Manager

The Manage Rainmeter window is the heart of Rainmeter's "interface." You can open the Manager in two ways: either click the "Manage" item in the main context menu (which can be accessed by right-clicking on the Rainmeter tray icon or, alternatively, right-clicking on a skin and choosing the "Rainmeter" submenu), or just click once on the Rainmeter tray icon.

The first thing you see when you open the Manager is the Skins tab:

The Skins tab gives you access to many of the same tools and settings as a skin's context menu. The menu on the left side of the tab lists your entire skin library. Expand a config folder to see the skins inside, then click a skin to select it.

If you want to select one of the skins that's already loaded on your desktop, there's a shortcut: click the Active Skins button above the menu to select from just your active skins. You can also right-click any skin and click "Manage skin" from the context menu.

There is one folder that Rainmeter creates automatically: "Backup." When you install a new copy of a skin that you already have, the old copy is moved into the "Backup" folder for safekeeping. Rainmeter will never overwrite your personal data.

On the right side of the tab, you'll see some information, called metadata, about the skin you selected. This metadata includes the name of the author; the skin's version number and licensing permissions, which are important to know if you're modifying someone else's work; and other information, such as credits or setup instructions, which might be unique to that skin.

In the top-right corner, you'll see the controls to Load the skin (or Unload it, if the skin is already active on your desktop); Edit, which opens the skin file in your text editor, allowing you to change the code; and Refresh, which resets the skin to its original state, and also applies any changes that you have made to the code. In addition, you can refresh all of your skins at once by clicking the Refresh all button at the bottom of the Manager window. As you go through the tutorials in the following pages, you will become very familiar with loading, unloading, editing and refreshing a skin. All of these commands can also be found in the context menu.

Finally, on the bottom of the tab, you can change the skin's location and settings. These are the same settings that you can find in the skin's context menu. Changes here will be applied immediately as you click or type.

The Themes tab is where you can save, restore and delete your themes.

On the right side of the tab, you can see a list of the themes you already have saved. Select a theme to load or delete it. Like skins, you can also edit theme files by hand, using a similar code language. You can also edit your current settings by clicking the Edit settings button at the bottom of the Manager window. You'll learn more about editing global Rainmeter settings later in this guide.

Rainmeter automatically creates a "Backup" theme, just like the "Backup" config folder in Skins. If you load a new theme without saving your old one first, you can use the Backup theme to restore it, keeping you from accidentally losing your hard work. However, only one backup is saved at a time.

On the left side, you can see your options for saving a new theme. Exclude unused skins means that the theme will only save settings for the skins that are already active on your desktop. Unloaded skins' settings will be discarded; when you load them while using the new theme, they will appear on your desktop with only the default settings. Save as empty theme will create a theme that is completely blank.

On the bottom of the tab, you will also find the Backup button. This allows you to create an image of your entire Rainmeter installation, including skins, themes, addons and even third-party plugins. Once you've created your backup, you can restore it at any time by double-clicking the file, just like installing a new skin. (You'll learn about adding skins on the next page.)

Finally, the Settings tab lets you change a few more "global" Rainmeter settings. You can toggle automatic updates, disable dragging on all of your active skins, and reset Rainmeter's record of your network usage statistics.

You can also access the error logging feature from here. This is mainly useful for skin authors who are trying to fix bugs in their own work. However, if you ever have a need to ask for technical support on the Rainmeter forum, you may be asked to provide your error log so that our experts can help you solve a particular problem.

About

Alongside the Manager, the About window is there to give you a useful overview of what Rainmeter is doing right now. You can open About from the Rainmeter context menu, or by clicking the "Open log" button in the Manager.

The first tab, Log, is a real-time display of log messages from your skins. A log message doesn't always mean there's a problem. You can use the checkboxes at the bottom of the tab to change which types of messages are shown - for example, you can tell Rainmeter to report only warnings and errors.

The Measures tab shows you the information that each of your skins is recording and storing in memory - such as times, dates, system statistics, or RSS feed items. While a skin may display data in any number of ways, like bars, graphs and rotating dials, this tab will always give you the pure information that lies beneath the surface of the skin. You'll learn more about "measures" soon.

The Plugins tab shows you a list of all of the Rainmeter plugins that you have installed. Normally, these will only be the plugins that came with your version of Rainmeter, but if you have added any third-party plugins, they'll show up here, too.

Finally, the Version tab shows you which version of Rainmeter you're using, along with the folders where your skins, settings, and Rainmeter itself are stored. If you're asking for help on our forums, you may be asked to provide this information - that's why there's a handy Copy to clipboard button, so you can paste everything on this tab right into your browser.

Using and Customizing Skins

As you have discovered, Rainmeter is not really an "app," but a "platform." The context menu, Manager and About console all help you keep track of your library. But Rainmeter is really about the skins themselves. And every skin has its own way of doing things.

If a skin comes with special instructions for using and customizing its features, you can usually view these in the Manager (see below). There may also be further information in the form of an "about" or "readme" file provided with the skin files, or in comments placed directly inside the skin's code. Again, each skin is different, so it's usually wise to do a little research before you dive right into using a new skin. A good skin author will do his best to point you in the right direction.

On the next page, you'll learn how to add new skins to your library.