Rainmeter 4.5.0 Release


You can safely install the 4.5.0 release version right over your existing Rainmeter 4.4, 4.3, 4.2 or any earlier installation, and nothing you have done will be lost or changed. There is never any need to uninstall any earlier version of Rainmeter to use the newest version.

Rainmeter 4.5.0 will run on Microsoft Windows 7 through 11. Windows XP and Vista are not supported.

Major additions and changes in Rainmeter 4.5.0


Auto update

Added Auto Update to keep the version of Rainmeter current. See Auto Update documentation for details.

Game mode

This will allow you to minimize (really eliminate) all CPU, GPU, Disk and Network usage by Rainmeter while you are for instance playing a full-screen game. See Game mode documentation for details.

Support for WinGet installations

Added support for installations and upgrades of Rainmeter using winget. See Winget Installation for details.

Silent Installation of Rainmeter

Added the ability to do a "Silent Install" of Rainmeter from the command line. See Silent Install for details.

Start Rainmeter using Safe Start

You can now hold down CTRL while starting Rainmeter to load in Safe Start mode if you have a skin loaded that is preventing Rainmeter from starting normally.

Default starting values for configs

Added the ability to set default / starting values for the skin position and other options defined in the [ConfigName] sections in Rainmeter.ini. See Default Settings in the documentation for details.

Setting flags for WebParser

Added a Flags option to parent WebParser measures to enable setting some flags that change the behavior of WebParser when connecting to a remote resource. Details at Flags documentation.


Other enhancements and fixes in Rainmeter 4.5


SysInfo plugin: Added new LAST_SLEEP_TIME and LAST_WAKE_TIME measurements to the SysInfoType option.

Bangs: Added a new !SetWindowPosition bang to allow for dynamically setting the WindowX and WindowY position, and optionally AnchorX and AnchorY anchor settings for a skin window.

Bangs: Added a new !SetAnchor bang to allow for dynamically setting the AnchorX and AnchorY anchor settings for a skin window.

Settings: Automated the process of restarting Rainmeter when the value of the checkbox "Use hardware acceleration" is changed.

WiFiStatus plugin: Added 802.11ad and 802.11ax to supported PHY values.

Registry measure: Added support for value type REG_BINARY for registry keys.

About / Skins: You can now right-click and copy the name of a measure from the dialog.

Ping plugin: Added support for IPv6 addresses.

WebParser measure: Added a new DecodeCodePoints option to WebParser child measures, to decode Unicode code point values in the source like \u00A7, which would be §. Codes from \u0000 to \uFFFF are supported.

Bangs: Added Span to the list of available Position parameter values for the !SetWallpaper bang. This is only supported with Windows 10/11, and will cause the wallpaper to be spanned across multiple monitors.

InlineSetting: Corrected an issue with inline calls to Lua or plugins when a MeterStyle is used.

Settings: Fixed a bug where doing a Refresh All would duplicate the list of languages in the Settings dialog.

Bangs: Corrected an issue where a !Delay bang defined in a variable to be used within an action could cause any trailing bangs to execute before the delay.

InputText plugin: Corrected an issue where the negative sign was not allowed when both InputNumber and DefaultValue options were set.

Variables: Improved the resolution of the #CURRENTSECTION# built-in variable when used in either Lua or Plugin inline section variables.

Shape meter: Fixed a bug with the Combine functionality when a shape is combined with a previously combined shape.

Skin Packager: Disable "Variables files" field if "Merge skins" is selected. They are mutually exclusive.

SysInfo plugin: Corrected the detection of Windows Server 2019. This was also corrected in the About / Version dialog.

InlineSetting: Fixed a clipping issue with the Shadow InlineSetting.

InlineSetting: Corrected an issue with InlineSetting when the None value was used.

Bangs: Corrected improperly parsed bangs when a leading extra space was used following a !Delay bang.

Image meter: Fixed a long standing bug where dynamically changing an image from a valid file to a non-existent file would not reset the detected size of the meter. Also added an error in the log when this happens.

FileView plugin: Corrected an issue where embedded icons in .url internet shortcuts were not being detected properly.

String meter: Fixed a bug where an Inline Setting of Shadow was not being handled correctly if the meter was in a Container.

WebParser measure: Fixed a long-standing bug where numeric values of child measures were not reset to zero between updates, which could cause a value to stay when the remote resource changed from having a value to not having a value.

InlineSetting: Corrected an issue where a dynamic change to the offsets or blur of InlineSetting=Shadow was not being applied.

EncodeURL: Changed the :EncodeURL section variable parameter to always encode any character not in the "unreserved" set allowed by URL's.

WebParser measure: Changed the URL option to automatically percent-encode any characters after the protocol://host/path/ portion of the URL that are not in the "unreserved" or "reserved" set allowed by URL's.

NowPlaying: Changed the download of lyrics to use the UTF-8 codepage to support Unicode.

Skin Packager: Corrected an issue with the Variables files functionality of the Skin Packager when an empty value was used for a variable.

InputText plugin: Fixed an issue with FocusDismiss=0 when the text box was active and the skin was unloaded.

OnFocusAction: Fixed a bug where LeftMouseDownAction was not properly recognizing that focus was given to the skin.

String meter: Corrected an issue with StringAlign when a string is dynamically updated.

Rainmeter: Fixed a longstanding bug where the inital values of the skin position variables #CURRENTCONFIGX# and #CURRENTCONGIFY# could be incorrect.

Bangs: Changed !EditSkin so it will now allow the "config" parameter alone, which will edit the skin .ini file currently running in the defined config folder. Change provided by user Yamajac.

Container: Fixed an issue with using the "R" relative positioning modifier on the first content meter. The first content meter in a container is required to be relative to the container itself. So for example, the first content meter in a container with X/Y=2R is invalid and will assume X/Y=2r instead.