Any way to sort my skin library in file explorer?

[CyberScribe]

So I've downloaded a bunch of skins, mainly so I can try them all out to see which ones I want to use for my loadout. However, I still want to keep the ones I don't use for later, so I can mix and match whenever I want.

The only problem is that not all the skins make it evident what they are made for with their names. I sorted their installers in explorer, and now I want to do it with the installed versions, but for skins like suites that causes their layouts to not be loadable.

I tried editing the layout code of one to change the file path, but that just broke it.

How can I sort all my downloaded skins in file explorer without their layouts breaking, or anything else? Is there any way I can sort them so I know which ones load suites, or clocks, etc?

[balala]

How can I sort all my downloaded skins in file explorer without their layouts breaking, or anything else? Is there any way I can sort them so I know which ones load suites, or clocks, etc?

I probably would be tempted to rename the configs. However note that in order to can use those renamed skins, you have to do a Refresh all on Rainmeter.

[CyberScribe]

I probably would be tempted to rename the configs. However note that in order to can use those renamed skins, you have to do a Refresh all on Rainmeter.

Sorry, I'm new to rainmeter, what do mean by configs? Do you mean the layout files? The variable files? the rainmeter config file in roaming?

[Yincognito]

How can I sort all my downloaded skins in file explorer without their layouts breaking, or anything else? Is there any way I can sort them so I know which ones load suites, or clocks, etc?

My first thought would be the same as the one described by balala, just rename the installers and the root configs of skins / suites:
https://docs.rainmeter.net/manual/skins/#Root

However, there are simpler and less feature breaking methods, e.g.:
- creating a simple .txt file with a list of the skins / suites and their description (could be an Excel table too, if you're into that)
- even more "Rainmeter-like" would be to edit or add their Information option as desired in their [Rainmeter] section (this would be visible to read in the Skins tab from the Manage Rainmeter window, by the way):
https://docs.rainmeter.net/manual/skins/metadata-section/#Information

Basically, you don't have to tackle this directly and break whatever stuff that depends on the skin names, you can very well approach this indirectly.

[balala]

Sorry, I'm new to rainmeter, what do mean by configs?

No, configs are the folders which store the skins. A skin is the XXXX.ini file, which stores the Rainmeter code and which opens when you right click the visible skin on the desktop and click Edit skin in the context menu. The configs are located in the Skins folder. Identify the Skins folder (most probably its location is C:\Users\YourName\Documents\Rainmeter\Skins, but depending on the instalation, it might be different). When you open it, the folders you have there, excepting @Backup and @Vault, are the configs you have installed on your Rainmeter.

[balala]

- even more "Rainmeter-like" would be to edit or add their Information option as desired in their [Rainmeter] section (this would be visible to read in the Skins tab from the Manage Rainmeter window, by the way):
https://docs.rainmeter.net/manual/skins/metadata-section/#Information

The disadvantage of this approach is that is hard to follow. User has to open the skins code in order to see this information. Approachable, but not too convenient, in my opinion.

[Yincognito]

The disadvantage of this approach is that is hard to follow. User has to open the skins code in order to see this information. Approachable, but not too convenient, in my opinion.

He only has to open the skin code to edit it, not to see it, since it's right there on the right part of the Skins tab from Manage Rainmeter, if you selected the corresponding .ini file from the left side. But yeah, I also think it's hard to follow, especially for many nested folders in a suite, where you'd have to click all the way to the desired .ini file. Another disadvantage that I didn't thought when writing it earlier is that you'd have to repackage the skin installer to have the contents of that option "saved" in the skin package - this one is a much bigger disadvantage, since you'd have to add the necessary plugins (x86 and x64), layouts and all that when repacking. Yuck, not a good choice indeed!

So that leaves us with the rudimentar .txt choice and renaming, as some of the simplest and most "neutral" ones, unless you have other ideas...

[balala]

unless you have other ideas...

No, no more ideas. Unfortunately...

[CyberScribe]

No, configs are the folders which store the skins. A skin is the XXXX.ini file, which stores the Rainmeter code and which opens when you right click the visible skin on the desktop and click Edit skin in the context menu. The configs are located in the Skins folder. Identify the Skins folder (most probably its location is C:\Users\YourName\Documents\Rainmeter\Skins, but depending on the instalation, it might be different). When you open it, the folders you have there, excepting @Backup and @Vault, are the configs you have installed on your Rainmeter.

So I tried to rename one of the configs, put launcher at the end so I knew what kind of skin it was, but when i tried to load its layout nothing happens. When I changed it back the layout load worked. How can I get the layout loading to work while also being able to sort these skins?

[Yincognito]

How can I get the layout loading to work while also being able to sort these skins?

You'll have to also correspondingly modify the skin [sections] from that layout to resemble the way you renamed your skins. For example, if you renamed the "Illustro" suite to "Sinistro" and its "Clock" skin to "Deadlock", then you'll have to change the [Illustro\Clock] occurrence in your layout's Rainmeter.ini file to [Sinistro\Deadlock]. The layouts are typically stored as subfolders in the C:\Users\[User]\AppData\Roaming\Rainmeter\Layouts folder, with each subfolder containing a Rainmeter.ini file that can be edited if needed.