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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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
    2015-02-22T10:35:53+00:00

    Hi,

    I found your post VERY useful as it solved my problem for the weather gadget (see more about the currency exchange gadget later).

    However, I'd like to make a few comment and propose a more safe fix than what you propose. 

    This applies to a situation where the whether target worked on one machine with Windows 7 installed last year (mid 2014) but did not work on another machine on which I had to reinstall Windows 7 this month (Feb 2015) .  I mention the dates because it may have to do with the time at which installation and updating were were made. 

    1. !! OK to replace config.xml of the target machine IF EMPTY (the config.xml of the working machine contains only the instructions for the weather target refresh rate and languages).  

    --> This file was empty on the machine that did not work.

    1. !! the folder 168522d5-1082-4df2-b2f6-9185c31f9472 may actually not even exist in the target machine that did not work.

    This is probably the main point for correction. 

    --> This folder did not exist on the machine that did not worK 

    1. !! DO NOT overwrite settings.ini because (i) it is used by the other gadgets ; (ii) you may destroy the settings of these other gadgets.  

    --> This file was existing on the machine that did not work and contained a lot of configurations I had made for the other gadgets.

    All you actually need is to recreate the weather gadge ad then configure it. Then the settings.ini file will be updated and you will have both a working weather gadget AND your other gadgets working properly.

    I guess that when people claim that the weather target was discontinued by Microsoft, what really happened is that at some point in time, installation of Windows made it so that the necessary files (config.xml and the 168522d5-1082-4df2-b2f6-9185c31f9472 folder and its content) were no longer automatically created when creating an instance of the weather target. 

    About the currency exchange gadget, this did not work after the fix.  Since it stopped working on several machines at the same time, I guess that the service has been really discontinued.

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  2. Anonymous
    2015-02-21T20:22:52+00:00

    To make things even more complex; on my second system I did the following:

    1. Disabled the Weather (Dutch: Weer) gadget.
    2. Copied only one file: "Config.xml". Overwriting the existing one.
    3. When I enabled the Weather gadget again, it worked!

    Even more strange; the old "Config.xml" and the new one are exactly the same! Except for the date off course.

    So maybe if you open "Config.xml" from "%LocalAppData%\Microsoft\Windows Live\Services\Cache" in Notepad (Dutch: Kladblok) edit it by adding and removing a space or something and then save it.

    The weather tool will re-initialize and work again as soon as it notices a change in "Config.xml" or any other file it uses. I wonder if this is the case, as I had this problem only with two (Windows 7) machines.

    Notes:

    • You could also try to edit a copy of "Config.xml" and then copy this edited one back, overwriting the original one ~ can you still follow me? ;)
    • Changing "%LocalAppData%\Microsoft\Windows Sidebar\Settings.ini" will probably work to.
    • %LocalAppData% is a so called system environment variable, it represents something like: "C:\Users\User name\AppData\Local"

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  3. Anonymous
    2015-02-21T19:43:49+00:00

    Thanx, this worked fine on my (Dutch) systems, I only had to rename the English map 'Weather' to the Dutch 'Weer'.

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