Rainmeter 64 bit install not closing/finishing, can't run afterwards

[ississi]

Hi,
clean install of Win 10 x64, installing Rainmeter 4.5.17 64-bit. (Done this a couple of times after full uninstall and reboot, still the same.) Comes up with final dialog with the option of running Rainmeter. Have that selected and hit the OK? Next? Finish? button (can't remember which it is), but nothing happens - button is not greyed-out but the dialog stays there, Rainmeter doesn't start. This time I unselected Run Rainmeter, clicked OK, and now I have a blank dialog (see attached image)

Screenshot 2023-03-28 101232.png

Clicking on Finish again does nothing.
If I look at the taskbar the icon is flashing, have a UAC administrator prompt so I click that to allow it to proceed, it reappears, click again, still got the blank Rainmeter dialog, clicking Finish does nothing (no flashing-icon-UAC-stuff this time).

Killed Rainmeter installer using process management (it called it Rainmeter installer (32 bit) even though I chose the 64 bit option on install), ran Rainmeter from Start menu. UAC dialog again, said OK, Rainmeter doesn't run.

Windows Application event log has:
Error 28/03/2023 10:17:33 Application Error 1000 (100)
Log Name: Application
Source: Application Error
Date: 28/03/2023 10:17:33
Event ID: 1000
Task Category: (100)
Level: Error
Keywords: Classic
User: N/A
Computer: ISPCii
Description:
Faulting application name: Rainmeter.exe, version: 4.5.17.3700, time stamp: 0x63a7a8ad
Faulting module name: Rainmeter.dll, version: 4.5.17.3700, time stamp: 0x63a7a8ac
Exception code: 0xc0000005
Fault offset: 0x00000000000f8bda
Faulting process ID: 0x180c
Faulting application start time: 0x01d961562120f8ed
Faulting application path: C:\Program Files\Rainmeter\Rainmeter.exe
Faulting module path: C:\Program Files\Rainmeter\Rainmeter.dll
Report ID: 72af39ba-4f4c-424c-b2eb-e6d46560b4c0
Faulting package full name:
Faulting package-relative application ID:
Event Xml:
<Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">
<System>
<Provider Name="Application Error" />
<EventID Qualifiers="0">1000</EventID>
<Version>0</Version>
<Level>2</Level>
<Task>100</Task>
<Opcode>0</Opcode>
<Keywords>0x80000000000000</Keywords>
<TimeCreated SystemTime="2023-03-28T09:17:33.6607952Z" />
<EventRecordID>2902</EventRecordID>
<Correlation />
<Execution ProcessID="0" ThreadID="0" />
<Channel>Application</Channel>
<Computer>ISPCii</Computer>
<Security />
</System>
<EventData>
<Data>Rainmeter.exe</Data>
<Data>4.5.17.3700</Data>
<Data>63a7a8ad</Data>
<Data>Rainmeter.dll</Data>
<Data>4.5.17.3700</Data>
<Data>63a7a8ac</Data>
<Data>c0000005</Data>
<Data>00000000000f8bda</Data>
<Data>180c</Data>
<Data>01d961562120f8ed</Data>
<Data>C:\Program Files\Rainmeter\Rainmeter.exe</Data>
<Data>C:\Program Files\Rainmeter\Rainmeter.dll</Data>
<Data>72af39ba-4f4c-424c-b2eb-e6d46560b4c0</Data>
<Data>
</Data>
<Data>
</Data>
</EventData>
</Event>

Any ideas anyone, please?
I've been having problems with NowPlaying not working for any media skin and the two media players I've tried (WMP and MusicBee), which previously worked on my old Windows installation (harddisk faulted). This is why I'm now doing a clean install but it's all gone pear-shaped
Many thanks

[Yincognito]

I'll let the developers answer this if needed, but personally, I would make sure that:
- my hard drive is ok
- my computer is secure
- my drivers are appropriate and installed
- the proper C++ redistributables, .NET frameworks, DirectX, JRE, etc. are installed (some are included in the Windows installation, so apart from that)
- my security software and codecs (if any; optional) are installed
- whatever previous version of the software I want to install is completely uninstalled before proceeding with the installation (registry-wise too)
I don't know about UAC as we don't see eye to eye often lol, but the installation should go smoothly if all the above are reasonably dealt with and Rainmeter is downloaded and installed from rainmeter.net or a clean local copy of that. I didn't experience anything similar to what you did in any of Rainmeter's installation I did so far, but generally, the error you got is related to either malware, older Windows or some critical update missing, crashing of a particular application, corrupt system files, or .NET Framework improperly installed. Running the system file checker (aka sfc.exe) to test the OS integrity or clean booting in Windows (via msconfig) to make sure only the standard things are loaded could be of some help.