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
    2015-02-25T17:23:31+00:00

    Ah the above discussion was about my previous two replys to Pokebud's post.

    Se my latste comment on that one below.

    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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  2. Anonymous
    2015-02-25T19:52:06+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"

    I know this thread is long and may be hard to follow but removing the Weather gadget and then opening the Config.xml and resaving (without changing anything) the file and then resinstaslling the gadget has been a known temporary fix for weeks.  I say temporary because the Weather gadget will again stop working at some point.  As long as the Config.xml is present (some report it missing) the steps can be repeated and again the Weather gadget will work. 

    If someone could figure out why it stops maybe we could come up with a more permanent fix.

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  3. Anonymous
    2015-02-26T07:37:08+00:00

    Here how you fix this issue:

    Go to "C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Live\Services\Cache", open "Config.xml" (RMB -> Edit) and save it (File -> Save) without doing any changes. After 10-20 seconds restart the gadget!

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