Customize Windows Background With Rainmeter

Rainmeter is a Windows desktop customization program. It allows users to fully add and personalize tools and widgets. These tools and widgets are called skins. Rainmeter is a simple program that requires no past experience with coding. It has a very simple and easy installation process. With thousands of users worldwide, there are many sources of help and examples.

You can add widgets for:

Weather, Time, Music, App Launchers, Task bars, Cpu, Gpu, Ram, Visual effects, and much more.

Materials: A Windows computer with access to Wi-Fi.

Go to https://www.rainmeter.net/ to download the latest version of Rainmeter. Using the Rainmeter website ensures that it is safe and up to date.

This website has great resources to read and learn what Rainmeter is and how to properly use it.

Once Rainmeter is downloaded, you will need to install it.

Select the Rainmeter.exe file.

It will pop up in your browser, or you can find it in your file explorer.

It will select a default location to install the file. If the location is all set, click next, and then install.

Once it is installed it will automatically run.

When Rainmeter first starts up, you will be welcomed will a screen filled with a default package of skins.

These skins are made to introduced you to what Rainmeter can do for you.

It will have a default weather widget and other computer stats. To clear them off your screen right click them and select the unload button or go into the Rainmeter settings and click the unload button.

The following websites are great resources for skins, examples, and inspiration. They provide thousands of other users sharing their own skins and wallpapers.

Most users will share there desktop and in the description will list all of the Rainmeters skins they used and where you can access them.

https://visualskins.com/

http://rainmeterhub.com/

https://www.reddit.com/r/Rainmeter/hot/

Once you find a cool skin, all you have to do is download and put it in the right folder.

For example, I found this really cool music visualizer called Fountain of Colors.

I downloaded it and put the file in the "Skins" sub folder in my Rainmeter folder.

Once the skin is installed and ready to be uploaded, you need to find the file in the Rainmeter home screen and click the Load button. Then the skin will appear on your desktop.

Rainmeter allows for simple editing for each skin. This allows you to customize it as you wish.

For most skins you can change the size, location, color and many have different variations you can choose from.

If you are curious or have a little coding experience, there are simple changes you can make to the code, just go into the code, change a couple numbers or so, and save the file.

Explore new and as many skins as you like. The Rainmeter community is very welcoming and helpful. As you browse the web and forums for new skins or wallpapers you will find a ton of cool desktops that use can re-create or just use an inspiration. The second photo above is a quick one that I recently put together.