Update November 18, 2013: Fix for Gadget display issues after IE11 Installation on Windows 7.

Update October 19, 2013: If you have recently discovered that your Windows 7 gadgets have stopped working, the solution below is an old one, and out of date. You might want to take a look at this post.

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The solution:

1. Load Internet Explorer (yeah, yeah, so smite me).
2. Copy and paste the download new gadgets website into the Internet Explorer address bar: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows/downloads/personalize?T1=desktopgadgets
3. Hit Enter.

Use IE to get all the Windows 7 desktop gadgets fit to print – or more likely, install. Each one you select will install into your gadgets sidebar, which can then be found by right-clicking on the Win 7 desktop and selecting Gadgets.

I have absolutely no idea why FireFox v3.5.4 won’t download new gadgets, but I don’t care any more. I now have the ones that I want.

The solution was simple, but

• I’ve been using FireFox for so long that I’ve pretty much forgotten all about Internet Explorer.
• I couldn’t find the answer on the web, no matter what combination of words I used in the search bar for FireFox or Internet Explorer.
• Trying a variety of search engines didn’t come up with the answer.
• What I did discover was wild comparisons with Vista, turning on and off sidebars, registry codes and totally useless answers to queries posted on forums. Thanks for nothing.

Added bonus, if you read this far:

If you’ve added a clock gadget to your desktop, you might want to turn off the clock on the taskbar so that that it doesn’t take up space. To do this:

1. click on the little up-caret on the right-hand side of the taskbar;
2. select customize;
3. at the bottom of the outlined rectangle, click on Turn system icons on or off;
4. make your choices from there as to which icons you’d like to have displayed on the taskbar.