Rainmeter ini not writeable

[sw-deploy]

Currently we have multiple devices with this popup (Bild.png)
Our install command looks like:

Code: Select all

Rainmeter-4.5.18.exe"/S /PORTABLE=1 /D=C:\Program Files\Rainmeter"

We change the permission of the rainmeter.ini during the installation process (ini.jpg).

The strange this is, it seems to happen only once. After clicking "OK" Rainmeter starts fine and the message comes not again.
Our investigation so far could not find out why this happens. There was no Rainmeter update.

Any ideas why this happens?

[Yincognito]

Any ideas why this happens?

I don't install Rainmeter in portable mode, but besides that, yes, the behavior has an explanation, see the first part of these posts:
https://forum.rainmeter.net/viewtopic.php?t=31708#p197792
https://forum.rainmeter.net/viewtopic.php?t=38699#p199096
The bottom line is that the C:\Program Files location is generally protected by the OS, and Rainmeter.ini is typically expected to be at C:\Users\[User]\AppData\Roaming\Rainmeter, which is what those error messages are trying to convey. As for whether those error messages should occur, I suppose they shouldn't, but then, as I said, I never installed Rainmeter in portable mode, so I'm not that familiar with that behavior. Maybe one of the developers could share his view on this, when and if he sees your post.

P.S. By the way, changing permissions for the Rainmeter.ini file might not be enough if you don't change permissions (or ownership) for the folder you want to place Rainmeter.ini at.

[jsmorley]

I don't install Rainmeter in portable mode, but besides that, yes, the behavior has an explanation, see the first part of these posts:
https://forum.rainmeter.net/viewtopic.php?t=31708#p197792
https://forum.rainmeter.net/viewtopic.php?t=38699#p199096
The bottom line is that the C:\Program Files location is generally protected by the OS, and Rainmeter.ini is typically expected to be at C:\Users\[User]\AppData\Roaming\Rainmeter, which is what those error messages are trying to convey. As for whether those error messages should occur, I suppose they shouldn't, but then, as I said, I never installed Rainmeter in portable mode, so I'm not that familiar with that behavior. Maybe one of the developers could share his view on this, when and if he sees your post.

P.S. By the way, changing permissions for the Rainmeter.ini file might not be enough if you don't change permissions (or ownership) for the folder you want to place Rainmeter.ini at.

Correct. You simply can't reliably install Rainmeter in portable mode to C:\Program Files. That is a strictly protected folder in Windows. It will be fine to install and store the static program files (thus the apt name of the folder) in there, but you simply can't store things that are dynamically changed by the program while it is running in that folder.

[Yincognito]

Correct. You simply can't reliably install Rainmeter in portable mode to C:\Program Files. That is a strictly protected folder in Windows. It will be fine to install and store the static program files (thus the apt name of the folder) in there, but you simply can't store things that are dynamically changed by the program while it is running in that folder.

Well, now it's clear why this happens - hopefully it is for the OP as well. Thanks for pointing it out, much appreciated!

[sw-deploy]

Thanks for the quick response.
In the past, all worked fine.
But software changes, so is it.

We installed rainmeter in the program files to ensure, that no user could modify the skins / layout.
And that rainmeter is working when a new user logged in.

If the normal installation will place the files in the users appdata (not tested yet), how could we get this two points covered?

[Yincognito]

Thanks for the quick response.
In the past, all worked fine.
But software changes, so is it.

We installed rainmeter in the program files to ensure, that no user could modify the skins / layout.
And that rainmeter is working when a new user logged in.

If the normal installation will place the files in the users appdata (not tested yet), how could we get this two points covered?

First, Rainmeter is intentionally and by design made for the exact opposite of what you want. It's meant to "give control to the user" to design his desktop as desired. It's also not a software with security features meant to restrict the user ability to change his skins or layout. In other words, if you're looking for this, such a solution must come from outside Rainmeter.

In my opinion, one way to solve your 2nd point could be to duplicate the settings folder (C:\Users\[User]\AppData\Roaming\Rainmeter) and the parent of the skins folder (C:\Users\[User]\Documents\Rainmeter) for every user account, so that the same layout and skins (even though technically different files) would be used / loaded irrespective of the user being logged in. By the way, the skins folder can actually be changed / relocated by editing the Rainmeter.ini file.

As for your 1st point, that's more difficult. Apart from designing a Windows policy or using some other software to write protect the relevant Rainmeter folders / files and your startup sequence to prevent modification and ensure that no user can modify the skins / layout or avoid loading them at startup, I personally don't see many other possibilities (if any) to achieve what you want. I might be wrong, of course, but it's unlikely.

As a rather "extreme" and probably unfeasible measure, if you're proficient in C++, you could just fork Rainmeter from GitHub and set the relevant folders as desired, for your 2nd point. That being said, if you try to approach your 1st point in a similar manner, you'd still need some way to "block" the modification of skin or layout files by the user...

[sw-deploy]

We were able to reproduce the issue.
The solution is to give modify rights for users at the Rainmeter folder (C:\ProgramFiles\Rainmeter).
We don't understand why this happens only sometimes or why not all users are affected.
Maybe the last rainmeter version had some changes or maybe Microsoft cause the issue.

Anyway we will change this on all devices.
Thanks for your replies, it is good to know, that there is a community

[Yincognito]

Unless you give users those rights only for the duration of the installation, I don't see how you can make sure that "no user could modify the skins / layout" later on, assuming that they are stored in the same location, but hey, if you're satisfied with it, then it's all good.

[sw-deploy]

Hello again,

unfortunately the issue still persists As mentioned in the first post we installed the portable version of Rainmeter. Although we added full permissions to the folder/files of Rainmeter for the users the error message appeared from time to time after a restart of the client.

Now we changed the type of installation to the 'normal' way - program folder is in "C:\Program Files" and settings/layout folder is in the userprofile "C:\Users\%username%\Appdata\Roaming\Rainmeter". But also with this setup we are facing a similar message again:

error_message_rainmeter.jpg

Why is the ini file modified at all at startup ?

Do anybody probably have some more ideas what could be the problem ?

[Yincognito]

Now we changed the type of installation to the 'normal' way [...] with this setup we are facing a similar message again

I can't certainly say why it happens so I'll let jsmorley or Brian have their say here, but just to clarify:
- when exactly does the error happen for a single client (during installation or after it, if after it is it at the next restart after installation or on multiple random restarts afterwards)?

Also, I might be wrong with this, but are you doing the installation locally (and as the local user) for every client, or over the network? I'm saying this because, if it's the latter case, except for the "Everyone" group, I seem to recall that there's also a "NETWORK" group that could need the necessary permission to the related folder / files.

Unfortunately I don't have a network environment to be able to test this, I only know that for me, as an "administrator" account on the Enterprise version of W10, I didn't ever get any error regarding Rainmeter.ini when doing a standard installation from the GUI window.