Rainmeter start menu

[Sinon]

Has it been done yet?
I.e a meter\skin that IS the start menu instead of merely launching it?

how would such a skin be created to update for each profile that uses it.

tl;dr
I want to create a skin that creates other skins. O and read above the tl;dr

[1Ro­gue]

It would be simplest to do through a plugin that would grab all the info, but I'm unsure if one has been made yet. In fact, I'm fairly certain that one has not, as it would be a bit more coding compared to just opening it.

[ScoobSTi]

The easiest thing to do would be to make a button in Rainmeter which, when clicked on, opens a menu that is also made in Rainmeter. That menu would have to have its own design, items and file/URL paths for each item.

There's no such thing as anything OS-related replaced by Rainmeter, sadly.

[pixelreader]

Maybe I'm not understanding, but it seems like it would be somewhat easy to do. Like the other posts said a simple button meter that opens up what is basically a list of links.

You could also pull info from windows folder like the start menu/quick launch/pinned apps kind of like how This skin is doing.

[MerlinTheRed]

It's not really possible in Rainmeter to have meters dynamically created. Perhaps you can do it with Lua or another Program that writes skin files for you. The Windows start menu has a lot of functionality you can't implement in Rainmeter (drag&drop, dynamically updating the last used programs even if you didn't launch them from the start menu itself, listing the last opened files of each program, etc.). You could at best make something that somehow looks like the start menu but is really just another launcher skin.

[jsmorley]

http://rainmeter.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=11837

[pixelreader]

I have to respectfully disagree with the last 2 posts. I guess it's an individual opinion.
If you used Drag&Drop and Recently opened stuff alot, rainmeter wouldn't work well. I personally never use those anyway as most programs have their own recently opened lists.

At it's core a Start Menu IS just a simple launcher (to most people anyway i'm guessing). I've already started making one with the skin from my last post and the images from a ViStart skin. I've even got it showing an Administrative Tools menu.

No its not EXACTLY like the windows start menu, but it's pretty close and is much more customizable, which is where rainmeter really shines.

[jsmorley]

I have to respectfully disagree with the last 2 posts. I guess it's an individual opinion.
If you used Drag&Drop and Recently opened stuff alot, rainmeter wouldn't work well. I personally never use those anyway as most programs have their own recently opened lists.

At it's core a Start Menu IS just a simple launcher (to most people anyway i'm guessing). I've already started making one with the skin from my last post and the images from a ViStart skin. I've even got it showing an Administrative Tools menu.

No its not EXACTLY like the windows start menu, but it's pretty close and is much more customizable, which is where rainmeter really shines.

No, I'm sorry, but it won't be even remotely close..

You can certainly get something in Rainmeter to "look" like the Windows Start menu, but it just won't and can't have half the functionality.

To each his own, I just don't want others reading this thread to misunderstand the capabilities of Rainmeter.

[lysy1993lbn]

I had plans to make one some time ago.. it was actually already working WIP with some extra functions. Unfortunetly i lost it with my old HDD which died..

Of course there was some limitations like no items context menus, drag & drop or jumplists and auto-sizing but as launcher worked perfectly.

So my answer is: Yes, you can do it. But it will be only imitation.

[Asagrim]

I already made a start menu in rainmeter. It doesn't have drag&drop, but it has tons of functions no windows start menu can ever have.

I solved the button issue the following way:
I have a shortcut, a link that has a bang that toggles the visibility of my start menu. I pinned this shortcut on my taskbar, and is the leftmost icon. Clicking solved.
Since remapping the windows key causes issues (other windows key involved hotkeys like win+d win+l etc. will be defunct), i simply set the "shortcut key" in the link properties to something i prefer. Hotkey solved.

Also there is no problem with different users, there are CLSID-s for paths you can use.