Xcom 2 dev console. Avenger Commands. TTACTeleports all of your units to the location of your cursor. LevelUpBarracks YPromote every soldier in XCOM by the desired number of ranks. TTCTeleport the selected unit to the location of your cursor.
Rainmeter is the de facto desktop customization tool for WindowsA Simple Guide to Rainmeter: The Windows Desktop Customization ToolA Simple Guide to Rainmeter: The Windows Desktop Customization ToolRainmeter is the ultimate tool for customizing your Windows desktop with interactive wallpapers, desktop widgets, and more. Our simple guide will help you create your own personal desktop experience in no time.Read More. With a code library spanning volumes, there’s no end to how many configurations users can manage to accomplish. Rainmeter’s most popular use has to be application launchers.
While Rainmeter can provide fantastic RSS Feeds and weather information directly onto your desktop, nothing requires a personal touch quite like custom icons and launchers. Whether you’d like to create a simple application icon, or something a little more interesting, read on to create your very own custom launch icons for programs.
Rainmeter: How It Works
Rainmeter works using simple text files with the file extension INI. These files require certain parameters in order to be read by the Rainmeter program. Here’s a an example:
This file will display the string of text “Hello, world!” on your Rainmeter application (on the top-right corner of your screen, by default). It does this using three parameters:
Rainmeter follows a very rigid logical structure, so — as with any coding — a single issue could jeopardize the skin or prevent it from appearing on your desktop. That includes following the folder structure of your skins as well.
This structure becomes more complex as skins become more functional. In the following Rainmeter skin, keep both the INI file and folder hierarchy in mind.
Create a Simple Icon
Head to the Rainmeter directory located at C:Users[PC Name]DocumentsRainmeterSkins. Replace the [PC Name] parameter with the name of your PC (Start > type “manage account” > click Manage your account). Right-click a blank space within this directory, select New, and then Folder.
Name the first folder whatever you’d like, but ensure the title generally describes the contents. I chose muoicons.
Double-click this folder, and create another folder within muoicons. Name this folder after the icon you wish you create. I’m making an Overwatch icon, so I’ll name it OverwatchIcon. Then, create another folder within muoicons and name it @Resources. This folder will hold your icon images. That’s three folders overall.
Double-click on your second folder (OverwatchIcon in my case). Right-click a space within your second folder and select New, then Text Documents. Double-click your text document in order to edit it, and paste the following:
There are three parameters which you must change:
After you’ve changed your parameters, enter your @Resources folder. Paste a PNG image for your icon in your @Resources folder and rename it whatever your [IconName] parameter was replaced by. Finally, edit the [Height] parameter in your original INI file to size the icon.
This method allows you to create an icon from any PNG image, so feel free to experiment with your icon’s look. You can even create icons from GIF imagesHow to Use an Animated GIF as Your Desktop Wallpaper With RainmeterHow to Use an Animated GIF as Your Desktop Wallpaper With RainmeterAn animated GIF can make your desktop special. We show you how you can add your favorite GIF as your wallpaper with Rainmeter.Read More as well.
Best of all, you have complete control of the size, image, and location of your icon. Try to be inventive with your icon, perhaps integrating it with your desktop wallpaperMake Your Desktop Stunning With an Interactive Live WallpaperMake Your Desktop Stunning With an Interactive Live WallpaperNothing makes your desktop stand out like a live interactive background. It's also one of the greatest exercises in customizing your Windows setup. We'll show you how to do it easily with Rainmeter.Read More.
Create a Background Icon
The above icon will work, but Rainmeter has a few more tricks up its sleeve. Let’s say you’d like to change your wallpaper, or pop up an image, every time you mouse over an icon. It’s a way to make icons pop out a bit more using Rainmeter.
You can even use the same general format as presented above, except for two key differences: changes to your INI file and an added background folder. First, you’ll have to modify your original INI file to the one below:
There are only two extra parameters in the script above — all else remains the same:
!Active/DeactiveConfig activates a skin. Ensure that you change the following parameter:
When you change the above parameter to your own address, begin at the first (root) folder of your skin. The background.ini parameter tells Rainmeter which file to activate on mouse-over.
Next comes the background folder. In the same folder as your original INI file (SkinsmuoiconsOverwatchIcon in my case) create another folder and name it background. Within this folder, create another INI file and paste the following:
This skin is easy to understand:
Ensure that you change one parameter before continuing on:
Name this INI file background, so its full name is background.ini. In this same folder labelled background, copy and paste the image you want to appear on mouse-over. Your background folder should now have an INI file and an image file. Remember to edit the background.ini file with the name of your image, or it won’t work.
Finally, click Refresh all in your Rainmeter window and load your skin. You could either place a whole background image or a smaller image (using a transparent background) placed in a particular section.
Try to make this overlay or background fit in with your overall desktop setup. In the above instance, my background wallpaper was taken in Japan, so I decided to place the Japanese word for “Overwatch” under my icon.
From Icon to Iconography
Rainmeter is a great customization tool for many different reasons, flexibility is one of them. Learn it, use it, and make it realize your utmost desktop dreams. You might have learned how to make Rainmeter icons from scratch, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg! From live wallpaper to 3D hologramsProject a 3D Hologram on Your Desktop Using RainmeterProject a 3D Hologram on Your Desktop Using RainmeterStill looking for the perfect wallpaper? Let us show you how to add an impressive and moving 3D hologram to your desktop background.Read More, Rainmeter has you covered.
Did you like the walk-through? Which other Rainmeter skins would you like to create? Let us know in the comments below!
Explore more about: Rainmeter, Wallpaper, Windows Customization.
Rainmeter is the best known and most popular desktop customization program for Windows. Enhance your Windows computer at home or work with skins; handy, compact applets that float freely on your desktop. Rainmeter skins provide you with useful information at a glance. It's easy to keep an eye on your system resources, like memory and battery power, or your online data streams, including email, RSS feeds, and weather forecasts.
Many skins are even functional: they can record your notes and to-do lists, launch your favorite applications, and control your media player - all in a clean, unobtrusive interface that you can rearrange and customize to your liking. Rainmeter is at once an application and a toolkit. You are only limited by your imagination and creativity.
Rainmeter is open source software for Windows XP/Vista/7/8/10 distributed free of charge under the terms of the GNU GPL v2 license.
Rainmeter 4.0 Beta release notes:
You can safely install the new 4.0 beta version right over top of your existing Rainmeter 3.3 or earlier installation, and nothing you have done will be lost or changed. There is never any need to uninstall any earlier version of Rainmeter to use the newest version.
Important change to Rainmeter 4.0
Due to future application improvements we intend, which will require the latest version of the Direct2D / DirectWrite graphical engines:
As of Rainmeter 4.0, Windows XP and Windows Vista are no longer supported by the application.
Rainmeter 4.0 requires at least Windows 7 with Service Pack 1 and the Platform Update applied. These should have been automatically applied several years ago by Windows Update, but if you have Windows Update turned off you may need to get and apply these updates manually. Windows versions later than Windows 7 are fully supported.
If you are on Windows XP or Windows Vista, and can't or don't wish to upgrade, you will need to stay on the 3.3 Release version of Rainmeter.
Changes in Rainmeter beta 4.0:
For some stability and performance reasons, we are in the process of changing most or all of the plugins that are distributed with the Rainmeter installation from being external 'plugins' to being internal 'measures'. At this time, there is no need to change anything in your skin code, but do be aware that discrete .dll files for these plugins will no longer exist in your Rainmeter Plugins folder. As of this writing, the following plugins have been turned into measures:
Additional details on important changes as the beta cycle progresses can always be found at Change Announcements.
July 12, 2016 - Revision 2617
Download: Rainmeter 4.0.0.2617 Beta | 2.1 MB (Open Source)
View: Rainmeter Home page
Rainmeter is a desktop customization platform. Through Rainmeter, you can enhance your Windows computer at home or work with skins: handy, compact applets which float freely on your desktop, much like Windows Sidebar gagdgets, or dashboard widgets for the Mac. Rainmeter skins provide you with useful information at a glance. It's easy to keep an eye on your system resources, like memory and battery power, or your online data streams, including email, RSS feeds, and weather forecasts. Many skins are even functional: they can record your notes and to-do lists, launch your favorite applications, and send your tweets to Twitter - all in a clean, unobtrusive interface that you can rearrange and customize to your liking.
Features
Rainmeter is a product developed by Rainmeter. This site is not directly affiliated with Rainmeter. All trademarks, registered trademarks, product names and company names or logos mentioned herein are the property of their respective owners.
All informations about programs or games on this website have been found in open sources on the Internet. All programs and games not hosted on our site. When visitor click 'Download now' button files will downloading directly from official sources(owners sites). QP Download is strongly against the piracy, we do not support any manifestation of piracy. If you think that app/game you own the copyrights is listed on our website and you want to remove it, please contact us. We are DMCA-compliant and gladly to work with you. Please find the DMCA / Removal Request below.
DMCA / REMOVAL REQUEST
Please include the following information in your claim request:
You may send an email to support [at] qpdownload.com for all DMCA / Removal Requests.
You can find a lot of useful information about the different software on our QP Download Blog page.
Latest Posts:
How do I uninstall Rainmeter in Windows Vista / Windows 7 / Windows 8?
How do I uninstall Rainmeter in Windows XP?
How do I uninstall Rainmeter in Windows 95, 98, Me, NT, 2000?
If you’re interested in customizing your Windows Desktop, you’ve likely heard of Rainmeter. For the uninitiated, Rainmeter is an application for Windows that allows you to customize your desktop with a variety of mini-applications and widgets called “skins,” greatly expanding the capabilities of your Windows desktop. As Windows Gadgets are phased out in Windows 10 (like many other features introduced in Windows Vista) due to a combination of security risks and a lack of adoption, some desktop users may be left in the cold without a way to customize their Windows desktop environment to their liking.
Here’s an in-depth look at Rainmeter, an application for Windows that allows you to customize your desktop with a variety of mini-applications and widgets. I’ll be walking you through how to acquire it, install it, set it up and find some “skins” of your own to use.
System Requirement
Hold up just a second there; you’re going to need some things before proceeding with the installation and setup of Rainmeter.
In addition, you should be aware that some “skins” require you to set them up on your own and may have special hardware requirements. Be sure to read documentation before installing any skin. We’ll be walking you through how to install and configure skins later in this article.
How To Update RainmeterInstallation
You can download Rainmeter from their site. Be sure to select the latest Final Release to ensure stability.
After this, open up the Rainmeter installer. You’ll be given two install options. For this guide we’ll be doing “Standard” not “Portable.” In the final step of the installer, you’re given the choice to enable launching Rainmeter at startup. I keep this enabled, but if you use an older computer with a longer startup time, you may not want Rainmeter to launch automatically.
Rainmeter Configuration
The first time you launch Rainmeter, your desktop will be changed to look something like this:
This displays Rainmeter’s default package, “illustro,” and the skin combination that loads by default. You’ll see a welcome splash in the center of your screen with counters for time, system usage and Disk usage in the top right corner of your screen. You’ll find that if you right click any one of these skins, you can add more skins in the same package, and you can also edit or remove the skin in question.
There’s also a distinct settings menu (used to control preferences such as transparency), but most importantly, let’s right click one of our skins, hover over Rainmeter, and open “Manage.”
The “Manage” window is where you get to really start to get into the functionalities of the program. Let’s go ahead and walk through each one.
Skins
Skins shows off a list of skins Rainmeter has in its directory, whether you’ve installed them through an rmkskin file (like most skins) or you’ve manually placed them in Rainmeter’s skins directory. The default set of skins that comes with Rainmeter are “illustro” which offer various counters, monitors and even a nifty little Google search function to give a slight idea of what Rainmeter is capable of. Recall that Rainmeter skins range in functionality from basic widgets to what could be considered full applications in themselves. In this tab you can easily manage your active skins as well as refresh them to account for edits or changes made.
Layouts
Layouts saves and manages certain layouts for your skins. The default layout is the one you see whenever you open the program. Using Layouts you can save your personal favorite Rainmeter setup for the next time you reset your computer or relaunch Rainmeter. This setup is important if you want Rainmeter to become a big part of your daily desktop usage.
Settings
Finally, Settings gives a basic set of Settings for you to manage, like your update options, language settings and the application launched whenever you’re editing certain skins. There’s no reason to change any of this for most people, but if you’d like all of your skins to stay in one place, you could always check “Disable dragging” in case someone else uses your computer or you worry about accidentally changing things.
Let’s move into installing and using skins!
Find and Install SkinsHow To Update Rainmeter Laptop
To me, this is the best part about using Rainmeter. Rainmeter has a bustling community of developers making various skins focused on high levels of aesthetic appeal, added functionality or both. The possibilities are essentially a whole blue ocean, but for the sake of this article, I won’t cover all of that. Instead, I’ll be telling you “how” to find skins and install them, and I’ll give you some of my own recommendations at the end of the article.
Rainmeter’s own website recommends deviantArt, Customize.org, Lifehacker, Reddit and their own forums as places to find quality Rainmeter skins. Being a Redditor, I chose to visit r/Rainmeter to find what I was looking for. I searched for “Hotline Miami Clock,” and after a few links I found this skin, which you can see on my desktop:
It’s nothing particularly special, just a clock skin based on the one from a video game I like, and installing it was a breeze.
To install a given skin after you’ve searched for and found it, first download it to your computer. After that, you’ll need to find the file in your “Downloads” folder, and identify what kind of file it is. If it’s an .rmskin file, you’re in luck. All you need to do is open it, and you can install the skin and start using it right away.
However, many skins are distributed as .zip files instead. To handle these, you’ll first have to extract the files and place them in your Rainmeter folder which you can find by typing
C:Users[your username]DocumentsRainmeterSkins . Place the folders from the zip file inside here for Rainmeter to recognize the skin.
After you’ve done this, it’s time to start using your skins.
Using Your Skins
Once you’ve installed your skins, you may be confused initially as to how to actually add them to your desktop. To add skins to your desktop, right click the Rainmeter icon in your system tray, select “Skins,” then “Your Group,” and then “Your Skin” which will be indicated by a name ending with .ini.
Once you have a skin on your desktop, you can right click it for a set of additional options.
To remove a skin from your desktop, unload it. To reload it to reflect the changes you’ve made, select “Refresh skin.” For the most part you shouldn’t need to tweak these other options, but if you ever want to tweak their behavior or appearance slightly, now you know how.
From here, the rest is up to you. There’s many great Rainmeter skins out there beyond simple clocks – some are app launchers, or music visualizers, some border on full interface redesigns, and some are just made to look cool.
Do you have any Rainmeter skin recommendations? Sound off in the comments!
The Complete Windows 10 Customization GuideRainmeter Spotify Plugin
In this ebook we’ll be exploring the multitude of options to fully customize Windows 10. By the end of this ebook you’ll know how to make Windows 10 your own and become an expert Windows 10 user.
Comments are closed.
|
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |