Version 0.9
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Rainmeter is a customizable
resource meter that can display various performance data in different
formats. Rainmeter supports these measures:
The data can be displayed in a histogram, a bar, bitmap frames or just plain numbers. The application is a Litestep LoadModule plugin, but it can be used without the Litestep as well. You can use it even with the normal Explorer-shell if you like. Rainmeter also implements Litestep's wharf-interface so that it can be used with the lsbox-module. It might also work in a real wharf but this has not been tested as Rainmeter is not meant to be used in a wharf. Rainmeter is developed and tested on WinXP, but it should work on Win98/ME also though Win9x is not officially supported. Also note that most of the included skins do not work on Win9x, since it doesn't support transparency. And no, Rainmeter does not measure how much it rained last night (at least not yet ;-) |
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IMPORTANT: Rainmeter uses gdi+, so unless
you are running WindowsXP you need to download the gdiplus.dll from
here (just put the dll into the same folder where Rainmeter is). Installing for Litestep To install just copy everything from the zip-file to a Rainmeter-subfolder in your Litestep-folder (i.e. wherever $litestepdir$ variable points to. Usually C:\Litestep\). You don't need the Rainmeter.exe if you are using Rainmeter as Litestep plugin, but there is no harm keeping that also in the folder. After copying, open your step.rc and add following line: LoadModule $litestepdir$Rainmeter\Rainmeter.dll ... and recycle. Most of the configuration of Rainmeter is done in a Rainmeter.ini file and not in the step.rc. Check the next section for details. Installing for some other shell (e.g. Explorer) Get the installer version of Rainmeter from my web page (http://www.iki.fi/rainy) and run it. Uninstalling If you installed Rainmeter with the installer you can uninstall it from the "Add or Remove Programs". Otherwise just delete all the files you uncompressed from the zip-file (make sure that Rainmeter isn't running when doing that). Running multiple instances of Rainmeter You can run several instances to Rainmeter at the same time. To do this you need to create a two (or more) different Rainmeter.ini files (i.e. just copy the original & rename). Now when you start Rainmeter you just give the path and name of the ini-file to Rainmeter.exe as command line argument. |
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There isn't any fancy GUI
(and probably never will be), so you need to change the settings with your
favorite texteditor. The settings for Rainmeter are scattered to several
places, but for most of you the Rainmeter.ini is the only place you
need to make changes. The general configuration settings are in a Rainmeter.ini-file.
The skin settings are in the skin's ini-files. The Litestep's step.rc only
has few optional entries, which can be used to define the paths and select
the skin.
Step.rc RainmeterIniFile RainmeterSkinPath RainmeterCurrentConfig RainmeterCurrentConfigIni Rainmeter.ini The file has two sections [Rainmeter] and [Statistics]. The Rainmeter section contains general settings that can be used to change how Rainmeter behaves. The Statistics section contains some things that few measures store in there. Do not modify them by hand. These must be put under [Rainmeter] section. WindowX WindowY AllowNegativeCoordinates SavePosition AlwaysOnTop Draggable SnapEdges Update HideOnMouseOver StartHidden LeftMouseDownAction RightMouseDownAction LeftMouseUpAction RightMouseUpAction Skin's ini-files The ini-file is divided into three parts. All the general settings are put under [Rainmeter] section. After the general stuff comes the measures, which do the actual measuring. After the measures comes meters, which are visual representations of the measures. There can be many meters for one measure. These must be put under [Rainmeter] section. Advanced note: you can also override the Rainmeter.ini's settings by putting the above keywords into the skin ini's [Rainmeter] section. Background BackgroundMode
SolidColor BevelType Measures Each measure needs to have a unique name, which defines a section in the ini-file for that measure. The name needs to be put inside []-characters. The meters use the section names to bind to the measures. Check the supplied ini-file for example. Measure
InvertMeasure IfAboveAction IfAboveValue IfBelowAction IfBelowValue Disabled UpdateDivider Some of the measures can have special settings: NetIn NetInSpeed TrafficAction TrafficValue Interface Cumulative NetOut NetOutSpeed TrafficAction TrafficValue Interface Cumulative NetTotal NetTotalSpeed TrafficAction TrafficValue Interface Cumulative FreeDiskSpace Drive Plugin Plugin Registry RegKey RegHKey RegValue MaxRegValue Time Format Meters After the measures are defined comes the meter sections. Each meter needs to have an unique name, which is defined like with the measures. MeasureName X Y W H Hidden LeftMouseDownAction Meter
Histogram SecondaryMeasureName PrimaryColor SecondaryColor BothColor PrimaryImage SecondaryImage BothImage Autoscale String FontColor Prefix Postfix FontFace FontSize StringAlign StringStyle Scale AutoScale Percentual NumOfDecimals AntiAlias Bar BarColor BarImage BarOrientation
Bitmap BitmapImage BitmapFrames BitmapZeroFrame Image Note that this meter need's not to be bound on any measure as it really doesn't show the measured value in any way. The purpose for this meter is to make skinning easier. ImageName Line LineCount MeasureName[N] LineColor[N] Scale[N] AutoScale HorizontalLines HorizontalLineColor AntiAlias Roundline LineWidth LineLength StartAngle RotationAngle AntiAlias ValueReminder LineColor |
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A Rainmeter plugin is a DLL that exports these functions: UINT Initialize(HMODULE instance, LPCTSTR iniFile,
LPCTSTR section, UINT id); The Initialize function is called when the measure is initialized. The function returns the maximum value that can be measured. If the maximum value is unknown the function should return 0. The plugin can also have it's own settings which can be loaded from the iniFile and the section given as parameters to the initialize function. the id-parameter is used to identify individual measures if there are several of them using the same plugin. Finalize is called when the measure is deleted. The Update is called once per update period (usually once per second). The function returns the measured value. Check the Rainmeter sources for example how to implement a plugin. Currently there are few plugins distributed with the Rainmeter package. The settings for the plugins should be placed in the Plugin-measure's section in the ini-file. PerfMon
(Win2k and WinXP only!) Important note: The names of the objects, counters and instances need to be in English also in localized versions of Windows. PerfMonObject PerfMonCounter PerfMonInstance PerfMonMaxValue PerfMonDifference Examples Display how much Litestep process takes CPU (use Scale=100000.0 in TEXT meter if you want percentual value): [MeasureLitestep] Display the number of running processes: [MeasureProcesses] Display the disk access in drive C: [MeasureDiskAccess] MBM5plugin Note! This plugin might still be a bit buggy, because I was unable to get MBM5 to work correctly with my motherboard. So, I cannot test this properly. If anyone wants to check and fix this thing, please do :-) MBM5Type MBM5Number MBM5MaxValue SysInfo Note! This measure can be used only with the string meter. SysInfoType
SysInfoData AdvancedCPU CPUInclude CPUExclude PowerPlugin PowerState
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The Rainmeter supports audio
commands that can be used in the actions (e.g. TrafficAction). Just use the
build-in commands like normal command or !bangs. PLAY [soundfile] PLAYLOOP [soundfile] PLAYSTOP |
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The Rainmeter can be
controlled also with Litestep !Bang-commands. Note that the [] means that
you need to supply an agrument for the bang (do not include the []-chars).
If the argument is inside (), it is not necessary to give it. !RainmeterShow !RainmeterHide !RainmeterToggle !RainmeterRefresh ([Config]) ([IniFile]) !RainmeterRedraw !RainmeterHideMeter [Meter] !RainmeterShowMeter [Meter] !RainmeterToggleMeter [Meter] !RainmeterDisableMeasure [Measure] !RainmeterEnableMeasure [Measure] !RainmeterToggleMeasure [Measure] !RainmeterChangeConfig [Ini-file] !RainmeterMove [X] [Y] !RainmeterZPos [POS] !RainmeterAbout !RainmeterLsBoxHook |
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This program is free software. Like
Litestep, it is released under GNU General Public License as published by
the Free Software Foundation.
This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details. Please note that this software is still in beta-state and is most likely to have defects and may not work as it should. Use it at your own risk. The author is not responsible for any damage, direct or indirect, that this software may cause.
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The latest version will be
found from my homepage. There are also couple of example configurations,
which might be helpful if you are creating your own skins.
You may also send comments and bug-reports to author: Please put the name of the product (i.e. Rainmeter) in the subject-field of the mail. It may be useful if you write the version of the product also. If you are reporting a bug, please try to be as exact as possible when describing the symptoms. Also some details of your system (like OS version, Litestep build, and so on) might be helpful. |
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9 FEB 2003 (Version 0.9 ß)
30 JUN 2002 (Version 0.8 ß)
5 MAY 2002 (Version 0.7 ß)
15 JANUARY 2002 (Version 0.6 ß)
26 DECEMBER 2001 (Version 0.5 ß)
1 SEPTEMBER 2001 (Version 0.4 ß)
19 AUGUST 2001 (Version 0.3 ß)
19 JULY 2001 (Version 0.2 ß)
22 FEBRUARY 2001 (Version 0.1 ß)
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