Response to some comments

It’s been a while since I have posted anything to the blog, but here are some responses to the common comments left on different blog posts:

• First I am glad to see that there is a lot of people enjoying the gadget.
• Second, for those that still have questions about the 64-bit support you can look at my previous post at http://messengergadget.blogspot.com/2009/10/make-this-work-run-32-bit-version-of.html. On a related note, one of my comments might have confused some people. The problem with the 64-bit is not that the gadget update mechanism will not work, but that the gadget won’t refresh (for example, when a user’s status changes to online, the gadget won’t reflect it).
• About feature requests, I am not actively working in the gadget at the moment. I might work on it again when I have the time. At that time I’ll take into consideration the requests I’ve seen in the blog comments.

Messenger Gadget v5 Released

Messenger Gadget v5

To get the latest Messenger Gadget go to http://gallery.live.com/LiveItemDetail.aspx?li=5f6450f8-8876-4a81-a32b-46eac16fd69f

Some of the changes from v4 include:

• Updated the look of the gadget to match latest version of Windows Live Messenger
• Bigger text size so it is easier to read
• Added error message for “undefined” error
• Added error message in situations where the gadget would not refresh
• Made some changes that in some cases result in faster load time of the gadget
• Other minor bug fixes

If you have any feedback please leave a comment below. Enjoy!

Some known issues

Messenger Gadget – Group Settings Screenshot

This post is about some knows issues that have no fix for the moment.

Groups

Some contacts will not show in the groups they are supposed to. There seems to be a bug in the program (ActiveX control) that is used to access the information which I can not fix.

Custom contact names

In Windows Live Messenger users have the option to change the display name of a contact. The Messenger Gadget will not show the display name because there is no way to know this name from the program (ActiveX control) that the gadget uses to get the user information. To work around this issue you can right-click on the contacts on Messenger Gadget and set custom names for contacts.

Messenger Gadget version 5 one step closer to release

Messenger Gadget v5

As you probably noticed I just published the “help” posts for the gadget. Now I only have to figure out some issues with the update service (the one that tells current users that there is a new version) and do some testing of the gadget on Windows Vista. After that I’ll post version 5, hopefully in a week or two.

"To make this work run the 32-bit version of sidebar.exe." or “My gadget won’t refresh”

 

Messenger Gadget screenshot - "To make this work run the 32-bit version of sidebar.exe"

If you see this message it means that you have a 64-bit machine. Good for you! Well, mostly. A 64-bit machine is generally a good thing (I have one), but in the case of this gadget it means that your contact and status information will not auto-refresh.  The good news is that there is a way to work around this. Use the 32-bit version of sidebar.exe and everything should work.

How do I run the 32-bit sidebar.exe?

Part 1. Close the 64-bit version:

1. Press the keys “Ctrl + Shift + Esc” at the same time to launch the “Windows Task Manager”

2. Select the “Processes” tab

3. Select “sidebar.exe” from the list

4. Press the “End Process” button

5. Close the task manager

Windows Task Manager screenshot – Close the 64-bit version of sidebar.exe

Part 2. Launch the 32-bit version:

1. Press and hold the “Windows Key” (the one with the windows logo) and then press the letter “r” to launch the “Run” window

2. Type “%systemdrive%\Program Files (x86)\Windows Sidebar\sidebar.exe” (without the quote marks) into the text box

3. Press the “OK” button

Run Window Screenshot – Launch the 32-bit version of sidebar.exe

"Messenger not installed or blocked"

Messenger Gadget screenshot - "Messenger not installed or blocked"

Some of you might have seen (or read comments about) a blank gadget with an “undefined” message in the previous version of the gadget. This “undefined” message have been replaced with the message in the screenshot above which includes a link to this article.

There are two reasons that I know of that cause this error. The first cause is that Windows Live Messenger is not installed. Yes, it has to be installed and the gadget can not run by itself. It runs alongside Windows Live Messenger. The gadget is not intended to replace Windows Live Messenger.

The second cause is a little bit more complicated so I’ll try to give a “not-so-technical” explanation and a more technical explanation for those curious.

Not-so-technical explanation:

The “program” that the gadget uses to get the information from Windows Live Messenger is blocked in you machine. There are at least two ways this can happen. One is that your administrator blocked it, the other is that you installed some version of WL Messenger that blocked it. For some reason that I don’t know, the “program”  was blocked in one of the previous versions of WL Messenger. If you installed that version, it does not matter if you un-install it or install a newer version, once it is blocked, it is blocked for good.

The very technical explanation:

One of the previous versions of WL Messenger added the ActiveX control used by the gadget to the kill bit list. I highly recommend not  messing with those setting as they may leave your machine in an unsafe and/or unusable state.

New Messenger Gadget blog and update on new version 5

Messenger Gadget v5

As you all probably know, there have not been any changes to Messenger Gadget in a long time (about 2 years?). As a result the account I was using for email and logging into the old blog (http://messengergadget.spaces.live.com) was closed out which means that I can no longer post or make changes to the blog, but now this is the new blog.

Anyhow, the reason there have not been any updates is because all of the bad reviews that people wrote on Windows Live Gallery about the gadget. Just kidding! There is no particular reason. But after seeing that the gadget got to 1,000,000 downloads on Windows Live Gallery and have been in the top 20 most downloaded gadgets for a while I thought hey, there is people actually using the gadget, maybe I'll give it a facelift to look more like the latest Messenger. So, I've been working (slowly) on updating the gadget for the past couple of weeks. Most of the changes are on the look of the gadget, but there are a couple of changes that will hopefully improve performance of the gadget and help people understand why the gadget doesn't work for them. I'll be giving more details in the next few weeks.

*By the way it turns out that there is a lot more people using this gadget than we initially thought so we were not able to scale to respond or even read the incredible amount of emails we were receiving so please leave your comments here in the blog and I'll try to answer any questions there.