[Troubleshooting Guide] Disappearing skins when showing desktop or pressing WIN+D

[spweedoo]

Hi all - reactivating this thread to share that I'm experiencing the same issue (disappearing skin when pressing Win+D) - after much troubleshooting before posting, I've isolated the issue to the fact that I am currently on Windows 11 IoT LTSC (using this ISO: 26100.1.240331-1435.ge_release_CLIENT_ENTERPRISES_OEM_x64FRE_en-us), and it has something to do with this particular copy of Windows (in my case).

I've tested out regular Windows 11 (non-LTSC) on a VM, and do not have this issue - it is isolated to the IoT LTSC version - after installing a fresh copy via VM, and only installing rainmeter thereafter, this exact issue occurs.

Not sure if there's a fix for this (other than to return to regular Windows 11 non-LTSC, which is not something I intend to do, given how bloat-free the LTSC version is), but I thought I'd post in case someone else happens to have the same issue and can't find a fix.

Unfortunately, all of the fixes recommended above do not work, as this issue occurred on a freshly installed LTSC copy (with no other services/programs installed, other than W11 base).

[Yincognito]

Not sure if there's a fix for this (other than to return to regular Windows 11 non-LTSC, which is not something I intend to do, given how bloat-free the LTSC version is), but I thought I'd post in case someone else happens to have the same issue and can't find a fix.

Thanks for sharing your experience with this - good to know.

A somewhat similar thread here - without any apparent solution or answer - just to link these probably related things:
https://forum.rainmeter.net/viewtopic.php?t=42521

The problem with bloat is that one doesn't know for sure if some potentially useful things (like some .dll or something that prevents such issues) are included in that bloat.

P.S. Also, if that file doesn't come directly from Microsoft and it's some user customized / slipstreamed / whatever version, then that could explain this issue (or others) as well. I used to slipstream Windows installations in the past too, but the process is time consuming and a bit tricky if one doesn't know precisely which is which and the entire set of implications after excluding some package from the said installation / ISO file.

[spweedoo]

Thanks for the reply! I'll continue tinkering with both a fresh Windows 10 LTSC VM and this new Windows 11 LTSC version, and hopefully I'll be able to figure it out - in response to your question about a custom ISO - this is the genuine Microsoft OEM version downloadable here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/download-windows-11-iot-enterprise-ltsc?culture=en-us&country=us

So it's definitely not a concern of custom ISO's, but I take your point that custom ISOs could have been tampered with, thereby impacting this issue.

More to come

[Yincognito]

Thanks for the reply! I'll continue tinkering with both a fresh Windows 10 LTSC VM and this new Windows 11 LTSC version, and hopefully I'll be able to figure it out - in response to your question about a custom ISO - this is the genuine Microsoft OEM version downloadable here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/download-windows-11-iot-enterprise-ltsc?culture=en-us&country=us

So it's definitely not a concern of custom ISO's, but I take your point that custom ISOs could have been tampered with, thereby impacting this issue.

More to come

Oh, I see. Yeah, identifying the culprit / solution won't be easy, since, based on your experience with it, it seems to be related to one of the many package differences between a "normal" and a LTSC installation (or worse, the settings applied to an otherwise identical package included in both). Nevertheless, I wish you luck in investigating this, maybe it won't be looking for the needle in the haystack, after all. Keep us posted on your findings, if any.

[Jeff]

We've gotten reports similar to this, as noted above, every single person that reported this problem is on Windows Kernel Version 26XXX, at the current time of writing this message (19th of August 2024), the latest Insider/Dev build (26120.1350) has this problem constantly, but the Beta build (22635) dosen't have the problem.
Sadly, at least for Win 11, Windows™ is the problem here and not Rainmeter, and that's gonna be impossible to fix. (unless Rainmeter hijacks itself on the wallpaper layer)

In other news, the guide also mentions apps that inject themselves into processes, I found a few more here!
So the list can grow with:

• DellInc.AlienwareSoundCenterDevProps2.dll
• NahimicOSD.dll, Nahimic2OSD.dll (yes, the same culprit as in the other thread where visualizers don't work)

[Yincognito]

Thanks for the summary, Jeff - that definitely narrows down the potential list of culprits even more!

[ritary]

> that's gonna be impossible to fix. (unless Rainmeter hijacks itself on the wallpaper layer)

Wait...so is it impossible to fix, or is it fixable...?

Man, I just upgraded to Win11 IoT LTSC & was having problems with this immediately. When there are large modal dialogs, typically you can just Ctrl+D & the dialogs are hidden, revealing RainMeter...but now Ctrl+D hides Rainmeter too, and if you un-minimize anything, the modal dialogs will come back too, so Rainmeter will remain blocked. so in that situation, it becomes impossible to see RainMeter (it's a more common situation than I would've thought). Ctrl+M isn't a workaround either, since you can't easily get back to what you were doing (Ctrl+D to check RainMeter, Ctrl+D again to get back -> Ctrl+M to see RainMeter...but then you can't get back to where you were without manually restoring the windows).

Really hoping this doesn't mean Win11 has killed RainMeter

[Yincognito]

Wait...so is it impossible to fix, or is it fixable...?

The former, as in "it's up to that Windows 11 version to correct this, if it's a bug". The latter was supposed to mean "if Rainmeter were to hijack itself on the wallpaper layer" (which it never did, doesn't do, and probably never will do).

Really hoping this doesn't mean Win11 has killed RainMeter

No, but it changed some things that not just Rainmeter, but other software (and even users) relied on before. If the changes are permanent, Rainmeter would have to be adjusted to compensate (if possible), and if the changes are bugs then it's up to Microsoft to correct these in the said Windows 11 versions (if needed). The former might be slightly problematic in cases where changes result in a fundamentally different behavior, since Rainmeter aims to be backward compatible, meaning that it should continue to work as before on previous Windows versions (e.g. Windows 7, Windows 10).

---

The above assume that the problem is indeed with that Windows 11 version, and not with some other potential dependencies (e.g. C++ redistributables, JRE, .NET frameworks, etc.) that would "fix" / "solve" the problem if installed or configured properly.

[ritary]

> If the changes are permanent, Rainmeter would have to be adjusted to compensate (if possible), and if the changes are bugs then it's up to Microsoft to correct these (if needed)

Not really sure what this means in terms of the path forward? Are we waiting for the final LTSC release to see if it's fixed, and if not, Rainmeter will try to mitigate? Or are we waiting for Rainmeter devs to investigate & see if it can be mitigated?

[Yincognito]

> If the changes are permanent, Rainmeter would have to be adjusted to compensate (if possible), and if the changes are bugs then it's up to Microsoft to correct these (if needed)

Not really sure what this means in terms of the path forward? Are we waiting for the final LTSC release to see if it's fixed, and if not, Rainmeter will try to mitigate? Or are we waiting for Rainmeter devs to investigate & see if it can be mitigated?

Personally, I think both. It really depends on the root cause of the issue. Another thing to consider is that there are probably not that many Rainmeter users that have the said LTSC version, in order to be able to replicate the issue and investigate what can be done about it (obviously, if serious, by the developers). In any case, with Windows in general we're only talking about its stable / "final" versions, since the rest are full of "experiments", some of them going well, some of them not that well.