Windows 10 comes with a built-in desktop customization tool called Rainmeter. This free program lets you change the look and feel of your Windows desktop, making it more personalized and unique. Here are five tips for using Rainmeter to customize your Windows 10 desktop:

  1. Start by downloading the Rainmeter app from the Microsoft Store or from one of the many third-party app stores. Once installed, open it and click on the “Rainmeter” icon in the top left corner of the window.
  2. In the “Rainmeter” window, click on the “Themes” tab to access a list of available themes. Select a theme and then click on the “Apply Theme” button to apply it to your desktop.
  3. To change individual elements of a theme, select them from the list on the left side of the “Themes” tab and then use the controls at the bottom of the window to customize them. For example, you can change how large text is displayed, adjust colors, or add custom icons.
  4. To create your own custom theme, start by creating a new file called rainmeter-theme-name .plg in Rainmeter’s themes folder (by default, this is located at C:\Users\YourUserName\AppData\Roaming\Rainmeter\themes ). This file contains Rainmeter’s configuration code for customizing your theme, so be sure to follow instructions carefully when creating it!
  5. To apply a custom theme you’ve created using Rainmeter’s configuration code to your desktop, open up Settings > Personalization > Themes and select your newly created theme from the list there. ..

Rainmeter is a lightweight application for customizing your Windows desktop. Rainmeter works by installing community made ‘skins’, many of which can change how the desktop works with widgets like app launchers, RSS and email readers, calendars, weather reports, and many others. It has been around since Windows XP, where it was used as a tool for displaying basic info on the desktop, but has since gained a large community following which has produced high quality skins which can change the whole desktop experience.

Installing Rainmeter

Rainmeter is an open source program and can be downloaded from their official website. If you want the latest updates, you can also build it from the source code at their Github repository.

Rainmeter can be installed portably as well, but it isn’t recommended. The standard installation works just fine.

Installation is simple, but make sure “Launch Rainmeter on startup” is checked, or else it will have to be manually restarted after a reboot.

Once Rainmeter is installed, you should see a few new things on your desktop, displaying basic things like disk and CPU usage. This is Rainmeter’s default skin.

To get to Rainmeter’s settings, right click on any one of the skins and click “Manage Skin”. A window will come up listing all your installed skins. Clicking “Active Skins” will let you manage each one individually.

You can edit the positioning and settings of each skin. If you want to make not draggable, unclick “Draggable” and click “Click through”. This will also disable the right click menu, but fortunately Rainmeter adds an icon in the Windows toolbar, which also lets you access the menu.

Finding and Installing Skins

Rainmeter’s default skin is useful, but fairly boring. Many sites exist for showcasing Rainmeter skins, including DeviantArt, Customize.org, and the Rainmeter subreddit. Sorting by “Top – All Time” on the subreddit brings up some of the best skins and layouts. Skins from these sites can be downloaded and mixed and matched to your choosing. Some skins, like Enigma, are essentially entire Rainmeter suites by themselves.

To install a skin, just double click on the .rmskin file. Rainmeter’s window will pop up allowing you to install and enable the skin. For some skins, there are lots of different features, so if you don’t want everything loaded at once, uncheck “Load included skins”, and Rainmeter will simply just add them to your list of skins.

Tweaking Rainmeter

Rainmeter allows for an amazing amount of customization. If you want to get your hands dirty with the code behind the skins, it isn’t too complex. Right click on a skin and hit “Edit skin”, which will bring up a configuration file with lots of variable definitions.

For example, if you wanted to change the color of the outer rim of this clock, you can edit the values of the variable that controls that. Most skins have comments in the configuration file, so it’s easy to tell what controls what.

Alternatives to Rainmeter

If you’re on a Mac or Linux, unfortunately you’re out of luck, as there isn’t a Rainmeter build for OS X or Linux. For Mac users, there is Geektool, which performs many of the same basic functions such as displaying info on the desktop and some basic widgets, though there isn’t as big of a community following behind it, so the options for skins are limited. Geektool is also much more oriented towards people who are familiar with the command line, as it runs nearly entirely on bash scripts.