Rainmeter has stopped working

[joethall]

I am relatively new to Rainmeter and was creating my first skin when I got the infamous "Rainmeter has stopped working" message and the program quit. I've reinstalled the program and reboot my Windows 10 desktop. As soon as I run the program is get the message. Thoughts?

[joethall]

I would like to note that after removing the files for my first from scratch skin the error did not occur.

What tools or procedures, other than trial and error, do I have to troubleshoot this problem.

[eclectic-tech]

It is not uncommon to crash Rainmeter when learning to create skins.

The quickest way to get Rainmeter functioning again, is to delete 'rainmeter.ini' located in: C:\Users\{YourName}\AppData\Roaming\Rainmeter".

Rainmeter will create a new file when it loads and load the default illustro skins.

A further suggestion was offered by one of the developers:

Another option may be to save an empty layout, and then make a shortcut on your desktop (or anywhere) to Rainmeter.exe with the !LoadLayout bang with the name of 'empty' layout.

Of course this will delete any saved positions to your skins and you may have to position them again (or load the @Backup layout once the problem is addressed).

What I like to do is once I get a layout I like, I save it as a my 'current' layout. Then when I make changes that cause Rainmeter to crash (which happens sometimes when I am testing new things), I can just load an empty layout and debug my skins until I find the problem. Once things are good again, I can then load my 'current' layout and get everything back.

!LoadLayout Bang