Someone reviewed v on Jul 5, 2022

Pros: 555

Cons: 555

Bottom Line: 555

barrytbutler reviewed v3.1 r2218 Beta on Jan 29, 2014

rainmeter is still awesome. have been using it for a few months now and just love it!

humbleuser reviewed v3.0 r1950 Beta on Jun 11, 2013

I would like to rate this higher but please, please tell us up front that the program is a lot bigger and that the installer will download a heck of a lot more that the 1.3mb. I vote for more honesty on the web.

Music4Ever reviewed v2.5 r1761 Beta on Jan 16, 2013

Been playing around with this & I like it, lots to mess around with, even better it's free! - But as my keyboard isn't waterproof it wrecked it , also flooded my PC room out so beware!

timmeh reviewed v2.4 r1634 Beta on Oct 1, 2012

I've been using rainmeter for quite a while now. Besides the eyecandy you can really boost your productivity especially by using skin packages like Enigma. It allows you to fetch RSS feeds to your desktop, set up calendar events and other clever tasks. This is my current rainmeter desktop http://ratemydesktop.org...S/Rainmeter_Enigma.html Rainmeter has come a long way since it was first released.

Blaxima reviewed v2.3 r1259 Beta on Mar 20, 2012

Well I figured out what the problem was. They've made anti-aliasing an option on images now, not just fonts. That essential spoils older skins and is a rather odd thing to do.

Oh well, I made a new skin and all is well

Blaxima reviewed v2.3 r1172 Beta on Feb 13, 2012

Been using this for awhile with no problems until now. The icons in the theme I'm using have become jagged. Reverted back and they look normal again

XhmikosR reviewed v2.2r1078 Beta on Dec 14, 2011

@HeilNizar:
Rainmeter is open source. Try the following build which doesn't need any MSVC runtime installed: http://www.multiupload.com/RL165OUYWF

virustotal doesn't load for me so feel free to scan the file yourself, but it's a vanilla build from the svn trunk (with some project file related changes which shouldn't have any effect)

HeilNizar reviewed v2.2r1071 Beta on Nov 29, 2011

Very nice and FREE, I wished it was completely portable without depending on c++ redistributable package.

xingyi reviewed v2.2r1050 Beta on Nov 23, 2011

very good

Rebell reviewed v2.1 r953 Beta on Sep 19, 2011

Cool free theme tool :D

anomoly reviewed v2.1 r912 Beta on Aug 22, 2011

If you use it AND install it in portable mode you don't need to back anything up. Just copy everything BUT the new ini and you're good to go. I run mine from a separate drive than c so even if c crashes and burns it won't matter.

billstelling reviewed v2.1 r895 Beta on Aug 9, 2011

This is one of the best desktop enhancement programs out there. It can be allot to take in for a first time user but once you get a handle on it, it will be one of the must have programs for you.
I modify and combine the skins to suit my tastes and love the flexibility of the program for creating just the right look. Just remember to always make a copy of any configs or skins before you start messing with them so you can return things to their default state if you run into any issues. Really easy program to work with once you learn what you are doing.

stephenstud reviewed v2.1 r838 Beta on Jun 27, 2011

Very nice!

anomoly reviewed v1.2 Rev 439 RC3 on Jun 10, 2010

This prog is a breeze actually as it has themes built in. Enigma takes up the least amount of desk real estate imo. Updating respects your settings so it's easy as can be. Way better than bloated widget aps.
Samuraize was the nightmare, this is kiddy stuff.

sniggle reviewed v1.2 Beta Revision 416 on May 22, 2010

Yes, this app is not the friendliest at first glance but this is also a power user's tool. Once you get the hang of how it works you will find that it really is a great successor to the dormant Samurize. Take a few mins to poke around the ini files and you'll figure it out.

xsnred reviewed v1.2 Beta Revision 416 on May 22, 2010

Water boarding? Force the Taliban to try and figure this program out and I'm sure they will tell you where Bin Laden is!

schneid reviewed v1.2 Rev 340 Beta on Mar 1, 2010

Very enticing and maybe capable. Unfortunately, it is very user hostile.

anomoly reviewed v1.2 Rev 340 Beta on Feb 23, 2010

You have to physically edit the ini for each item in order to change the size & 'readability' for lack of a better word. Specifically the color and height #'s. Ex from the modified enigma taskbar network address ini:
;------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
; STYLES

[StyleText]
X=40
Y=0
H=15
W=150
FontColor=#Color1#
FontFace=#Font#
FontSize=#Height4#
StringAlign=LEFT
StringStyle=NORMAL
AntiAlias=1

[StyleLabel]
X=r
Y=1r
H=15
W=60
FontColor=#Color1#
FontFace=#Font#
FontSize=#Height4#
StringAlign=RIGHT
StringStyle=NORMAL
AntiAlias=1
Text="%1 |"
I deleted the wan part as it does not like my static ip non wan config. I use 5 items atm. 3 hd icons, moon icon, and lan ip. These are the only 5 items on my entire desktop. Using less than 10 mb of memory. Sharpe shell does everything else within it's 2 bars.

cltx99 reviewed v1.2 Rev 340 Beta on Feb 23, 2010

Tried it and uninstaller it. It's a bit too frantic and very hard to see. It might be useful for others.

sgtevmckay reviewed v1.1 on Nov 2, 2009

Greetings folks

Actually there is not one thing here that folks can not be done, that can be done with Rainmeter.

Multi-Core or Multi-thread CPU measures...Been there done that
32 HDD Monitoring...Nothing but a thing
Color coding for Characters...Please

No Rainmeter is not for everyone, and it is an advanced program, but anyone can learn

Come see what I am talking about at the Rainmeter forums
Rainmeter.net

anomoly reviewed v1.1 on Nov 2, 2009

This has replaced rainlendar, and coolmon. The extra added functionality with rainlendar I never really used anyways.
It's not portable but it does work well, is very unobtrusive, and uses fewer resources while getting more done.

To add Hdd's 4, 5, etc., see this post:
http://rainmeter.net/for...1799&p=13154#p13154

anomoly reviewed v1.0 on Aug 10, 2009

This has matured to a very useable state. Very easy to configure and some great looks. However, I found fonts too small and a black or white font color is apparently the only choice. Don't know if skins solve this but I would guess they might.
Sticking with plain old rainlendar & coolmon until I find a suitable skin or can solve the font issues. BTW, cpu was actually less than rainlendars or ~ the same.
What's nice is no matter what you want it to do it all takes place from a single exe. Try find another free simple ap that can display ip info that doesn't require developer skills (samurize); there aren't any (coolmon being the exception).
TRS?? That's a joke. Though I do have it. It still has options for Win9x which nobody uses & wouldn't know an ip addy from an email addy.

Targaff reviewed v1.0 on Aug 10, 2009

It's a shame that some people, by which I mean dhry, are apparently incapable of conceiving that download size does not equal actual size; anyone who had actually tried the app would have easily been able to determine that the download includes the entire VC redistributable, weighing in at some 4MB in size, and that Rainmeter itself itself is actually only just over 400k for the .exe and library (the remainder of the download is themes and addons). The only reasonable conclusion is that those users have not in fact bothered to try the tool and are just mouthing off because it's not their preferred tool. That's a shame, because while TRM is a handy little tool if all you want is a brief summary of system information, Rainmeter is far, far more flexible in what it can achieve, effectively providing a small but powerful widget engine. I'd like to see TRM display your torrent downloads on the desktop - it seems some users can't understand the convenience of this - or the weather (for which a 4MB+ download is apparently a-okay, mark you), or a planetarium, or live global event updates. Oh, and it can give you system info, if that's all you want.

Be that as it may, however, for an app that's been moribund for so long the new updates are incremental only; as Zen points out, much has changed in the meantime, and Rainmeter needs to step up and address those changes, otherwise it's never going to be anything more than a polished relic.

ZenWarrior reviewed v1.0 on Aug 9, 2009

I can only assume the author hasn't purchased a new computer in a few years and/or is totally unaware that almost all PCs now have multiple cores. Reporting a single value for CPU usage on a quad-core machine is a major show-stopper, at least for me when I've needed to know what's occurring on different cores all too many times to properly assign affinities. Uninstalled and deleted.

Psychlone reviewed v1.0 on Aug 7, 2009

Not sure why dhry would compare Rainmeter to TinyRESMeter, or to Rainlendar either.
TinyRESMeter isn't skinnable or user-configurable at all, and Rainlendar is a CALENDAR application...by the same author that gives us Rainmeter.
Rainmeter takes up literally 1/8 of the resources that Vista Sidebar takes up, is infinitely configurable to match every desktop on the planet and everyone's tastes, and has a multitude of 'skins' that serve completely different purposes - from resource monitoring i.e. CPU usage, temperatures, HDD access/freespace/used space, to nice weather 'widgets' (skins) to uTorrent control. (and everything in between) - literally, there's nothing that I've found that Rainmeter can't do that I wish it could - in fact, I think that MS should seriously think about putting Rainy on their payroll and integrate this into Windows 8. ...there's a significant modding community for Rainmeter that has many brilliant people working to make skins for everything a person could need.
Clearly, dhry has no idea what this software actually is or is capable of.

As for this release (1.0), it does everything that the prior versions did, only faster.
I personally use the HUD skin, along with a couple others on each of my computers, and this release didn't break a single skin or function.

Good Job Rainy, beta testers and devs! **Perfect program**

For those incapable of using a search engine, I've done the work for you.
Following are a couple really good sites detailing many, many skins, new functionality, new themes and new utilities that make Rainmeter the best overall monitoring utility available.
It's not just the picture you're seeing at the top of this page - it's SOO much more!

http://customize.org/rainmeter
http://www.skinbase.org/Skins/Rainmeter/412
http://browse.deviantart...ns/sysmonitor/rainmeter/

dhry reviewed v1.0 on Aug 7, 2009

I fail to see why you would download and install a program that's over 6 megabytes in size for something you can do in 126k. Rainlendar's pretty good. The author should stick updating that one instead of producing bloatware like this.

Avoid and get TinyResMeter instead.
http://fileforum.betanew...nyResMeter/1035291999/1

Response to above: Not sure why Psychlone would decide to not use his/her brain and actually READ what I wrote before posting bollocks. I'll try and make things a bit clearer. This is bloated crap. It does the same thing that TinyRESMeter does. TRM is 126k. This is over 6mb. This means that unless ridiculous skins are important to you (which is evidently the case and appears to imply that Psychlone also owns an iPhone and probably a handbag to match) someone with at least half a clue would opt for the program that uses the least amount of resources. Oops, sorry, I'll go back to keeping it simple, almost accidentally went to three-syllable words there for a second. Next up: the guy that writes this program also writes Rainlendar. I use Rainlendar. I like Rainlendar. I don't like THIS program. Thus I advise the author to continue focusing on writing Rainlendar INSTEAD OF this program. Hopefully, Psychlone, you are now "sure" of what I am trying to say..?

At any rate, I've decided that in my benevolence and generosity I'm keeping my review mark at a 2, rather than reducing it to a 1 based on the fact that not only is the program useless, the same apparently is true of its fanbase too - evidenced by the fact that at least one of them claims that TinyRESMeter isn't user configurable (chuckle) and then goes on to claim that someone who clearly knows what both Rainmeter AND TinyRESMeter are capable of, doesn't know what they're talking about. Psychlone, it might be time to constrain your reviews to wincustomize.com and leave proper software reviews to people who know how to both read -and- write, yeah?

Edit #2: Wow. More replies required? I use my ~torrent~ program to display my torrents on the screen (duh - why use two programs for this?) WeatherWatcher is far better for weather display. Why bundle VC runtime when you can download it separately? And the "TRS? That's a joke" comment cracked me up. Enjoy your awesome-looking (apart from the crappy fonts) multifunction system monitor program, folks. I'll drop my score to a 1 and leave you in peace (tips hat).

H4cko reviewed v0.14 on Aug 19, 2006

For those who don't have win vista or dont use linux this program will make your desktop very interesting

Important: You need to download gdiplus.dll to run Rainmeter if you don't have WinXP (or newer).

SamppaX reviewed v0.13 on Jul 24, 2005

I Have Windows XP Pro & Works Great... 1 or 2 times crashed because of some skins... So this program is great if you just choose the best skins...

Great one & Great help also...

Hall9000 reviewed v0.13 on Jul 23, 2005

gdiplus.dll missing! Crashed! I'll give it a 2 for appearance. By the way, I have win2000.

Edit= Now that I have the gidplus.dll all that I need it to get the transparency from stopping being transparent. Even as 0% :P