Windows 7 Desktop Gadget + Silverlight 3 (GDR2) Issues

Question

I am having load of issues getting my SL-based gadgets to work! I do the following:

Create a standard silverlight application (Silverlight 3 GDR 2 - 3.0.40818.0) and run it - it works! I then take the ClientBin folder, the test page (html) and the silverlight.js files and place them in a folder! I then double click on the html test page to run it. IE8 warns me that its a active x control. If I accept it opens fine! I then add a very basic gadget.xml file (to make it a valid gadget) and place it in the correct folder. Right click on the desktop and select add gadget - select my gadget and drag it to the desktop! The gadget show but I always get the image to install silverlight? Why?

I also updated the params to x-gadget

<param name="source" value="x-gadget://ClientBin/MyBusiness.xap"/>

Is their any known issues with running it on x64? Here is a article about flash + x64... does this somehow relate to silverlight?

Answer 1

Ok, found the answer!

Because I am running Windows 7 64-bit, by default the 64-bit version of sidebar.exe is run, which in turn uses IE 64-bit! Silverlight and flash is not supported on these OS'es!

to proof that it's the case, try the following! Close all your gadgets and run C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Sidebar\sidebar.exe (The 32 bit version) and add your gadget! This should now work! You can add sidebar to you startup programs which should solve most of you issues but this still sucks! Would be great if the gadget.xml file asked you if you want to force 32 bit mode?

http://brandonlive.com/2008/03/11/dont-write-gadgets-with-flash-or-silverlight/