DesktopWorkArea doesn't work!

[Hodoku]

I'm running rainmeter v 1.1 rev 306 on 32-bit win7, and I'm attempting to make the desktopworkarea option work, to block off 30 pixels on both the top and bottom of my screen. However, I'm working on multiple monitors with different resolutions - is there any way I can do this? I can't find anything about this anywhere - please help! >_<

My monitor resolutions are:
Main - 1920x1080
Secondary - 1280x1024
TV - 1024x768

[maminscris]

look around here http://forum.rainmeter.net/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=2931&p=20231#p20220, and the desktopworkarea must be placed in your rainmeter settings.ini under the [Rainmeter]

it will look like this

Code: Select all

[Rainmeter]
SkinPath=C:\Documents and Settings\TheNobody\My Documents\Rainmeter\Skins\
CheckUpdate=1
DesktopWorkArea=2,24,1141,940

[jsmorley]

There are a lot more built-in variables that relate to multiple monitors if you get the 1.2 beta release...

http://rainmeter.net/cms/Settings_beta

[Hodoku]

I did put the DWA variable under [rainmeter] in rainmeter.ini, but still no effect. (I've resorted to using desktopcoral for now, fail.


About the 1.2 beta - is it (relatively) stable? if it is, I'd love to take it for spin.
However, how would I set up boundaries for multiple monitors using that? ._.

[Dave_W]

Hodoku - are you trying to create a desktop work area on one monitor of a multi-monitor setup, or are you trying to create a desktop work area that will automatically resize depending on which monitor you are outputting to at the time?

Either way, I think that the variables jsmorley has pointed you at can do the job - I've just been playing around with them for my own setup, and they're awesome.

[Hodoku]

I *just* want a defined area on my middle monitor (the 1920x1080 one) is there a way in either rainmeter 1.1 or 1.2 beta to define workareas across multiple monitors, or different areas for each one?

[Dave_W]

I thought that was what you wanted - I have been struggling with it myself, so I think I can help.

I have two monitors at work - well, really, I have a laptop and a monitor which I run as an extended desktop. I only put Rainmeter bits on the monitor, which is above and slightly to the left of the laptop screen, and wanted to define a work area on that one. Took some doing, but it works now thanks to jsmorley's link in this thread.

First - I'm not sure if you will need the latest beta. I think this should work regardless, but I'm using the beta so I can't say whether it works on previous versions. The beta's pretty stable, as far as I can see.

Second - do you know which of your monitors the middle one is, in terms of how Windows sees them? If it's your primary monitor then this is easy - open up Rainmeter.ini and add the following under [Rainmeter] right at the top:

Code: Select all

DesktopWorkArea=0,30,1920,1050

The way that Windows (and therefore Rainmeter) sees a multi-monitor setup is with the top-left corner of the primary monitor being 0,0. Your other monitors are all defined by their relationship to that point - the top-left corner of my monitor (which is above and to the left of my laptop screen, which is primary) is -736,-1024.

Accordingly if the monitor on which you want your DWA is primary, you can just define the DWA as though the other monitors don't exist. If it is not primary then you need to do some maths to figure out how to define the DWA. I'll put the next bit in spoiler tags so it doesn't clutter up the thread if it's not relevant!

The way I did it was to create a new config (and for this one you definitely WILL need the new beta):

Code: Select all

[VirtualScreen]
Meter=STRING
w=230
h=20
Clipstring=1
X=r
Y=15r
StringAlign=LEFT
Percentual=1
AutoScale=1
FontSize=#DetailSize#
FontColor=#DetailColour#
Text=Virtual Screen: #VSCREENAREAX#,#VSCREENAREAY#  W:#VSCREENAREAWIDTH# 

H:#VSCREENAREAHEIGHT#

[PrimaryScreen]
Meter=STRING
w=230
h=20
Clipstring=1
X=r
Y=15r
StringAlign=LEFT
Text=Primary Screen: #PSCREENAREAX#,#PSCREENAREAY#  W:#PSCREENAREAWIDTH# H:#PSCREENAREAHEIGHT#

[SecondaryScreen]
Meter=STRING
w=230
h=20
Clipstring=1
X=r
Y=15r
StringAlign=LEFT
Text=Second Screen: #SCREENAREAX@2#,#SCREENAREAY@2#  W:#SCREENAREAWIDTH@2# H:#SCREENAREAHEIGHT@2#

You should also clone out [SecondaryScreen] to [TertiaryScreen], which can be the same but with @3 instead of @2.

This is a direct lift from jsmorley's link above, pretty much, and what it spits out is the location of the top left corner of each screen, and the screen's width and height. The "Virtual Screen" is what Windows is seeing as your entire desktop (i.e. the extended desktop across three monitors in your case).

As I said above, I wanted to have my DWA on my secondary screen - by running this config I found out that the top left corner of that screen is at -736,-1024 and that the screen is 1280 wide by 800 tall (of course I knew that latter bit already, but y'know). I wanted a 30 pixel topbar and a 230 pixel sidebar, so it was maths time - I ended up with -736,-994 as the top-left corner, and 314,0 as the bottom-right corner of my DWA. I'm sure you can see how I got there, but let me know if you want me to step it through.

I hope all that is clear - what you want to do can be done, it's just a bit of a pain. But it can be done!

is there a way in either rainmeter 1.1 or 1.2 beta to define workareas across multiple monitors, or different areas for each one?

This I don't know. JS?

[jsmorley]

I don't think there is a way to define a workarea that spans monitors... I don't think any of the built-in Rainmeter variables will give you this. In general though, take a look at the context menu (in the 1.2 beta) under the config in question, then "position / display monitor" for some ways to manage a config in a multiple monitor environment.

[Hodoku]

wow, a lot of info to play around with. I have to read up on 1.2 before I mess with it.

@dave: My primary IS the one I want to set a DWA on. I've put the DWA code into the rainmeter ini, first thing under the [rainmeter] tag, yet NOTHING is happening. Do I need to restart my comp or something? ive tried refreshing, even reloading rainmeter and my windows still maximize to cover the entire screen.

[Dave_W]

Ah, okay. That's not good.

I'm afraid I'm not one of the devs or anything, I jumped in because your problem looked to be similar to one I had solved for myself. So I guess this is all a little bit less than definitive, but here are the things that I can think of that might make a difference:

1) I'm running the 1.2 beta. DWA has been in Rainmeter for a long time, but a lot of the changes from 1.1 to 1.2 are aimed at multiple monitors. While I haven't seen anything anywhere that suggests that this particular issue was addressed in the 1.2 beta, perhaps it was "fixed" as a side effect of something else to do with multiple monitors that was deliberately addressed? I know you want to read up on it first, totally sensible, but that might be the reason why it works for me and not you.

2) I'm NOT running any other programme to deal with multiple monitors, e.g. multimon, or that switch or attempt to match resolutions between the two screens. Windows extends my desktop from the laptop screen across to the monitor, that's it. Looking at the DesktopWorkArea part of the manual it seems that there are various things that compromise Rainmeter's ability to set a DWA - I'm guessing that any of those programmes might do that too.

3) This might be a silly point, but I've always assumed that where things in the manual are capitalised (i.e. the D, W and A in DesktopWorkArea) you need to capitalise them in your own code. I might be wrong, but to the extent that you haven't done that, worth giving it a shot?

I didn't restart my comp to make it work, but I did restart Rainmeter. I guess each time you edit Rainmeter.ini to try something new, shut Rainmeter and re-open. Just to be scientific about it, I'd also open a new application that you maximize to check if it's working - I can't see that this is likely to be the case, but I guess technically it's possible that Windows applications check things like the work area when they start rather than when you hit the max button? I'm probably wrong there, but it doesn't hurt to do it that way.

I'll keep my thinking cap on, I'm honestly surprised that it hasn't worked for you.