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Sh8dyStatsHWiNFO 1.2.1

Skins that monitor system information
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Sh8dyDan
Posts: 19
Joined: August 22nd, 2021, 6:10 pm

Sh8dyStatsHWiNFO 1.2.1

Post by Sh8dyDan »

I just finished my first Rainmeter skin. I recreated a skin from a Conky theme I made for a Linux Mint Mate build.

I would appreciate any input or ideas you might have to streamline code, add additional functionality, or increased compatibility for other systems.

The skin uses HWiNFO dll plugins and Shared Memory Interface (SHM).
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Last edited by Sh8dyDan on September 18th, 2021, 1:42 am, edited 9 times in total.
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eclectic-tech
Rainmeter Sage
Posts: 5384
Joined: April 12th, 2012, 9:40 pm
Location: Cedar Point, Ohio, USA

Re: Thoughts on my first skin Sh8dyStats

Post by eclectic-tech »

First, nice work! :thumbup:

Three things I would change (but you decide):
1) I would change your #Tranparent# variable from 255,255,255,0 to 255,255,255,1 or 0,0,0,1; this makes it almost invisible but still able to react to mouse actions; easier to reposition and move.

2) Forcing the skin to default positions, disabling dragging, and setting the skin position to '-2' OnDesktop, are really things you should let the end user set. With your 'transparent' skins and dragging disabled, it was impossible to move the skin from where you placed them by default without changing settings or other 'tricks'.
It may be better to create Layouts for different screen resolutions rather than setting default positions.

3) The Motherboard skin generated errors in the log due to having RegExpSubstitute=1 in the code, but not escaping the parenthesis in the substitution.
Either add the escape character for RegExp \ (backslash) in front of each parenthesis in the substitution line, or remove RegExpSubstitute=1 line and use the Substitute you have without the backslashes.

I like the style, the amount of info provided, and the ability to stack the skins. :great:
Have you considered scaling?

Good looking skin, these changes would make it a bit more end user friendly. :???:
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Sh8dyDan
Posts: 19
Joined: August 22nd, 2021, 6:10 pm

Re: Thoughts on my first skin Sh8dyStats 1.0.4

Post by Sh8dyDan »

Thank you for the feedback eclectic-tech.

Changes Made:
  • Changed Background 255,255,255,1
  • Added Layout
  • Fixed Motherboard Skin Error (Really need to find a universal solution that would apply to more systems)
  • Added right-click menu items
Any more feedback is appreciated.
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SilverAzide
Rainmeter Sage
Posts: 2588
Joined: March 23rd, 2015, 5:26 pm

Re: Thoughts on my first skin Sh8dyStats 1.0.4

Post by SilverAzide »

This skin looks really nice! A couple observations for you since you asked...

You are using the HWiNFO plugin (which uses HWiNFO's shared memory feature), but you included command measures and associated Lua code to dump the HWiNFO VSB registry entries (as shown in your screenshot) into HTML. The registry stuff is not used or needed if you are using HWiNFO with the shared memory mode (and the plugin). It's useful only when you are not using the HWiNFO plugin. (Also, you have two copies of the ShowReg skin... an extra copy in the @Resources folder?) You don't need the HWiNFO plugin with HWiNFO v7 and later (nor do you need the "pro" version of the app).

I happened to notice your detection of the OS "bit-ness" is using an old-style hack to parse the "Program Files (x86)" folder name. You can now do this a little cleaner with the SysInfo plugin (SysInfoType=OS_BITS).

The Network skin won't really work for anyone else the way you have it since it has hard-coded adapter names and interface IDs. There's HWiNFO configuration code, but I didn't see it used anywhere?

As you mentioned, the motherboard info doesn't really work. The regexp is a little messed up too. You posted about this on another thread, I think.
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Sh8dyDan
Posts: 19
Joined: August 22nd, 2021, 6:10 pm

Re: Thoughts on my first skin Sh8dyStats 1.0.4

Post by Sh8dyDan »

Thank you for the feedback SilverAzide.

HWiNFO VSB registry entries into HTML - Just a preference. I like the clean at-a-glance view it provides.

HWiNFO plugin - Not sure about what you are getting at. Should I not include the HWiNFO plugins when packing skin?

Changes Made:
  • Removed duplicate ShowReg folder in @Resources
  • Updated measure for OS-bit
  • Updated Network skin to detection interfaces and create Variables (Used command [MeasureRunGetEthernet] [MeasureRunGetWireless] code from Gadgets)
  • Updated Motherboard name (Got suggestion from death.crafter working) (Probably would be easier to just manually enter information)
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SilverAzide
Rainmeter Sage
Posts: 2588
Joined: March 23rd, 2015, 5:26 pm

Re: Thoughts on my first skin Sh8dyStats 1.0.4

Post by SilverAzide »

Sh8dyDan wrote: September 2nd, 2021, 3:08 am HWiNFO VSB registry entries into HTML - Just a preference. I like the clean at-a-glance view it provides.

HWiNFO plugin - Not sure about what you are getting at. Should I not include the HWiNFO plugins when packing skin?
Oh no, sorry for the confusion, I didn't mean to imply not including the plugins. Your skin definitely requires them and you should definitely include them.

What I meant was is that you have two different situations here that are getting mixed together. The HWiNFO plugin requires the user to run HWiNFO with the "Shared Memory" option enabled. To configure your skin, you use the plugin's Shared Memory Viewer (SMV) application to identify all the sensor and entry IDs needed by the plugin, and the plugin then can read the sensor data directly from HWiNFO's memory. So that is one case.

The second case is if you are using HWiNFO 7.x and you don't want to pay for the Pro version. Then you don't need the plugin (or the SMV) at all; instead, you use HWiNFO's built-in functionality that does NOT use shared memory. You do this by enabling and configuring the existing Windows Sidebar Gadget functionality (which has been enhanced for Rainmeter) which writes sensor data to the registry. Your skin would then read sensor data from the registry, no plugins needed.

So the upshot is that these two cases are mutually exclusive. For most users, running the option you provided to list the registry items will result in a blank report. This is because the users don't (or won't) need to configure the Sidebar sensor stuff in HWiNFO. Configuring the Sidebar stuff is something you can do if you want, but it really has nothing to do with your skin or how it operates, because your skin never references this data or even cares if it exists.

Does this help clarify things?
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Sh8dyDan
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Joined: August 22nd, 2021, 6:10 pm

Re: Thoughts on my first skin Sh8dyStats 1.0.5

Post by Sh8dyDan »

Ok, i follow what you are saying. It serves no purpose since I'm using shared memory mode to get sensor data. The plug-ins are used for shared memory mode. I'm still learning and figuring how everything ties together.
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Sh8dyDan
Posts: 19
Joined: August 22nd, 2021, 6:10 pm

Re: Need feedback on my first skin Sh8dyStats 1.0.6

Post by Sh8dyDan »

Sh8dyStats 1.0.6

Changes Made:
  • Updated right-click menu
  • Updated how CPU name was retrieved
  • Updated how GPU name was retrieved
  • Added ability to get Motherboard BIOS version
HatchtopherOnTwitch
Posts: 1
Joined: November 17th, 2021, 9:52 am

Re: Sh8dyStatsHWiNFO 1.2.1

Post by HatchtopherOnTwitch »

I love this tool! Is there any way to change which hard drives it pulls the stats for? I have 4 drives in my PC and while it's showing stats for my main drive, it's also showing stats for a small partitioned drive that doesn't do anything. I'd rather have it show my secondary drive's stats. Thank you to the dev!
blackimage
Posts: 1
Joined: November 21st, 2021, 8:52 am

Re: Sh8dyStatsHWiNFO 1.2.1

Post by blackimage »

Hello, everything works well but GPU Load doesn't work still 0%. And how to rename the system and HDD Drive? Can you help me out? thank you.