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Rainmeter settings @ startup

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Francisco
Posts: 1
Joined: January 27th, 2018, 8:19 pm

Rainmeter settings @ startup

Post by Francisco »

Why does my Rainmeter theme not show on startup ?
I always have to click the rainmeter icon for it to show the theme. :?
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raiguard
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Joined: June 25th, 2015, 7:02 pm
Location: The Sky, USA
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Re: Rainmeter settings @ startup

Post by raiguard »

When you installed it it should have had a "Start Rainmeter on Windows Startup" box. Reinstall Rainmeter and make sure that box is checked.

I also find that auto startup only works on the user that Rainmeter was installed on. I installed Rainmeter on my user, and so it starts up just fine for me. But when my brother logs into his user to do stuff, he has to manually start Rainmeter for the skins to show up.

This is definitely a Rainmeter-specific issue, because everything else starts up just fine.
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jsmorley
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Re: Rainmeter settings @ startup

Post by jsmorley »

raiguard wrote:When you installed it it should have had a "Start Rainmeter on Windows Startup" box. Reinstall Rainmeter and make sure that box is checked.

I also find that auto startup only works on the user that Rainmeter was installed on. I installed Rainmeter on my user, and so it starts up just fine for me. But when my brother logs into his user to do stuff, he has to manually start Rainmeter for the skins to show up.

This is definitely a Rainmeter-specific issue, because everything else starts up just fine.
Tell your brother to install Rainmeter and check the "Start with Windows" box. It won't install two versions of Rainmeter, but will add the shortcut to his "startup" folder, and he will have his own Rainmeter\Skins folder in his Documents, and his own Rainmeter folder in his AppData.

This is not so much a Rainmeter-specific issue, as it is the way Windows works. Everyone shares the same Program Files folder, but each account has its own Startup folder, Documents folder, and AppData folder. Many Programs offer a choice of "install for current user" or "install for all users", but given that Rainmeter is so dependent on individual Documents and AddData folders, that doesn't make a lot of sense for us. Rainmeter is always installed for the current user.

Yes, Windows has the concept of C:\Users\Default, and we could make use of that to "install for all users", but not at lot of folks are going to be familiar with how that works, and it just isn't how we envision Rainmeter. If you brother moves a skin on the screen, that's fine for him, but do you want to see that when you start Rainmeter? No, I think not.

To have multiple accounts not only run Rainmeter at Windows startup, but also share the same folders for skins and settings, you will want to install Rainmeter "portable", then just place a shortcut to Rainmeter in the "Startup" folder for all users in Windows:

C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\StartUp

I strongly recommend that if you do this, you create a folder like C:\Rainmeter, and don't try to use C:\Program Files\Rainmeter. Windows get's very snippy about things that "write" to Program Files as they are operating, and you are going to fight with the security measures.
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raiguard
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Re: Rainmeter settings @ startup

Post by raiguard »

jsmorley wrote:Tell your brother to install Rainmeter and check the "Start with Windows" box. It won't install two versions of Rainmeter, but will add the shortcut to his "startup" folder, and he will have his own Rainmeter\Skins folder in his Documents, and his own Rainmeter folder in his AppData.

This is not so much a Rainmeter-specific issue, as it is the way Windows works. Everyone shares the same Program Files folder, but each account has its own Startup folder, Documents folder, and AppData folder. Many Programs offer a choice of "install for current user" or "install for all users", but given that Rainmeter is so dependent on individual Documents and AddData folders, that doesn't make a lot of sense for us. Rainmeter is always installed for the current user.

Yes, Windows has the concept of C:\Users\Default, and we could make use of that to "install for all users", but not at lot of folks are going to be familiar with how that works, and it just isn't how we envision Rainmeter. If you brother moves a skin on the screen, that's fine for him, but do you want to see that when you start Rainmeter? No, I think not.

To have multiple accounts not only run Rainmeter at Windows startup, but also share the same folders for skins and settings, you will want to install Rainmeter "portable", then just place a shortcut to Rainmeter in the "Startup" folder for all users in Windows:

C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\StartUp

I strongly recommend that if you do this, you create a folder like C:\Rainmeter, and don't try to use C:\Program Files\Rainmeter. Windows get's very snippy about things that "write" to Program Files as they are operating, and you are going to fight with the security measures.
Ah ok, thanks for the info. We have separate skins folders anyway so I'll just have him install it on his user. Sorry for being so presumptuous.
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