take the place of dreams.” — John Barrymore

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