Weather gadget not working- Cannot connect to service

Anonymous
2013-01-14T14:07:43+00:00

original title: Weather gadget not working !!

I have Windows 7 Ultimate 64 - bit and my weather gadget is not working, it is displaying a message "Cannot connect to service .

I have also tried by turning off firewall and antivirus but it still don't works for me .

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Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

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Anonymous
2013-01-15T09:19:57+00:00

Update:

Microsoft has DISABLED the weather and currency gadgets via a recent Security Update, due to concerns over the vulnerability associated with these gadgets running on your computer. You can read more about it here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2719662 . Adjusting your computer's settings and all these other "suggestions" people are making, will NOT work. The function has been REMOVED from the operating system. It has also been removed from the Windows 8 operating system. There are "theorists" that either agree that there is a security issue within the gadgets or Microsoft just does not want to support gadgets (usually third party software) and thus, has disabled them in Windows 7 and eliminated them in Windows 8.

Thanks to DaveNYC for the Info. Spread the word because many people are facing this problem just like you.

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Anonymous
2015-05-29T15:03:04+00:00

To all having this problem, the following worked for me:

After eading all kind of solutions, I changed the config.xml file according instructions and then I got connected but only to my own location (in my case Amsterdam). Tried everything else, no results, till I only give the exact zip code for the place I like to see the weather in the search menu and guess it worked, then I did the same on my computer in Greece (via teamviewer) and there it worked as well.

I hope it will help you as good as it did for me.

Ron

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  1. Anonymous
    2015-02-23T08:25:09+00:00

    How are people getting a 3 day forecast with the standard weather gadget?  All I get is the current temp.  It's been that way since day one.  Nothing under options for any other view.  I am using the gadget named "Weather" that I access in the Desktop Gadget Gallery that came with my Win 7 computer.

    Just rightclick the Weather Gadget, chose Size, chose Large.

    And as I've already written several times at different places about this:

    =========

    And exactly a Week ago I had to RE-save my config-xml file, and today I had to do the same again, so it seems it'll be a Weekly manouver from now on to RE-save the config.xml, so everyone make yourself a Shortcut to the Folder.

    Just rightclick the Desktop, chose >>New>Shortcut, paste the Path =

    C:\Users*YourOwnWindowsName*\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Live\Services\Cache

    into the the new Shortcut, and then click NEXT, and Give it a Name, and then click FINISH.

    That way it'll by a lot simpler when you need to RE-save config.xml again each week.

    And perhaps I've found another kind of solution, so one don't have to go thru this above each week.

    This morning I simply changed the Date on the config.xml, to 2017, and then set the Attribute READ ONLY on the file, and it's still working ...

    Personally I use a program called FileMenu Tool to change the Date, from http://www.lopesoft.com/en/filemenutools but there are many other programs that simply changes the date.

    Another way to change date on a file, is to change the date in your computer, then RE-save the file, and then set the date back again to correct date.

    And to set Attribute just rightclick the file, chose Properties, and Click Read-Only, click OK.

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  2. Günter Born 49,461 Reputation points
    2015-02-23T06:47:29+00:00

    It does work, temporarily.  Many (myself included) report the problem returning. 

    What would really be good was if someone could figure out why the gadget loses connection, and will again lose connection even when fixed.

    My suggestion: give up using windows gadgets for security purposes. I wrote recently a short blog post addressing a few issues and summarize the situation. 

    Windows 7: Sidebar weather gadget “service not available”

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  3. Anonymous
    2015-02-23T01:12:54+00:00

    Please follow this to fix the issue.

    :- Go to "C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Live\Services\Cache",

    :- Open "Config.xml" , Right click on it Select Edit, it will open in Notepad.

    :- Click on File>> Save (without doing any changes) 

    Restart the Gadget after a Minute and it should start working.

    A 21 page thread may be hard to follow but this "fix" has been posted for quite a while both here and in the other thread about this issue.

    It does work, temporarily.  Many (myself included) report the problem returning. 

    What would really be good was if someone could figure out why the gadget loses connection, and will again lose connection even when fixed.

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