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Another Rainmeter setup

Because I like dark wallpapers too.
Current desktop
Alternative wallpaper

Details

10 Foot HUD YBoris edit skin for the time and date
Enigma Now Playing skin
Dynamic quotes skin by me. Uses the quote plugin to display a random lime from a text file.
Notes skin to display my to do list. Based on the notes skin from Lady Gaga Tribute by Alek Aldinger and Simplesentence3 by White-Baron.
Uptime skin by me
Autobahn font for my tweaked skins
Lamp wallpaper by CL88

Why use Rainmeter?

I've tried Rainmeter before but it never stuck because I didn't really get the point of it. That is, until I read the Lifehacker primer and it clicked together for me - it's widgets! (I highly recommend the article, especially the section on glossary.) It's just like Yahoo Widgets (is anyone still using these?) and Windows Gadgets, except you can get all the widgets ("skins") in a matching collection ("skin suites"). And there are plenty of awesome skins on DeviantArt (6 of them were highlighted in Lifehacker too). The Omnimo skin even makes your desktop look like Windows Phone 7/Windows 8!

Besides, all the skins are easily tweakable - just edit the .ini file with your text editor. Or if you're up to it, you can write your own skins from scratch - for example my uptime skin is ridiculously simple once you've understood the tutorials. As for CPU and memory usage, as long as you're not using too many heavy skins, it doesn't use a lot of resources. With my current 5 skins, Rainmeter is running at 0% CPU and about 7MB RAM. By comparison, Windows Gadgets uses 8MB RAM even though I only have 1 clock widget open!

If you're running more than 2 or 3 widgets/gadgets on your desktop, you should definitely consider using Rainmeter. Make sure their position is set to "Desktop" if you use Win+D or show desktop often, and enjoy your customized desktop =)
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Comments

  1. UnknownSeptember 7, 2011 at 3:12 PM

    Glad to hear that you have so many stuff up your sleeve this summer break, though its drawing close to an end soon!

    I used to customize my desktop a lot, until now i prefer plain simplicity. I'll show you my lappie once i got back before reformatting it XD Or maybe I won't even bother to reformat it since it is still OK~~

    I've customised rainmeter once as well tho, but since I prefer simplicity in the end...so well you know XD I probably should start using linux more... ><

    Life's here pretty good, left bout 10 days more to go tho...I wanna go sky dive! XD

    ReplyDelete
  2. UnknownDecember 21, 2011 at 5:09 PM

    Ahh~~ blog is going into idle mode~ Ehh btw~ the recommended section, will it update itself based on latest post or its your recommendation?

    ReplyDelete
  3. wsDecember 31, 2011 at 6:13 PM

    Itching to write now but have to study for exams T_T

    The recommended section is actually a blogroll with the title of their latest articles, it has nothing to do with my posts.

    ReplyDelete

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