Using HWiNFO with Rainmeter

[jsmorley]

The above note applies to your laptop battery as well if you use HWiNFO to monitor it. If your battery is fully charged, HWiNFO will not "see" a charge rate or estimated time remaining if your battery is fully charged. Briefly unplug your laptop so HWiNFO can see it discharging (it might make a minute), then plug it back in, THEN visit the sensor settings.

This is not new behavior, by the way, it's just that it did not matter before when using the HWiNFO plugin.

Yeah, this is a somewhat regrettable, but probably unavoidable, downside to this far simpler "index" approach. You need to have everything you are going to want to report on connected, running and seen by HWiNFO when you first configure the sensor output settings. Once you have it right, it should stay that way going forward.

The alternative is to purchase a license for HWiNFO and continue to use the old plugin approach, which while more complicated to set up, used unique identifiers for each sensor element, so they could come and go and it didn't matter. Either that, or see if CoreTemp or Speedfan have enough in them to meet your needs. They are far, far less robust than HWiNFO, but a lot easier to configure.

[ZipD]

I may be missing something, but the plugin still works fine with the 7.01 beta version. Is Martin going to disable it in the release version?

[jsmorley]

I may be missing something, but the plugin still works fine with the 7.01 beta version. Is Martin going to disable it in the release version?

The plugin will work for 12 hours, then it will stop, until you manually go back into the Settings for HWiNFO and re-enable the Shared Memory.

[jsmorley]

Martin has released a new 7.01-4420 beta version of HWiNFO, which has some changes that may be of interest.

https://www.hwinfo.com/download/

He has added the ability to expand and collapse certain categories of sensors, to improve visibility in the Sensor Status dialog. Doing this has caused him to create some new "header" group entries for many categories. For instance the clock speeds of each of your CPU cores now can be collapsed up to a single entry that is an "average" of all cores, which is actually really useful. There are other categories that he has done this with.

The upshot of this however, is that he has added some new entries that can be "indexed" in the HWiNFO Gadget panel to support output to Rainmeter, and you might want to go through and see if you still have the index numbers you want for your skins.

Adding these sensor elements has changed how things are ordered in the Registry a bit, which might be a bit disconcerting when you look at the list. Things in the Registry are not fully ordered by the "index" number, as they were initially. This means that the new index numbers he added may / will cause things like index numbers that go 13, 14, 68, 15 and such in the list. Nothing wrong with this, just be aware that the list is no longer entirely ordered by the index number. The list is ordered in the Registry as they occur in the Sensor Status dialog. The new index numbers are enumerated at the end of each "category" if you add them to the output.

1.png

Also be aware that as always, if you do decide to "add" these new elements to the "output" to the Registry, that will cause index numbers that came after them before to be shifted.

Once again, I really think it will be safest to use SHIFT to highlight all sensors in the HWiNFO Gadget panel, turn them all "off", exit HWiNFO, restart it, then go back and either turn on all of them, or just the ones you expect to use. Then double-check your skins.

I highly recommend that you try to stay current with the latest 7.01-xxxx beta version of the software, so we can properly react to changes, and provide feedback if something goes sideways. Once 7.01 is released as "final", then it should be fine to stop messing with betas and just stay on the most current release version.

[SilverAzide]

So far, the only issue I am having -- a minor annoyance -- is that HWiNFO does not delete the VSB registry entries when Windows shuts down (it does delete them when HWiNFO closes). I run HWiNFO on demand instead of auto-starting it, so when my skins load up when Rainmeter starts, they think HWiNFO is running when it really isn't. (The registry contains non-zero values for all the sensor values, whatever they were when things shut down.)

It is rather a pain to detect whether HWiNFO running and configured. As far as I can tell, you have to watch for one of two different processes (both HWiNFO flavors) and also check for a non-zero sensor value. Only if both cases are true can you be be sure HWiNFO is running and configured. With the old plugin you just had to look for a non-zero value (like a CPU clock speed) and you would know things are working.

[jsmorley]

So far, the only issue I am having -- a minor annoyance -- is that HWiNFO does not delete the VSB registry entries when Windows shuts down (it does delete them when HWiNFO closes). I run HWiNFO on demand instead of auto-starting it, so when my skins load up when Rainmeter starts, they think HWiNFO is running when it really isn't. (The registry contains non-zero values for all the sensor values, whatever they were when things shut down.)

It is rather a pain to detect whether HWiNFO running and configured. As far as I can tell, you have to watch for one of two different processes (both HWiNFO flavors) and also check for a non-zero sensor value. Only if both cases are true can you be be sure HWiNFO is running and configured. With the old plugin you just had to look for a non-zero value (like a CPU clock speed) and you would know things are working.

Stay tuned...

[SilverAzide]

So far I'm really liking using the HWiNFO Sidebar Gadget config. I've got 3 laptops, all different machines but all having Intel/nVidia hardware... and the HWiNFO configuration is identical for all 3, which is great. Before, with the shared memory plugin, I had different hex numbers all over the place, now it's just a single setup for everything. Obviously, this won't be applicable to most folks, but the point is the configuration is SO much simpler now.

[jsmorley]

So far I'm really liking using the HWiNFO Sidebar Gadget config. I've got 3 laptops, all different machines but all having Intel/nVidia hardware... and the HWiNFO configuration is identical for all 3, which is great. Before, with the shared memory plugin, I had different hex numbers all over the place, now it's just a single setup for everything. Obviously, this won't be applicable to most folks, but the point is the configuration is SO much simpler now.

Yes. There are a couple of real advantages to this approach. The first is that you don't need to include a plugin or the Shared Memory executable with the skins you distribute. The second is that it is really a lot easier, if different, to configure things. Finding and laboriously copy / pasting all those hex numbers for each sensor element was a bit of a pain and error-prone before.

[jsmorley]

1.png

HWiNFOcpu_1.rmskin

Code: Select all

[Rainmeter]
Update=1000
DynamicWindowSize=1
AccurateText=1
; Right click to show sensor index values
ContextTitle=HWiNFO Index Numbers
ContextAction=[!ActivateConfig "HWiNFOcpu\ShowReg" "ShowReg.ini"]

[Metadata]
Name=HWiNFOcpu
Author=JSMorley
Version=March 27, 2021
License=Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike 3.0
Information=Example of using HWiNFO 7.01-xxxx

[Variables]
CPU0ClockSpeedIndex=15
CPU1ClockSpeedIndex=16
CPU2ClockSpeedIndex=17
CPU3ClockSpeedIndex=18
CPU4ClockSpeedIndex=19
CPU5ClockSpeedIndex=20
CPU6ClockSpeedIndex=21
CPU7ClockSpeedIndex=22
CPU0UsageIndex=41
CPU1UsageIndex=43
CPU2UsageIndex=45
CPU3UsageIndex=47
CPU4UsageIndex=49
CPU5UsageIndex=51
CPU6UsageIndex=53
CPU7UsageIndex=55
CPUCoreSensorNameIndex=68
CPUTotalUsageIndex=70
CPUTemperatureIndex=110

; HWiNFO measures

[MeasureCPUName]
Measure=Registry
RegHKey=HKEY_CURRENT_USER
RegKey=SOFTWARE\HWiNFO64\VSB
RegValue=Sensor#CPUCoreSensorNameIndex#
UpdateDivider=-1
RegExpSubstitute=1
Substitute="^.*]: ":""

[MeasureCPUTemp]
Measure=Registry
RegHKey=HKEY_CURRENT_USER
RegKey=SOFTWARE\HWiNFO64\VSB
RegValue=ValueRaw#CPUTemperatureIndex#
MinValue=15
MaxValue=90
; Set the Minimum value if it is smaller than it ever has been. Make it "persistent".
IfCondition=MeasureCPUTemp < MeasureCPUMinTemp
IfTrueAction=[!SetOption MeasureCPUMinTemp Formula "[MeasureCPUTemp]"][!WriteKeyValue MeasureCPUMinTemp Formula "[MeasureCPUTemp]"]
; Set the Maximum value if it is larger than it ever has been. Make it "persistent".
IfCondition2=MeasureCPUTemp > MeasureCPUMaxTemp
IfTrueAction2=[!SetOption MeasureCPUMaxTemp Formula "[MeasureCPUTemp]"][!WriteKeyValue MeasureCPUMaxTemp Formula "[MeasureCPUTemp]"]

[MeasureCPUMinTemp]
Measure=Calc
Formula=90
MinValue=15
MaxValue=90

[MeasureCPUMaxTemp]
Measure=Calc
Formula=15
MinValue=15
MaxValue=90

[MeasureCPU0Clock]
Measure=Registry
RegHKey=HKEY_CURRENT_USER
RegKey=SOFTWARE\HWiNFO64\VSB
RegValue=ValueRaw#CPU0ClockSpeedIndex#
MinValue=0
MaxValue=100

[MeasureCPU1Clock]
Measure=Registry
RegHKey=HKEY_CURRENT_USER
RegKey=SOFTWARE\HWiNFO64\VSB
RegValue=ValueRaw#CPU1ClockSpeedIndex#
MinValue=0
MaxValue=100

[MeasureCPU2Clock]
Measure=Registry
RegHKey=HKEY_CURRENT_USER
RegKey=SOFTWARE\HWiNFO64\VSB
RegValue=ValueRaw#CPU2ClockSpeedIndex#
MinValue=0
MaxValue=100

[MeasureCPU3Clock]
Measure=Registry
RegHKey=HKEY_CURRENT_USER
RegKey=SOFTWARE\HWiNFO64\VSB
RegValue=ValueRaw#CPU3ClockSpeedIndex#
MinValue=0
MaxValue=100

[MeasureCPU4Clock]
Measure=Registry
RegHKey=HKEY_CURRENT_USER
RegKey=SOFTWARE\HWiNFO64\VSB
RegValue=ValueRaw#CPU4ClockSpeedIndex#
MinValue=0
MaxValue=100

[MeasureCPU5Clock]
Measure=Registry
RegHKey=HKEY_CURRENT_USER
RegKey=SOFTWARE\HWiNFO64\VSB
RegValue=ValueRaw#CPU5ClockSpeedIndex#
MinValue=0
MaxValue=100

[MeasureCPU6Clock]
Measure=Registry
RegHKey=HKEY_CURRENT_USER
RegKey=SOFTWARE\HWiNFO64\VSB
RegValue=ValueRaw#CPU6ClockSpeedIndex#
MinValue=0
MaxValue=100

[MeasureCPU7Clock]
Measure=Registry
RegHKey=HKEY_CURRENT_USER
RegKey=SOFTWARE\HWiNFO64\VSB
RegValue=ValueRaw#CPU7ClockSpeedIndex#
MinValue=0
MaxValue=100

[MeasureCPU0Usage]
Measure=Registry
RegHKey=HKEY_CURRENT_USER
RegKey=SOFTWARE\HWiNFO64\VSB
RegValue=ValueRaw#CPU0UsageIndex#
MinValue=0
MaxValue=100

[MeasureCPU1Usage]
Measure=Registry
RegHKey=HKEY_CURRENT_USER
RegKey=SOFTWARE\HWiNFO64\VSB
RegValue=ValueRaw#CPU1UsageIndex#
MinValue=0
MaxValue=100

[MeasureCPU2Usage]
Measure=Registry
RegHKey=HKEY_CURRENT_USER
RegKey=SOFTWARE\HWiNFO64\VSB
RegValue=ValueRaw#CPU2UsageIndex#
MinValue=0
MaxValue=100

[MeasureCPU3Usage]
Measure=Registry
RegHKey=HKEY_CURRENT_USER
RegKey=SOFTWARE\HWiNFO64\VSB
RegValue=ValueRaw#CPU3UsageIndex#
MinValue=0
MaxValue=100

[MeasureCPU4Usage]
Measure=Registry
RegHKey=HKEY_CURRENT_USER
RegKey=SOFTWARE\HWiNFO64\VSB
RegValue=ValueRaw#CPU4UsageIndex#
MinValue=0
MaxValue=100

[MeasureCPU5Usage]
Measure=Registry
RegHKey=HKEY_CURRENT_USER
RegKey=SOFTWARE\HWiNFO64\VSB
RegValue=ValueRaw#CPU5UsageIndex#
MinValue=0
MaxValue=100

[MeasureCPU6Usage]
Measure=Registry
RegHKey=HKEY_CURRENT_USER
RegKey=SOFTWARE\HWiNFO64\VSB
RegValue=ValueRaw#CPU6UsageIndex#
MinValue=0
MaxValue=100

[MeasureCPU7Usage]
Measure=Registry
RegHKey=HKEY_CURRENT_USER
RegKey=SOFTWARE\HWiNFO64\VSB
RegValue=ValueRaw#CPU7UsageIndex#
MinValue=0
MaxValue=100

[MeasureCPUTotalUsage]
Measure=Registry
RegHKey=HKEY_CURRENT_USER
RegKey=SOFTWARE\HWiNFO64\VSB
RegValue=ValueRaw#CPUTotalUsageIndex#
MinValue=0
MaxValue=100

; Meters

[MeterBack]
Meter=Image
W=310
H=291
SolidColor=47,47,47,190

[MeterCPUName]
Meter=String
MeasureName=MeasureCPUName
X=10
Y=5
W=230
ClipString=1
FontSize=11
FontColor=255,255,255,255
StringStyle=Bold
AntiAlias=1
DynamicVariables=1
ToolTipText=[MeasureCPUName]

[MeterCPUTotalUsage]
Meter=String
X=300
Y=r
FontSize=11
FontColor=255,255,255,255
StringStyle=Bold
StringAlign=Right
AntiAlias=1
DynamicVariables=1
Text=[MeasureCPUTotalUsage:1] %

[MeterCPUTempBar]
Meter=Bar
MeasureName=MeasureCPUTemp
X=5
Y=5R
W=300
H=26
BarImage=#@#Images\300x28Bar.jpg
BarOrientation=Horizontal
SolidColor=47,47,47,255

[MeterTempLabel]
Meter=String
X=10
Y=6r
FontSize=11
FontColor=255,255,255,255
AntiAlias=1
DynamicVariables=1
InlineSetting=Color | 85,184,232,255
InlinePattern=▼
InlineSetting2=Color | 255,53,59,255
InlinePattern2=▲
Text=▼ [MeasureCPUMinTemp:0]° ▲ [MeasureCPUMaxTemp:0]°

[MeterCPUTempString]
Meter=String
X=300
Y=0r
FontSize=11
FontColor=255,255,255,255
StringAlign=Right
AntiAlias=1
DynamicVariables=1
Text=[MeasureCPUTemp:0]° C

[MeterCPU0UsageBar]
Meter=Bar
MeasureName=MeasureCPU0Usage
X=5
Y=7R
BarImage=#@#Images\300x28Bar.jpg
BarOrientation=Horizontal
SolidColor=47,47,47,255

[MeterCPU0ClockString]
Meter=String
X=10
Y=6r
FontSize=11
FontColor=255,255,255,255
AntiAlias=1
Text=Core 0:  [MeasureCPU0Clock:1] MHz
DynamicVariables=1

[MeterCPU0UsageString]
Meter=String
MeasureName=MeasureCPU0Usage
X=300
Y=0r
FontSize=11
FontColor=255,255,255,255
StringAlign=Right
NumOfDecimals=1
AntiAlias=1
Text=%1 %

[MeterCPU1UsageBar]
Meter=Bar
MeasureName=MeasureCPU1Usage
X=5
Y=7R
BarImage=#@#Images\300x28Bar.jpg
BarOrientation=Horizontal
SolidColor=47,47,47,255

[MeterCPU1ClockString]
Meter=String
X=10
Y=6r
FontSize=11
FontColor=255,255,255,255
AntiAlias=1
Text=Core 1:  [MeasureCPU1Clock:1] MHz
DynamicVariables=1

[MeterCPU1UsageString]
Meter=String
MeasureName=MeasureCPU1Usage
X=300
Y=0r
FontSize=11
FontColor=255,255,255,255
StringAlign=Right
NumOfDecimals=1
AntiAlias=1
Text=%1 %

[MeterCPU2UsageBar]
Meter=Bar
MeasureName=MeasureCPU2Usage
X=5
Y=7R
BarImage=#@#Images\300x28Bar.jpg
BarOrientation=Horizontal
SolidColor=47,47,47,255

[MeterCPU2ClockString]
Meter=String
X=10
Y=6r
FontSize=11
FontColor=255,255,255,255
AntiAlias=1
Text=Core 2:  [MeasureCPU2Clock:1] MHz
DynamicVariables=1

[MeterCPU2UsageString]
Meter=String
MeasureName=MeasureCPU2Usage
X=300
Y=0r
FontSize=11
FontColor=255,255,255,255
StringAlign=Right
NumOfDecimals=1
AntiAlias=1
Text=%1 %

[MeterCPU3UsageBar]
Meter=Bar
MeasureName=MeasureCPU3Usage
X=5
Y=7R
BarImage=#@#Images\300x28Bar.jpg
BarOrientation=Horizontal
SolidColor=47,47,47,255

[MeterCPU3ClockString]
Meter=String
X=10
Y=6r
FontSize=11
FontColor=255,255,255,255
AntiAlias=1
Text=Core 3:  [MeasureCPU3Clock:1] MHz
DynamicVariables=1

[MeterCPU3UsageString]
Meter=String
MeasureName=MeasureCPU3Usage
X=300
Y=0r
FontSize=11
FontColor=255,255,255,255
StringAlign=Right
NumOfDecimals=1
AntiAlias=1
Text=%1 %

[MeterCPU4UsageBar]
Meter=Bar
MeasureName=MeasureCPU4Usage
X=5
Y=7R
BarImage=#@#Images\300x28Bar.jpg
BarOrientation=Horizontal
SolidColor=47,47,47,255

[MeterCPU4ClockString]
Meter=String
X=10
Y=6r
FontSize=11
FontColor=255,255,255,255
AntiAlias=1
Text=Core 4:  [MeasureCPU4Clock:1] MHz
DynamicVariables=1

[MeterCPU4UsageString]
Meter=String
MeasureName=MeasureCPU4Usage
X=300
Y=0r
FontSize=11
FontColor=255,255,255,255
StringAlign=Right
NumOfDecimals=1
AntiAlias=1
Text=%1 %

[MeterCPU5UsageBar]
Meter=Bar
MeasureName=MeasureCPU5Usage
X=5
Y=7R
BarImage=#@#Images\300x28Bar.jpg
BarOrientation=Horizontal
SolidColor=47,47,47,255

[MeterCPU5ClockString]
Meter=String
X=10
Y=6r
FontSize=11
FontColor=255,255,255,255
AntiAlias=1
Text=Core 5:  [MeasureCPU5Clock:1] MHz
DynamicVariables=1

[MeterCPU5UsageString]
Meter=String
MeasureName=MeasureCPU5Usage
X=300
Y=0r
FontSize=11
FontColor=255,255,255,255
StringAlign=Right
NumOfDecimals=1
AntiAlias=1
Text=%1 %

[MeterCPU6UsageBar]
Meter=Bar
MeasureName=MeasureCPU6Usage
X=5
Y=7R
BarImage=#@#Images\300x28Bar.jpg
BarOrientation=Horizontal
SolidColor=47,47,47,255

[MeterCPU6ClockString]
Meter=String
X=10
Y=6r
FontSize=11
FontColor=255,255,255,255
AntiAlias=1
Text=Core 6:  [MeasureCPU6Clock:1] MHz
DynamicVariables=1

[MeterCPU6UsageString]
Meter=String
MeasureName=MeasureCPU6Usage
X=300
Y=0r
FontSize=11
FontColor=255,255,255,255
StringAlign=Right
NumOfDecimals=1
AntiAlias=1
Text=%1 %

[MeterCPU7UsageBar]
Meter=Bar
MeasureName=MeasureCPU7Usage
X=5
Y=7R
BarImage=#@#Images\300x28Bar.jpg
BarOrientation=Horizontal
SolidColor=47,47,47,255

[MeterCPU7ClockString]
Meter=String
X=10
Y=6r
FontSize=11
FontColor=255,255,255,255
AntiAlias=1
Text=Core 7:  [MeasureCPU7Clock:1] MHz
DynamicVariables=1

[MeterCPU7UsageString]
Meter=String
MeasureName=MeasureCPU7Usage
X=300
Y=0r
FontSize=11
FontColor=255,255,255,255
StringAlign=Right
NumOfDecimals=1
AntiAlias=1
Text=%1 %

[Jahiliyyah]

Trying to display core power usage and convert from Watts to milliWatts but scale and autoscale don't seem to work. Switching to ValueRaw didn't work either. Any ideas?

Code: Select all

[MeasureCPwr1]
Measure=Registry
RegHKey=HKEY_CURRENT_USER
RegKey=SOFTWARE\HWiNFO64\VSB
RegValue=Value47

[MeasureCPwr2]
Measure=Registry
RegHKey=HKEY_CURRENT_USER
RegKey=SOFTWARE\HWiNFO64\VSB
RegValue=Value48

[MeasureCPwr3]
Measure=Registry
RegHKey=HKEY_CURRENT_USER
RegKey=SOFTWARE\HWiNFO64\VSB
RegValue=Value49

[MeasureCPwr4]
Measure=Registry
RegHKey=HKEY_CURRENT_USER
RegKey=SOFTWARE\HWiNFO64\VSB
RegValue=Value50

[MeasureCPwr5]
Measure=Registry
RegHKey=HKEY_CURRENT_USER
RegKey=SOFTWARE\HWiNFO64\VSB
RegValue=Value51

[MeasureCPwr6]
Measure=Registry
RegHKey=HKEY_CURRENT_USER
RegKey=SOFTWARE\HWiNFO64\VSB
RegValue=Value52

[MtrTxt1]
Meter=STRING
X=-27r
Y=25r
W=1
H=1
MeasureName=MeasureCPwr1
Text=%1
Scale=2
FontColor=#color1#
FontSize=8
StringAlign=LEFT
FontFace=#Font1Name#
StringEffect=Shadow
AntiAlias=1

[MtrTxt2]
Meter=STRING
X=0r
Y=30r
W=1
H=1
MeasureName=MeasureCPwr2
Autoscale=2
Text=%1
FontColor=#color1#
FontSize=8
StringAlign=LEFT
FontFace=#Font1Name#
StringEffect=Shadow
AntiAlias=1

[MtrTxt3]
Meter=STRING
X=0r
Y=30r
W=1
H=1
MeasureName=MeasureCPwr3
Text=%1
FontColor=#color1#
FontSize=8
StringAlign=LEFT
FontFace=#Font1Name#
StringEffect=Shadow
AntiAlias=1

[MtrTxt4]
Meter=STRING
X=0r
Y=30r
W=40
H=1
MeasureName=MeasureCPwr4
Text=%1
FontColor=#color1#
FontSize=8
StringAlign=LEFT
FontFace=#Font1Name#
StringEffect=Shadow
AntiAlias=1

[MtrTxt5]
Meter=STRING
X=0r
Y=30r
W=40
H=1
MeasureName=MeasureCPwr5
Text=%1
FontColor=#color1#
FontSize=8
StringAlign=LEFT
FontFace=#Font1Name#
StringEffect=Shadow
AntiAlias=1

[MtrTxt6]
Meter=STRING
X=0r
Y=30r
W=40
H=1
MeasureName=MeasureCPwr6
Text=%1
FontColor=#color1#
FontSize=8
StringAlign=LEFT
FontFace=#Font1Name#
StringEffect=Shadow
AntiAlias=1