Uninstall DX4, run a registry cleaner, run CCleaner, reboot. Install DX 3.5. If that don't fix it, I don't know what to tell you.

Oh, turn UAC off.

I installed 3.5 this time around but without doing any registry cleaning.  I've had bad problems with some removing important settings, although CCleaner has worked for me. Is the zip code stored in the registry or an ini or xml file?  Maybe I can just edit it manually,  I've been workjing the last 2 days (on a weekend too   ) pretty much non-stop on the PC, doing work coding so I think I'll save any more experimentation for tomorrow.

I'll try turning off UAC for a quick test.

UAC was already off.  Tried Rainmeter weather ad that's working so it's not a general weather problem.

No new security features but now that I think of it, Norton upgraded itself sometime last week.  I'll look there.

Thanks!

Yup working fine for me as RedneckDude said.  Now what you say sounds somewhat like a problem that Object Dock and it's weather docklets have had.  I believe something to do with an OCX file.

My weather doesn't use any OCX file.

This is a portion of what's in wu_cache_current.cml.  The zip code is correct but notice the last update was 11/22, last week.  As I said at the top it was working last week.

<display_location>
  <full>Hagerstown, MD</full>
  <city>Hagerstown</city>
  <state>MD</state>
  <state_name>Maryland</state_name>
  <country>US</country>
  <country_iso3166>US</country_iso3166>
  <zip>21742</zip>
  <latitude>39.65631104</latitude>
  <longitude>-77.70983887</longitude>
  <elevation>182.00000000 ft</elevation>
  </display_location>
		<observation_location>
		<full>Hagerstown, Maryland</full>
		<city>Hagerstown</city>
		<state>Maryland</state>
		<country>US</country>
		<country_iso3166>US</country_iso3166>
		<latitude>39.70999908</latitude>
		<longitude>-77.73000336</longitude>
		<elevation>702 ft</elevation>
		</observation_location>
		<station_id>KHGR</station_id>
		<observation_time>Last Updated on November 21, 8:53 PM EST</observation_time>
		<observation_time_rfc822>Tue, 22 Nov 2011 01:53:00 GMT</observation_time_rfc822>
		<observation_epoch>1321926780</observation_epoch>
		<local_time>November 21, 9:22 PM EST</local_time>
		<local_time_rfc822>Tue, 22 Nov 2011 02:22:14 GMT</local_time_rfc822>
	

I hope so, man it sucks...

Ticket #VRS-101284

@Zubaz, did that several times.  It appears to be a script error.  Last night with sViz's help, I loaded a broken widget into DesktopX builder.  I immediately got a script error.  Unfortunately, neither the fix she found nor any I've seen online have helped.  

Here's the error:

There has been a script error in object wu_weather 

ActiveX component can't create object: 'Scripting.FileSystemObject'
Line: 549
Code:
(not available)

One of the solutions is to type:  regsvr32 /i "c:\windows\system32\scrrun.dll", which fails on unknown entry point dllInstall.  However, just regsrvr32 sccrun.dll successfully registers the dll but does not fix the problem.

It makes sense that it's a script error since it has to get the zip code in there somehow and also read the drives to know what meters to display.

One more problem:  I tried using CCleaner to fix the issue to avoid using system restore to go back to before Thanksgiving.  The latest version of CCleaner deleted all but my latest system restore point, an issue verified on Major Geeks.  I posted about it in a new thread in this forum since I know the program is a popular tool.

Thanks sViz.  I was able to register the dll, just using a somewhat different command than the link suggested.  I'll add a new thread tomorrow.

I did manage to fix something tonight.  When I had looked back to system restore points I had noticed iTunes had updated itself on the last night the widgets worked.  Last week I uninstalled it thinking it may have changed something that caused the problem.  All of a sudden RealPlayer was crashing everywhere, downloading, displaying the library and playing from the library, and loading videos into the converter.  Uninstalling and reinstalling numerous times didn't fix the problem.  I reinstalled iTunes and now RealPlayer is working again.

Unfortunately, not the widgets. 

I have a Vista Ultimate w/SP2 dvd on its way from Microsoft so I can do a non-destructive reinstall.  I'm hoping it solves my script problem as well as a UAC/user account problem I discovered in my research on the script issue.

I'll wait until the reinstall before trying any other fixes and then I'll post here again.

The good news:

(1) MS sent me the dvd free of charge in two days so I was able to do the inplace upgrade yesterday.

(2) The scripting problem is fixed.  I can now run any weather widget or gadget and not be stuck looking at RND's local weather. 

(3) Drive meters are working again.  I can run DX with all its current features!  

Not s good news:

(1) UAC remains stuck in the "on" position in spite of the option being unchecked.

(2) Still can't add new accounts, one of the suggestions for fixing the UAC issue.

Bad news:

(1) Every time I boot up the hard drive light stays on.  I don't know what Windows is doing, but occasionally Norton says there is high disk activity (duh!) by some process.

(2) At least two programs will not load. Windows Live Mail and DIVx player both complain about their side by side configuration being incorrect.  Reinstalling the programs doesn't fix things, neither does reinstalling Visual C++ 2008 redistributable.  I can live without DIVx but WLM is my email client.  I have Outlook 2010 but don't want to use that in case I decide not to upgrade to the next Office and MS leaves it behind.  At least with WLM I know they'll be another free version or a free replacement.

The issue is probably a missing dll but it won't tell me which.

**UPDATE**

(1) I am able to control UAC through msconfig.exe.  

(2) Apparently reinstalling WLM doesn't fix the problem but doing a repair install of Windows Live Essentials does,  Email works again.  So does DIVx by doing an unistall first, then the resinstall instead of installing on top of itself.  

(3)  Still cannot create a new user account but I'm hoping to have that problem solved soon, probably with MS's help.

(4) Hard drive light still blinking but not on steadily.  It might just be Vista's file indexing.

Tonight the hard drive light finally stopped blinking.  I guess Windows is finished doing whatever it was doing.

Still no user account creation but that's a task for this week.