Rainmeter won't load skins at startup

[Nilvarno]

Hi everyone. As the title says, Rainmenter won't load skins at startup. I changed skin path from another drive to OS drive and it didn't work. Adminstrations rights make Rainmeter not load at startup at all. Basically i have to manually load the skin each time i startup my PC. It's frustrating, even more considering that this august i lost a whole ssd full of files, and among them there was years worth of rainmenter skins tinkering, and now that i was ready to start all over again, already problems that ofc i never met before... any tip? Thank you.

[balala]

It seems like your computer can't write the Rainmeter.ini file, which stores the skin-related settings (for instance the activated skins). Is Rainmeter installed "normally", or you're using a portable version of it?
I assume you have it installed normally, in which case the location of the Rainmeter.ini file is C:\Users\YourName\AppData\Roaming\Rainmeter\Rainmeter.ini. Does the OS have full access to this file? Can it write the file? Check the SkinPath option of the [Rainmeter] section of Rainmeter.ini file. Is that path the correct one, where you did place the skins?

[Nilvarno]

well, to me it writes even too much. i mean, there are like 700 string of my skin, all the same, like Active=0 and draggable=1, again and again and again, i'd say far more than the tries to set the skin active that i gave. deleted all that and set the skin to active=1, yet it keeps not working. it's weird, that folder is ofc on roaming, rainmenter on c: and the skin folder i tried both c: and another drive, where my documents folder actually is. i truly don't know what to think of this. i used takeownershiop to be sure it has all rights, and yet nothing changed.


Now it's the same way as before, only far shorter:

Code: Select all

[Rainmeter]
Logging=0
SkinPath=C:\Program Files\Rainmeter\Skin

[OS UI\Main Menu]
Active=1
WindowX=0
WindowY=0
ClickThrough=0
Draggable=0
SnapEdges=1
KeepOnScreen=1
AlwaysOnTop=0

[OS UI\[01] Main Menu]
Active=0

[OS UI\[01] Main Menu]
Active=0
[OS UI\[01] Main Menu]
Active=1

[OS UI\[01] Main Menu]
Active=0
[OS UI\[01] Main Menu]
WindowX=0
[OS UI\[01] Main Menu]
WindowY=0
[OS UI\[01] Main Menu]
ClickThrough=0
[OS UI\[01] Main Menu]
Draggable=1
[OS UI\[01] Main Menu]
SnapEdges=1
[OS UI\[01] Main Menu]
KeepOnScreen=1
[OS UI\[01] Main Menu]
AlwaysOnTop=0

[OS UI\[01] Main Menu]
Active=0
[OS UI\[01] Main Menu]
Active=0

[OS UI\[01] Main Menu]
Active=0

[OS UI\[01] Main Menu]
Active=0
[OS UI\[01] Main Menu]
Active=1

[OS UI\[01] Main Menu]
Active=0
[OS UI\[01] Main Menu]
WindowX=0
[OS UI\[01] Main Menu]
WindowY=0
[OS UI\[01] Main Menu]
ClickThrough=0
[OS UI\[01] Main Menu]
Draggable=1
[OS UI\[01] Main Menu]
SnapEdges=1
[OS UI\[01] Main Menu]
KeepOnScreen=1
[OS UI\[01] Main Menu]
AlwaysOnTop=0

[Yincognito]

well, to me it writes even too much. i mean, there are like 700 string of my skin, all the same, like Active=0 and draggable=1, again and again and again, i'd say far more than the tries to set the skin active that i gave. deleted all that and set the skin to active=1, yet it keeps not working. it's weird, that folder is ofc on roaming, rainmenter on c: and the skin folder i tried both c: and another drive, where my documents folder actually is. i truly don't know what to think of this. i used takeownershiop to be sure it has all rights, and yet nothing changed.


Now it's the same way as before, only far shorter:

Code: Select all

[Rainmeter]
Logging=0
SkinPath=C:\Program Files\Rainmeter\Skin

[OS UI\Main Menu]
Active=1
WindowX=0
WindowY=0
ClickThrough=0
Draggable=0
SnapEdges=1
KeepOnScreen=1
AlwaysOnTop=0

[OS UI\[01] Main Menu]
Active=0

[OS UI\[01] Main Menu]
Active=0
[OS UI\[01] Main Menu]
Active=1

[OS UI\[01] Main Menu]
Active=0
[OS UI\[01] Main Menu]
WindowX=0
[OS UI\[01] Main Menu]
WindowY=0
[OS UI\[01] Main Menu]
ClickThrough=0
[OS UI\[01] Main Menu]
Draggable=1
[OS UI\[01] Main Menu]
SnapEdges=1
[OS UI\[01] Main Menu]
KeepOnScreen=1
[OS UI\[01] Main Menu]
AlwaysOnTop=0

[OS UI\[01] Main Menu]
Active=0
[OS UI\[01] Main Menu]
Active=0

[OS UI\[01] Main Menu]
Active=0

[OS UI\[01] Main Menu]
Active=0
[OS UI\[01] Main Menu]
Active=1

[OS UI\[01] Main Menu]
Active=0
[OS UI\[01] Main Menu]
WindowX=0
[OS UI\[01] Main Menu]
WindowY=0
[OS UI\[01] Main Menu]
ClickThrough=0
[OS UI\[01] Main Menu]
Draggable=1
[OS UI\[01] Main Menu]
SnapEdges=1
[OS UI\[01] Main Menu]
KeepOnScreen=1
[OS UI\[01] Main Menu]
AlwaysOnTop=0

Do NOT set your skins' path to Program Files folders, as they are protected by the OS so only installation software can write there. Choose another folder where an user can write, and the problem will probably go away.

[Nilvarno]

I uninstalled rainmeter and reinstalled it on another location, changed again skins' path too. nothing changed. everytime, rainmeter is loaded, skins are not... i hate windows so much, if linux was gaming friendly i would already be a linux user

[Yincognito]

I uninstalled rainmeter and reinstalled it on another location, changed again skins' path too. nothing changed. everytime, rainmeter is loaded, skins are not... i hate windows so much, if linux was gaming friendly i would already be a linux user

Does this happen for all skins, or just for your own? For example, does Illustro load? Also, can you post a screenshot of Rainmeter's About > Version tab?

[Nilvarno]

https://ibb.co/y6rTw4D

this is weird. if i set active only illustro, it works and illustro is loaded. if i set active my skin, with or without illustro it doesn't work, and it doesn't work illustro too if active with my skin. am i cursed ?

[Yincognito]

https://ibb.co/y6rTw4D

this is weird. if i set active only illustro, it works and illustro is loaded. if i set active my skin, with or without illustro it doesn't work, and it doesn't work illustro too if active with my skin. am i cursed ?

I don't think it's weird, that's why I asked.

Some skins from your suite are named like OS UI\[01] Main Menu, but Rainmeter.ini uses [ and ] as section markers as well. Try renaming your skins' folders (probably not needed for your .ini files, but you can rename them as well, just to be sure) to something without the [ and ] and see if it works. If it does, then it was probably a problem parsing Rainmeter.ini because of those square brackets, which confused Rainmeter.

[balala]

Some skins from your suite are named like OS UI\[01] Main Menu, but Rainmeter.ini uses [ and ] as section markers as well.

No, this is not a problem, it seems. Even if not recommended (completely agree with this), using brackets in config and / or skin name is valid.

this is weird. if i set active only illustro, it works and illustro is loaded. if i set active my skin, with or without illustro it doesn't work, and it doesn't work illustro too if active with my skin. am i cursed ?

This lets me thinking that most probably there are some errors in your skin(s), which cause this. Pack please one of the configs of those not-loading skins and upload the package here, to can check.

[Yincognito]

No, this is not a problem, it seems. Even if not recommended (completely agree with this), using brackets in config and / or skin name is valid.

Ah, I see - it was just a guess worth to try. In any case, we're on the right path here, since at least some skins work.