How To: Trick Out Your Desktop with Rainmeter

4Chan Beckons You…

The learning curve can be a bit steep, so you will likely need some help along the way. Deviant Art and Rainmeter are the two default forums for Rainmeter questions, and many of the artists who create skins can be found hanging around those forums, answering questions and taking bug reports.

If you are feeling brave, you'll find 4Chan's /wg/ group helpful as well, if you can take it. While /b/ gets all the notoriety, there's more to that site. The /wg/ group, General Wallpapers, has some great threads where people post art collections for use as desktop wallpapers. My wallpapers folder image count is over 200 (but not quite over 9000), and all of them are from /wg/.

There's also plenty of Rainmeter talk, and people will post screen caps of their desktops asking for advice. This being 4Chan, you better have a thick skin. You'll get some helpful advice and probably a little abuse along the way. Those boys play rough.

There is a sticky message at the top of the board with information for newbies to read before asking common questions. There is also an image to view with advice, so really read that first. I take no responsibility for the verbal flogging you get for not RTFM'ing.

Between ObjectDock and Rainmeter, you can make your Windows box completely unique and look nothing like a generic Windows PC, with just a little work.

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  • ssddx
    Sample Destop...Mine
    Hah! I see you use ObjectDock Plus! as well. Awsome program.

    This looks interesting; I will have to check it out. Is that circle in the bottom right a working calendar?
    Reply
  • house70
    Hey, tom's, how come we are still getting swamped with spam? Here's an idea: mark as spam any message that has more than 2 links in it and any message that has more than twice the symbol $ in it. That should help out for a while until you come up with even better filters.
    Reply
  • shoelessinsight
    I downloaded Rainmeter after reading this article and have been experimenting with it for a few hours. Though I am having a hard time getting reliable readings of my system temperatures and my current wireless bandwidth, most of the skins are surprisingly easy to customize.

    Thanks for the article! =)
    Reply
  • gdroland
    Awesome article. I've got alot of Rainmeter desktops setup over on DeviantArt.com / With all the files you need to create them on your own computer. Check them out and don't hesitate to ask in the comments if you have questions/difficulties.

    http://gdroland.deviantart.com/
    Reply
  • cosmie
    Which weather skin is being used on the sample desktop?
    Reply
  • ecnovaec
    I love your desktop! can you please tell us what clock/etc you are using??
    Reply
  • tgandy
    Cosmie,

    I use the Felix weather widget. It comes with the Rainmeter install.
    Reply
  • tgandy
    ssddxHah! I see you use ObjectDock Plus! as well. Awsome program.This looks interesting; I will have to check it out. Is that circle in the bottom right a working calendar?
    Yes it is. I've been on the computer at midnight and watched it update the day and date.
    Reply
  • scottman777
    I've also downloaded Rainmeter after reading your article - awesome! Where'd you get that calendar?
    Reply
  • scottman777
    n/m I found it! Thanks for the article!
    Reply