Review: Rainmeter 1.2 (and Gnometer default theme)

I have a confession to make: my desktop is completely stock. It's vanilla. There are no weird add-ons and no funky widgets. The only thing "special" about it is that the taskbar is vertical, and it's on the secondary monitor.

This is a testament to the enormous improvement Windows' stock UI has seen over the past few versions. I have been an avid LiteStep user for around ten years, and I've also played around with Blackbox quite a bit. Windows 7 is the first version of Windows that did not offend me visually to the extent that I had to kill Explorer and put in a replacement.

So, now that I like MS's stock offering, where do I turn if I want to add a bit of pizzazz to my system without completely sacrificing all of that default goodness?

Rainmeter is one solid option. It's a tool the desktop-modifying crowd seems to really like, and I can certainly understand why. It's been around for ages, and they've just released version 1.2 -- which I took for a spin. To see what it looks like and what's good (and not so good) about it, keep on reading after the fold.

The first thing you should know is that Rainmeter is completely customizable. What you see below is merely one of the two included themes; there are tons of other themes that you can use, and each looks completely different. Since they are created by various members of the community, quality varies. However, as you gain skill with Rainmeter, you can probably learn to fix anything wrong with any theme that you download.

In fact, before I start reviewing the included theme, let me show you a couple of neat skins that I found on deviantART. The first is called Corner Calendar, and the image is fairly self explanatory. The only thing you should know is that it requires you to install a font which is not included in the package. There's a link provided to its home on deviantART, though.

Personally, I think that's an insanely cool use of Rainmeter, and this little calendar alone has caused me to consider using the whole application. Check it out:

The other one is just a preview; you can't download it yet, so don't get too excited. It's called Taped, and it will hopefully grow to become a nice CD art display and clock.

So, now that we've seen what Rainmeter can do in the hands of seasoned users, let's look at the default theme (which is new to this release), Gnometer by Poiru:

What you see above are just a few of the widgets that Gnometer includes; they are neatly arranged in a bar at the top of your desktop. This is what you immediately get when you install Rainmeter. The calendar only appears when you hover the mouse over the current date and time (by default).

The most notable thing about Rainmeter, for me, is how hard they've been working to make the program accessible and reduce the learning curve. One example of this is the default dialog, which pops up right after Gnometer loads; it contains single-click links for quickly changing the font size and color, getting to the manual, and launching the configuration tool.

This is the config tool. As you can see, it's a custom job that's only for Gnometer. Not every theme will be supplied with such a nice graphical tool, but Poiru, Gnometer's creator, certainly went the extra mile here. When I tried setting destinations for folder shortcuts using the tool, nothing happened. Only after adding the folder "config" to the desktop did I see the changes. This is typical of applications like this. You would expect the tool to make whatever you are configuring visible (or clearly alert you to the fact that you will not be able to see any changes), but this is not the case. Still, Poiru did not have to provide a GUI tool, and the effort certainly counts.

Speaking of things that do not have to come with a theme, how about a comprehensive, slick, well laid-out, six-page user manual? It has screenshots, it's written in proper English, and it even has a table of contents! Wow! Most developers give you a "readme.txt," or if they decide to get fancy, an HTML file. Kudos on that one.

This is Gnometer's weather widget. Here you can see a typical Rainmeter problem; I increased the font size via the included dialog, but the widget doesn't handle it gracefully. You can see that the lines for "Tomorrow" and "Wednesday" overflow into the weather data in a way that is far from eye-pleasing.

Okay, we need to fix that. This is where we're getting into Rainmeter-proper territory. By right-clicking the widget and selecting Skin Menu > Edit Skin, I get to see the innards of this particular widget:

Is this a pretty sight? If you're a skin developer, I think you would expect no less; if you're just a regular user trying to make your desktop look nice, this is just about the point where you would probably start having second thoughts. This is what you will find at the heart of every Rainmeter theme, though, no matter how nicely the developer tried to wrap it with a custom GUI configuration tool. To properly use Rainmeter, you're going to have to figure out how the INI files are built and what all the various settings do. This is not difficult, but it does take a bit of dedication, and it's certainly not as easy as pointing and clicking. Still, the amount of control it gives you is incredible.

Another Rainmeter feature that reminds me of LiteStep is the use of enormous context menus; LiteStep uses this UI construct as one of its mainstays, and in Rainmeter it is used to toggle widgets on and off, edit settings, or apply themes (which are collections of widgets or "skins" - the terminology can get a bit confusing). Like text configuration files, this can feel a bit dated. However, unlike text configuration files, this has no added benefit. I am hoping that future Rainmeter versions will introduce a nicer way of adding and removing widgets or applying whole themes. Why not go for a drag-and-drop style interface, a-la Windows' own widgets?

Bottom line: I wish Samurize were still alive. I've always found its configuration interface far easier to use because it's visual. Still, Rainmeter is making great strides in usability, it's incredibly powerful, and most importantly, it seems to have a vibrant and dedicated community of developers and users. In terms of power and aesthetics, it beats Windows' widgets any day.

Tags: bb4win, customization, eye-candy, litestep, rainmeter, rainy