Anyone still running Windows 7?

So, does anything happen when you plug something into the USB port? Like, say, a thumb drive?
The issue could also stem from the plug-and-play monitor itself. It might even be something that needs a fresh driver installation.

cosmicrider5 said:Alright, have you tried plugging anything else into the USB port? Like a thumb drive, for instance?
The issue might also stem from a plug-and-play monitor. Those can sometimes be reinstalled too.

Peripherals I installed drivers for ages ago still work fine, and my flash drives function, though they don't always get recognized immediately. I'm using a USB headset, a Razer gaming mouse, and a Logitech Media 600 keyboard. They all work without any issues.

Thomas Hernandez21 said:just run format c: /u /autotest and call it a day

I wish it were actually that simple. 😁

Basically, if I back up the registry, will all my installed programs stay intact since they're sitting on the D drive?

No, look, every single program writes data to the C drive. I honestly think even if you force an installation onto the D drive, it’s still going to mess with things on the C drive regardless 👍

That’s true. It’s located in C:\Users\Username\AppData. You can find all sorts of things there, though not everything from every program.

I guess I’ll probably just go ahead with a repair install after all.

Hey there! 😁

Got a little situation with my Gadgets. Just noticed it recently, but I'm finally getting around to dealing with it.
Basically, these little guys just refuse to show up on my desktop properly. Here’s what happens when I try to set a clock and a CPU meter: one shows up as a black square, and the other is just a tiny white box.

Any idea why this is happening or how to fix it? 😕

Once I saw the way it was being displayed on my screen, I just handled it with a quick system restore back to the last stable checkpoint,
it popped up out of nowhere, just like that,

First thing I do with any Windows install is... kill System Restore immediately. 😬

Is there any other way to fix this mess?

Jason Chase10 said:The very first thing I do every single time I wipe a drive and reinstall Windows is... kill System Restore immediately. Just turn it off. 😬

Is there any other way to fix this mess?

maybe try grabbing some fresh gadgets straight from the Microsoft site, then just uninstall them one by one—see if that actually fixes the glitch or if we're looking at something else entirely.
you'll probably find one that won't murder your RAM or peg your CPU for an hour straight.👍

Douglas Garcia52 said:maybe try grabbing some new drivers off Microsoft's site, uninstall the old ones, and see if that actually fixes anything or if we're looking at a different beast entirely
you'll definitely find something that plays nice with your clock and CPU 👍

I just used those two as examples (don't even use them myself). Same goes for any of them—from the pre-installed junk to the third-party stuff😁

Everything is running smoothly on my end, even though I set User Account Control to disabled. Apparently, there's a known glitch where turning off UAC breaks certain desktop gadgets unless you manually tweak a registry setting. But honestly, if you aren't using them, it's really not an issue...

Look, I don't even use UAC, so this sudden glitching isn't coming from there. It’s like the system just decided to throw a tantrum on its own, but let me be clear: it has absolutely nothing to do with UAC. We're looking at something else entirely here.👍

Just gonna answer my own question then. 😬 Might help some other folks out too.

Fix it like this so the editor opens the registry and you can find this path:
Code:

Just wipe out all those keys sitting in there, and boom—your gadgets will actually start working again. 👍

Thanks so much for the link. I actually needed a few more extra devices, but that resource was a huge help regardless. I successfully installed Windows 7 Ultimate onto a USB 2.0 external hard drive.

Jason Chase10 said:Let me just answer my own question here 😬 (might help someone else out too)

The fix is basically to pull up the Registry Editor and navigate to this specific path:
Path:

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\Zones\]

...then just wipe out all the keys sitting in there. Once you do that, the gadgets start working again! 👍

So, at the end of the day, it’s clearly some mess involving their Daylight Saving Time updates, blah blah blah.
Honestly, you can adjust the clock yourself; if they haven't fixed the core issue in the original code, they shouldn't need these constant updates that obviously screw up the time zones.
When that happens, the gadget breaks because it doesn't know what time to display, and that ends up dragging down every other gadget on the system. 😛

It’s not about the clock or some random updates, because everything was glitching—from the pre-installed junk to stuff that isn't even Microsoft's. Honestly, I think my issues kicked in right after I installed Visual Studio. That's when my gadgets started acting up.

Jason Chase10 said:It isn’t about the timing or the updates themselves—it’s because everything just stopped working, from the pre-installed stuff to the actual "Microsoft" branded tools. In my experience, the issues started cropping up right after I installed Visual Studio. At least, that was when I started noticing the gadgets acting up.

I’ve never even touched Visual Studio in my life,
but I have installed all the updates—well, all except one, obviously.

Look, if you think you’ve got it all figured out, don't come crawling to us poor souls asking for our input just to go ahead and do whatever you want anyway. It’s a bad look.
A whole bunch of different things are clearly making these gadgets fail. For some people, it's UAC; I realized it was an issue for me right after a Windows update. And if I remember correctly, there was something about those two specific time-calculation updates that played a huge role. It seems like your Visual Studio situation just happened to coincide with that.
I can't tell you you're wrong, but honestly, you aren't telling me anything useful either.

The point is, I actually know what System Restore is for, so I don't disable it—unless I'm scrubbing the system clean of junk... peace. 👍

I really need some help here, everyone. I’ve been running Windows 7 Ultimate, but as soon as I went through the activation process and restarted my PC, everything broke. Now, whenever I power on the computer, it just hangs on a screen saying "verification DMI POOL DATA..." and nothing else happens. It was working perfectly fine before I tried to activate Windows, but now it's completely stuck. I ended up having to perform a full system reinstall, and honestly, I'm terrified to even try activating it again. 😠

cosmicjackal39 said:I need some help here. I'm running Windows 7 Ultimate, but right after I activated it and rebooted, everything went south. Now, whenever I power on the PC, it just sits there staring at me with verification DMI POOL DATA... and nothing else happens. It worked fine before I tried the activation, but now it's dead. I had to reinstall the whole OS, and now I'm too afraid to even try activating it again.😠

Check this out: Windows 7 install stuck on "Verifying DMI pool data" screen

By the way, how did you activate the OS? Like this?