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[Suggestion] Make rainmeter work only when desktop visible?

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name108
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Joined: May 1st, 2020, 12:56 pm

[Suggestion] Make rainmeter work only when desktop visible?

Post by name108 »

Before starting this topic I've search briefly for that here, but didn't found anything, strangely enough, so here it is.
Could it be somehow possible to make rainmeter be active only when we are viewing desktop and somewhat freeze when we have some other windows open?
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jsmorley
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Re: [Suggestion] Make rainmeter work only when desktop visible?

Post by jsmorley »

name108 wrote: May 1st, 2020, 1:06 pm Before starting this topic I've search briefly for that here, but didn't found anything, strangely enough, so here it is.
Could it be somehow possible to make rainmeter be active only when we are viewing desktop and somewhat freeze when we have some other windows open?
No, not really. There is no easy way for Rainmeter to know that there are or are not any active windows on the screen.
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balala
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Re: [Suggestion] Make rainmeter work only when desktop visible?

Post by balala »

jsmorley wrote: May 1st, 2020, 1:08 pm No, not really. There is no easy way for Rainmeter to know that there are or are not any active windows on the screen.
Additionally in many (most?) cases the running skins have to run in background, many times they are doing stuffs which shouldn't be paused / interrupted.
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Yincognito
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Re: [Suggestion] Make rainmeter work only when desktop visible?

Post by Yincognito »

name108 wrote: May 1st, 2020, 1:06 pm Before starting this topic I've search briefly for that here, but didn't found anything, strangely enough, so here it is.
Could it be somehow possible to make rainmeter be active only when we are viewing desktop and somewhat freeze when we have some other windows open?
Automatically doing that is, as jsmorley said, difficult to accomplish (to say the least). But, depending on what exactly you want this "feature" for, you can easily make a small "button-like" skin that on various clicks would hide / unload / "pause" all the Rainmeter skins belonging to a certain group, using the skin group bangs (assuming you already set them to belong to that group, in each skin's [Rainmeter] section). I have such a "mini-skin" in my skin suite, for example, and toggling between showing and hiding or loading and unloading my entire suite has become a matter of a simple mouse click.

Or, you can use the LoadLayout bang to alternate between a previously saved empty layout and a layout in which the desired skins are active.

Bottom line, these options aren't exactly automated, but they're the best you can get with the current Rainmeter features. I'm not sure Rainmeter has the possibility of referencing all the (currently active) skins in order for something like [!Toggle *] to toggle all the active skins between the hidden and visible states, for example, but it worth investigating (not to mention adding this feature to Rainmeter, if it isn't yet available)...
Profiles: Rainmeter ProfileDeviantArt ProfileSuites: MYiniMeterSkins: Earth
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eclectic-tech
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Re: [Suggestion] Make rainmeter work only when desktop visible?

Post by eclectic-tech »

Yincognito wrote: May 1st, 2020, 3:53 pm ...Bottom line, these options aren't exactly automated, but they're the best you can get with the current Rainmeter features. I'm not sure Rainmeter has the possibility of referencing all the (currently active) skins in order for something like [!Toggle *] to toggle all the active skins between the hidden and visible states, for example, but it worth investigating (not to mention adding this feature to Rainmeter, if it isn't yet available)...

Code: Select all

; Bangs to hide/show all skins
[HideThemAll]
Meter=Image
W=10
H=10
SolidColor=255,40,40
LeftMouseUpAction=[!Hide *]

[ShowThemAll]
Meter=Image
X=2R
Y=r
W=10
H=10
SolidColor=40,255,40
LeftMouseUpAction=[!Show *]

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Yincognito
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Re: [Suggestion] Make rainmeter work only when desktop visible?

Post by Yincognito »

eclectic-tech wrote: May 1st, 2020, 3:59 pm

Code: Select all

; Bangs to hide/show all skins
[HideThemAll]
Meter=Image
W=10
H=10
SolidColor=255,40,40
LeftMouseUpAction=[!Hide *]

[ShowThemAll]
Meter=Image
X=2R
Y=r
W=10
H=10
SolidColor=40,255,40
LeftMouseUpAction=[!Show *]

Oh, so it works, after all. Nice! 8-)
Profiles: Rainmeter ProfileDeviantArt ProfileSuites: MYiniMeterSkins: Earth