Weather gadget not working- Cannot connect to service

Hey Scott,

that's an excellent summary of the issues. I, too, have done some work on this and have a few things to add. If you agree, you might want to fold them into your original post, so all the info is in one place.

Problem 1: CANNOT CONNECT TO Service

• The service does not fail because of the time stamp. I have three different accounts, each with a copy of the same config.xml file. Copying the file (without changing the dates) to the failing account seems to be sufficient. The widget invariably fails shortly after a Windows update, and then only in the account that was logged on before or after the update. It seems that the update process sets a flag or a lock somewhere, and that is responsible, but I have not been able to track that down.
• The <languages> tag contains ordered pairs of ISO language/country abbreviations. These are used in various places, including generating filenames, registry keys, and the weather query.
• Settings.ini does not need to be changed unless the location is incorrect (more on that later).
• Windows does not need to be restarted.
• The cache files in "...Windows Sidebar\Cache\168522d5...9472" must be correct if they exist, but neither they, nor the directory, must exist when the gadget is started. If they do not exist, they are built automatically from the query reply. The cache filenames have the form _wc-{weather location code}F{language-country code}_.xml.
• The cache files contain forecast information as well as current weather data. Thus, the gadget dies a slow death: for a while it shows the weather (n hours ago), then it shows a forecast, then it runs out of forecasts and says it cannot connect to the service.

Problem 2: CANNOT find location

This is a whole new problem! The lookup function is broken! Whether this is deliberate or accidental is a good question to which I do not have an answer. It does not appear to have anything to do with security settings. The Sidebar gadgets have access to the internet (specifically to akamaitechnologies.com), and I can find no firewall restrictions that apply to this problem.

The rather idiosyncratic AOL/weather.com location codes can be found using Volume Z's technique.

Note: Only the WeatherLocationCode value needs to be changed. The format is wc:{location}. The WeatherLocation string is updated automatically when the query runs.

To change the location code:

• use perfmon.exe to stop sidebar.exe.
• Edit the value for WeatherLocationCode in settings.ini and resave the file.
• Right click on the desktop to start the sidebar selector. The gadgets should restart.
• Close the sidebar selector.

Best regards,

T

Problem 2: CANNOT find location

This is a whole new/newer problem.   It happens when doing a new install or settings.ini file has gotten corrupted or reset somehow.    The symptom is the weather is displayed only for the default of what I'm presuming is regionally setting (for example, New York, NY for those in the United States) and you can't change this in the options settings because all locations come up as not found.   My guess is this problem is caused by a security settings issue.  Someone suggested giving elevated privileges to the widget in the registry.   This might work but I didn't need to do this since I had a backup.    Here are my suggestions on this (sorry not all verified since as I just stated, I had a backup):

• Close the widget; replace settings.ini and the cache file from backup; and touch the config.xml file.  Restart so that these are not overwritten.
• Close the widget, hand edit settings.ini, rename the cache file.  Restart.   The key here is largely to know what value to put for the weather code location setting in the settings.ini files. ( WeatherLocationCode="wc:USAZ0207" in my example). If you don't know.  Try another option or ask the forum if someone can provide you copy.
• Try the registry fix.  If it does work because of the security issues I would not continue leave the widget with elevated privileges.  this is definitely not needed once its working.
• Try configuring a location service so it finds it automatically.  I give this one 50/50 odds.

Sorry about the different formatting.... a bug in the forum software.   

Good Luck!

Very good post.  In case you haven't seen it discussed, there is a way to make the gadget work without the need to periodically resave the Config.xml file.  It is accomplished by changing the date on the Config.xml file to sometime in the future and also changing its attribute to Read-only.  Directions to accomplish it have been posted many times.  If you haven't tried this option I would suggest it.  

For now I'd like to explore Problem 2 a bit more.  Myself and many others report that even though our location on the gadget is correct (say Boston, MA) we can not change the location.  Any other location put in, including our current location, will show "location not found".  But since we have our current location and the gadget is working we can live with it.  

You and others have given a way to change the location by editing settings.ini and using the weather code for the desired location.  My question is, after doing this and changing the location from Boston, MA to Hartford, CT will the search for location function work?  Meaning can I use tools to search for Boston, MA?  Or will I have the same issue of getting "location not found"?   And then in order to return to Boston, MA I will have to again edit the settings.ini.  Hopefully you understand what I am asking.

edit:  You mention giving elevated priviledges to the gadget in the Registry as a way to get the search for location function working.  If as I suspect editing settings.ini will do nothing to get the location finder working can you provide the Registry tweak?  Thanks.

Unfortunately a LOT of people did spread the word on this....unfortunate as it contains numerous untruths.  

Sorry if somewhere in the sea of replies this was stated.  I know it was in round-about ways but its needs to be clear:  Microsoft has NOT removed this function.

As of APRIL 6, 2015 the weather widget is still working.

That said, it is no longer supported and hasn't been for a while.   The further along we get the more likely it will one day no longer work and there are MULTIPLE ways  it can get screwed up already.   

I personally didn't spend enough time to figure out exactly how everything works.   I did spend enough time to get it working as needed for me and here are some of the things I learned:

Problem 1: CANNOT CONNECT TO Service

• Simply opening and saving without making any changes the services\cache\config.xml file (or perhaps more correctly stated, updating the time stamp of the file) did the trick for me on this problem.
• You DO NOT have to edit the settings in this file as some posts suggest.  The contents of the file appear to simply set refresh periods.   However, from my observations, it appears (i.e. my guess is) the time stamp of the config.xml file is used in determining if the service is failing.   Therefore if the timestamp gets out of the expected range, the whole widget stops working because it triggers an error condition that it is unable to connect to the service.
• The settings in config.xml appear to simply set what the update intervals are.  The original default is 30 (presumed seconds) for the weather widget.  Overall the services are refreshed by default 60 (presumed seconds).   Again these do NOT need to changed.
• In case your config.xml file is missing and for whatever reason you can't get it to recreate, here is a basic example of contents:

<?xml version="1.0"?>

<services refresh="60">

   <service name="weather">

      <operation interval="30"/>

      <languages>

         <lang> ar-ae </lang>

         <lang> ar-bh </lang>

         <lang> ar-dz </lang>

         <lang> ar-eg </lang>

         <lang> ar-iq </lang>

         <lang> ar-jo </lang>

         <lang> ar-kw </lang>

         <lang> ar-lb </lang>

         <lang> ar-ly </lang>

         <lang> ar-ma </lang>

         <lang> arn-CL </lang>

         <lang> ar-om </lang>

         <lang> ar-qa </lang>

         <lang> ar-sa </lang>

         <lang> ar-SY </lang>

         <lang> ar-tn </lang>

         <lang> ar-ye </lang>

         <lang> az-AZ </lang>

         <lang> bs-BA </lang>

         <lang> cs-CZ </lang>

         <lang> cy-GB </lang>

         <lang> da-DK </lang>

         <lang> de-AT </lang>

         <lang> de-CH </lang>

         <lang> de-DE </lang>

         <lang> de-LI </lang>

         <lang> de-LU </lang>

         <lang> dsb-DE </lang>

         <lang> el-GR </lang>

         <lang> en-AU </lang>

         <lang> en-CA </lang>

         <lang> en-GB </lang>

         <lang> en-IE </lang>

         <lang> en-IN </lang>

         <lang> en-MY </lang>

         <lang> en-NZ </lang>

         <lang> en-PH </lang>

         <lang> en-SG </lang>

         <lang> en-US </lang>

         <lang> en-ZA </lang>

         <lang> es-AR </lang>

         <lang> es-BO </lang>

         <lang> es-CL </lang>

         <lang> es-CO </lang>

         <lang> es-CR </lang>

         <lang> es-DO </lang>

         <lang> es-EC </lang>

         <lang> es-ES </lang>

         <lang> es-GT </lang>

         <lang> es-HN </lang>

         <lang> es-MX </lang>

         <lang> es-NI </lang>

         <lang> es-PA </lang>

         <lang> es-PE </lang>

         <lang> es-PR </lang>

         <lang> es-PY </lang>

         <lang> es-SV </lang>

         <lang> es-US </lang>

         <lang> es-VE </lang>

         <lang> et-EE </lang>

         <lang> fi-FI </lang>

         <lang> fil-PH </lang>

         <lang> fo-FO </lang>

         <lang> fr-BE </lang>

         <lang> fr-CA </lang>

         <lang> fr-CH </lang>

         <lang> fr-FR </lang>

         <lang> fr-LU </lang>

         <lang> fr-MC </lang>

         <lang> fy-NL </lang>

         <lang> ga-IE </lang>

         <lang> he-IL </lang>

         <lang> hi-IN </lang>

         <lang> hr-HR </lang>

         <lang> hu-HU </lang>

         <lang> id-ID </lang>

         <lang> is-IS </lang>

         <lang> it-CH </lang>

         <lang> it-IT </lang>

         <lang> iu-CA </lang>

         <lang> ja-JP </lang>

         <lang> kl-GL </lang>

         <lang> lb-LU </lang>

         <lang> lt-LT </lang>

         <lang> lv-LV </lang>

         <lang> mi-NZ </lang>

         <lang> nb-NO </lang>

         <lang> nl-BE </lang>

         <lang> nl-NL </lang>

         <lang> nn-NO </lang>

         <lang> pl-PL </lang>

         <lang> pt-BR </lang>

         <lang> pt-PT </lang>

         <lang> qut-GT </lang>

         <lang> quz-BO </lang>

         <lang> quz-EC </lang>

         <lang> quz-PE </lang>

         <lang> rm-CH </lang>

         <lang> ro-RO </lang>

         <lang> ru-RU </lang>

         <lang> se-FI </lang>

         <lang> se-NO </lang>

         <lang> se-SE </lang>

         <lang> sk-SK </lang>

         <lang> sl-SI </lang>

         <lang> sma-NO </lang>

         <lang> sma-SE </lang>

         <lang> smj-NO </lang>

         <lang> smj-SE </lang>

         <lang> smn-FI </lang>

         <lang> sms-FI </lang>

         <lang> sr-CS </lang>

         <lang> sv-SE </lang>

         <lang> th-TH </lang>

         <lang> tr-TR </lang>

         <lang> uk-UA </lang>

         <lang> ur-PK </lang>

         <lang> wen-DE </lang>

         <lang> zh-SG </lang>

      </languages>

   </service>

   <service name="stocks">

      <operation interval="15"/>

   </service>

   <service name="currency">

      <operation interval="30"/>

   </service>

</services>

• I'm guessing settings.ini in the Windows Sidebar folder likely does not need to be changed for this problem.    If it contains the settings for where you what to display weather data, then I'm 99% confident it does NOT need to changed
• If you do need to update it, the widgets cannot be running as this file will be locked.  I had some problems with the contents getting reset but it is possible to shutdown the file and restart the gadgets without your changes being lost.   Sorry but I didn't track exact steps of how I did it.  Worse case you can always create a bootable USB, boot to that, update the files, and then restart windows.
• I did restart windows but I'm not sure this is necessary.
• You should be able to get some sort of settings.ini file.  If not here's an example:

[Root]

SettingsVersion="00.00.00.02"

ShowGalleryPrivacyStatementOnceComplete="true"

Section0="1"

[Hashes]

C:\Program Files\Windows Sidebar\Gadgets\Calendar.Gadget="%7B64211695-85AB-471B-0421-D1377927C54A%7D"

C:\Program Files\Windows Sidebar\Gadgets\Weather.Gadget="%7BDCB0A4DE-5F31-567C-E435-580519DFEBD6%7D"

[Section 1]

PrivateSetting_GadgetName="C:%5CProgram%20Files%5CWindows%20Sidebar%5CGadgets%5CWeather.Gadget"

LocationAPIAvailable="True"

CurrentState="6"

WeatherLocation="Scottsdale,%20AZ"

WeatherLocationCode="wc:USAZ0207"

DisplayDegreesIn="Fahrenheit"

PrivateSetting_GadgetDropLocationX="1626"

PrivateSetting_GadgetDropLocationY="204"

PrivateSetting_GadgetSize="large"

PrivateSetting_GadgetTopmost="false"

• The Cache files others have mentioned in "Windows Sidebar\Cache\168522d5-1082-4df2-b2f6-9185c31f9472" are simply XML data pulls of the weather data for the location(s) in your settings.ini file.  There should be one XML file for each location.   The name of the file will be something like this "_wc-<weather location code from settings.ini file>Fen-US_.
• There are some time stamps in this file as well as in the GlobalCacheCleanup.    I don't know if they are related to the config.xml time stamp or not.

Problem 2: CANNOT find location

This is a whole new/newer problem.   It happens when doing a new install or settings.ini file has gotten corrupted or reset somehow.    The symptom is the weather is displayed only for the default of what I'm presuming is regionally setting (for example, New York, NY for those in the United States) and you can't change this in the options settings because all locations come up as not found.   My guess is this problem is caused by a security settings issue.  Someone suggested giving elevated privileges to the widget in the registry.   This might work but I didn't need to do this since I had a backup.    Here are my suggestions on this (sorry not all verified since as I just stated, I had a backup):

• Close the widget; replace settings.ini and the cache file from backup; and touch the config.xml file.  Restart so that these are not overwritten.
• Close the widget, hand edit settings.ini, rename the cache file.  Restart.   The key here is largely to know what value to put for the weather code location setting in the settings.ini files. ( WeatherLocationCode="wc:USAZ0207" in my example). If you don't know.  Try another option or ask the forum if someone can provide you copy.
• Try the registry fix.  If it does work because of the security issues I would not continue leave the widget with elevated privileges.  this is definitely not needed once its working.
• Try configuring a location service so it finds it automatically.  I give this one 50/50 odds.

Sorry about the different formatting.... a bug in the forum software.   

Good Luck!