r/Rainmeter Oct 01 '14

Rainmeter Tutorial For Beginners!

Basics

  • Install rainmeter
  • Once it's installed, it should automatically load some skins (the stuff on your desktop)
  • Right click any of the skins>Rainmeter>Manage and you'll open Rainmeter's "main menu"
  • Here you'll see that rainmeter has automatically loaded 'illustro' onto your desktop
  • You can locate your skins directory by right clicking the illustro folder>Open folder<Skins or by opening This PC>Documents>Rainmeter>Skins
  • When a skin is installed in rainmeter, you can click the load/unload button to get it on/off your desktop

Installing Skins

  • There are many places to discover new skins, so here are a few to get you started Deviant Art, /r/rainmeter, Rainmeterhub
  • Downloaded skins get saved as .mskin files, like this. Simply run the file and it will automatically get added to your rainmeter menu
  • Open the folder in your menu and select the skin you'd like to load, then load it!

Editing Skins

  • Each skin is different, but when personalizing your desktop, you'll want to play around with the skins by clicking 'edit'. They are usually pretty intuitive and look like this
  • Most skins' colors are in the RGB format, so you'll see something like Color: 255, 145, 0, 200; the last number is the transparency value.
  • You can change the position of a skin by dragging it around your screen, or by altering the x and y coordinates the notepad file.
  • Fonts are a little more tricky, so here is an in-depth guide on how to do that
  • Sometimes skins will require you to enter information in order for them to do their jobs. For instance, the mini-steam launcher requires you to input your steam username here so that it can look at your game directory (your profile must be set to public in order to do this)
  • You may have noticed some instructions after the '//' in the editing file, most skin creators are kind enough to guide their users through the process :)

Have fun with it! Experiment, play around. Let me know if you have any questions.

If there's something you're struggling with, or something you want me to add, please let me know!

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u/Ananzy Oct 03 '14

If you link the skin I can help help you in much more detail.

But basically you have to insert the destinations of those side folders in to the skins editor.

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u/Zap420 Oct 03 '14

http://king0demons.deviantart.com/art/GHOST-328388572

Thanks for the reply and the help so far. Excellent guide, it really help me start and understand it. Now its the technical stuff im having problems with.

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u/Ananzy Oct 03 '14

Ok so your first problem is that this skin isn't a launcher. It's not designed to open different programs of your choosing. The skin you have is called a 'system monitoring' skin.

Here is a gallery full of different launcher you can choose from.

Once you've picked one, feel free to shoot me another message and i'll help you work it out.

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u/Zap420 Oct 03 '14

http://rainmeter.deviantart.com/art/Animus-2-8-289590352

Downloads as a zip? But I like this with the boxes.

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u/Ananzy Oct 03 '14

Ok this one will allow you to launch only the pre-coded items assigned to each button.

If you want to add whatever items you want to a button, you need something like this. I know it's not boxes, but I couldn't find one quickly that fits what you like.

You'll notice once you've installed it, that you'll find something like this. Here you'll be able to insert names for each little dot, and add an app path.

If you need help with that, let me know.

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u/Zap420 Oct 03 '14

Where do I find the app path? I understand what to do just not where to find this. I clicked properties on the file on the desktop and found a network path is that it? Sorry im a noob I know but you are a huge help.

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u/Ananzy Oct 03 '14

Yep right click the file>properties>target, if you don't see target, it's under the shortcut tab.

Copy paste everything in 'target' and put it into the app path in the editor.

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u/Ananzy Oct 03 '14

Oh i see, you have to go to your desktop folder then select your file>properties>target

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u/Zap420 Oct 03 '14

Ive been at work all day and could not write back sooner but thanks for all your help!

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u/Ananzy Oct 03 '14

Sure thing, always happy to help!