Rainmeter on multiple PC's

[astro3305mm]

Hi, I have installed Rainmeter on both my PC and my laptop and I have a curious question...
I'm using the same widgets on both devices but due to the laptop having a smaller screen I have edited some widgets to reduce their scale.

Only problem is that rescaling seems to effect the widget scale on my PC as well.
How can this be so?
Two seperate Rainmeter installs yet Laptop widget scale affects my PC widget scales as well, and vice versa.

Very strange.

[ikarus1969]

Maybe your skins are located on a cloud-drive?
Right-click on the rainmeter-icon in the tray, click on "About" and check the "Version"-tab (the last tab).
There you can see the skin path. Does it point to a cloud drive?

[astro3305mm]

Maybe your skins are located on a cloud-drive?
Right-click on the rainmeter-icon in the tray, click on "About" and check the "Version"-tab (the last tab).
There you can see the skin path. Does it point to a cloud drive?

How ironic... RAINmeter and CLOUD

Looks like both PC and Laptop were sharing the same skins config in the cloud.
All fixed now (new Skins folder saved to each device C: drive).
Sometimes the cloud can be annoying.

[balala]

How ironic... RAINmeter and CLOUD

Looks like both PC and Laptop were sharing the same skins config in the cloud.
All fixed now (new Skins folder saved to each device C: drive).
Sometimes the cloud can be annoying.

And if you know, what did you have in the SkinPath option of the [Rainmeter] section, of the Rainmeter.ini (opening by clicking the Edit settings, in the context menu of Rainmeter icon in the Notification Area), when it used the shared skins? Am just curious...

[astro3305mm]

And if you know, what did you have in the SkinPath option of the [Rainmeter] section, of the Rainmeter.ini (opening by clicking the Edit settings, in the context menu of Rainmeter icon in the Notification Area), when it used the shared skins? Am just curious...

The Skins were sitting in "My Documents" under Rainmeter folder.
Only problem is My Documents is sitting in my MS One Drive cloud.

There needs to be just ONE MORE option available in the Rainmeter installation, and that is where to place the Skins folder.
I'm unsure why it defaults to the My Documents folder.
Or better still, just have the Skins folder in the same Rainmeter folder.

After I moved the skins to "C:/Program Files/Rainmeter/Skins" I am unable to edit any skin from the desktop as it now wants Admin privileges using Notepad. If I change something in the .ini file it refuses to save even though I have administrator privileges on my computer.

To edit any skin I need to open up Notepad first AS ADMINISTRATOR then search for the .ini file that I wish to edit THEN I can edit and save it.
Just not as convenient as right clicking the widget then clicking Edit.

[Yincognito]

The Skins were sitting in "My Documents" under Rainmeter folder.
Only problem is My Documents is sitting in my MS One Drive cloud.

There needs to be just ONE MORE option available in the Rainmeter installation, and that is where to place the Skins folder.
I'm unsure why it defaults to the My Documents folder.
Or better still, just have the Skins folder in the same Rainmeter folder.

After I moved the skins to "C:/Program Files/Rainmeter/Skins" I am unable to edit any skin from the desktop as it now wants Admin privileges using Notepad. If I change something in the .ini file it refuses to save even though I have administrator privileges on my computer.

To edit any skin I need to open up Notepad first AS ADMINISTRATOR then search for the .ini file that I wish to edit THEN I can edit and save it.
Just not as convenient as right clicking the widget then clicking Edit.

This has written Microsoft's fault all over it, and I'm being gentle. Not a fan of having my skins in the My Documents folder or on C: either (let alone the stupid cloud or whatever), but as far as I recall (there is a topic somewhere on the forum where precisely this is discussed, though can't point to it), the My Documents location was chosen by the Rainmeter developers exactly to prevent the kind of issues you're having now, while still following the typical Windows guidelines on various (and supposedly, exclusive) user locations.

Personally, I reckon that it's MS who needs to come up with options to disable whatever bloatware they push down the user's throat by default (cloud included), instead of requiring every software out there to make ammends to things those software are not to blame for. The My Documents folder was on your OneDrive cause MS redirected it so, most likely without you even being aware of it until now. When placed in its normal location on C:, the My Documents folder and its contents will not cause any of the trouble you're having now, which is why it's the default location for Rainmeter skins and a bunch of other software's saves and settings.

And I'm not even a MS hater, by the way...

[astro3305mm]

This has written Microsoft's fault all over it, and I'm being gentle. Not a fan of having my skins in the My Documents folder or on C: either (let alone the stupid cloud or whatever), but as far as I recall (there is a topic somewhere on the forum where precisely this is discussed, though can't point to it), the My Documents location was chosen by the Rainmeter developers exactly to prevent the kind of issues you're having now, while still following the typical Windows guidelines on various (and supposedly, exclusive) user locations.

If I didn't need to have both my PC and laptop sync'd (I use excel and word on both), so I need to have both computers sync'd so I can update documents when away from my PC and using my laptop.

I pay good money for Office 360 and it comes with 1Tb cloud storage so not complaining about that.
BUT... given the choice I would get rid of MicroSoft in a heartbeat if the circumstances were different.

[SilverAzide]

There needs to be just ONE MORE option available in the Rainmeter installation, and that is where to place the Skins folder.
I'm unsure why it defaults to the My Documents folder.
Or better still, just have the Skins folder in the same Rainmeter folder.

This option does exist, in a way. It's called a "portable install". This will allow you to place your skins folder anywhere you want, though it is not obvious how to do this for newbies, unfortunately.

After I moved the skins to "C:/Program Files/Rainmeter/Skins" I am unable to edit any skin from the desktop as it now wants Admin privileges using Notepad. If I change something in the .ini file it refuses to save even though I have administrator privileges on my computer.

To edit any skin I need to open up Notepad first AS ADMINISTRATOR then search for the .ini file that I wish to edit THEN I can edit and save it.
Just not as convenient as right clicking the widget then clicking Edit.

Never never ever put files under C:/Program Files/ or C:/Program Files (x86)/. These are not "your" folders, these are Microsoft's folders. MS changed this behavior a long time ago (Win7 maybe?), and locked these down. That's why you need admin access to do anything. Move everything you placed in there to somewhere else, and you'll be much happier.

[astro3305mm]

This option does exist, in a way. It's called a "portable install". This will allow you to place your skins folder anywhere you want, though it is not obvious how to do this for newbies, unfortunately.
Never never ever put files under C:/Program Files/ or C:/Program Files (x86)/. These are not "your" folders, these are Microsoft's folders. MS changed this behavior a long time ago (Win7 maybe?), and locked these down. That's why you need admin access to do anything. Move everything you placed in there to somewhere else, and you'll be much happier.

Thanks so much for the heads up regarding C:/Program Files folder - never knew it was so restrictive.

So... can I simply just move the Skins folder somewhere else (say another drive), then edit the Rainmeter settings to show the new Skins folder location. Without the need to use the "Portable Install". Will this work ?

[SilverAzide]

So... can I simply just move the Skins folder somewhere else (say another drive), then edit the Rainmeter settings to show the new Skins folder location. Without the need to use the "Portable Install". Will this work ?

Yes, absolutely. That's the way I have to use Rainmeter on my company PC; OneDrive is forced on and can't be altered, so moving the skins folder to another location is the simplest solution and works perfectly.