If you close the Windows Vista Notes Gadget by mistake, you will lose all the important notes and reminders, which you may have made on the Notes Gadget.
Recover lost Sticky Notes in Windows Vista
MVP colleague, Suvajit Pal, has suggested the following solution, to try and get back the notes.
If you have Volume Shadow Copy turned on and if you have a recent System Restore Point created or available, of a point, before you closed the Notes gadget, then look for the Previous Version of the Settings.ini file for the Sidebar. You can do so at:
%userprofile%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Sidebar
Next, Exit Windows Sidebar.
Restore the Previous Version of the file Settings.ini.
Open the file in Notepad.
There will be some sections [Section 1] [Section 2] etc.
Look for PrivateSetting_GadgetName variable value, the one you require should end with Notes.gadget.
Your notes will be under that Section as :
0=”<first note>”
1=”<second note>”
and so on.
Now, if you manage to get a previous version and all the Notes intact then you can directly start the Windows Sidebar and all your previous notes will be available.
However if you have a Previous Version of the Settings.ini file or if it’s a very old copy and all your notes are outdated, then there’s no way to get the previous notes back.
Hope this helps!
This post on Tips to use, format, backup, restore Sticky Notes may also interest you.
Ported from WVC
