Rainmeter does not start with windows

[smurfier]

Type Msconfig into the search field in the start menu. Is Rainmeter listed under the StartUp tab?

[reu91]

Yup, I have launchy and OneNote in the folder and they both start fine with Windows. I have other programs (steam, rocketdock, etc.) which start with windows too but they aren't in the startup folder.

[reu91]

Type Msconfig into the search field in the start menu. Is Rainmeter listed under the StartUp tab?

Yes, it's listed there with an "Unknown" manufacturer.

[jsmorley]

I think the problem is with Rainmeter.exe having "elevated security" set (Run as administrator) when run from the Startup folder. I don't think that works with UAC on. You need to set Rainmeter.exe back to normal, so a shortcut to it no longer has the "shield" on it, then try that.

[reu91]

I think the problem is with Rainmeter.exe having "elevated security" set (Run as administrator) when run from the Startup folder. I don't think that works with UAC on. You need to set Rainmeter.exe back to normal, so a shortcut to it no longer has the "shield" on it, then try that.

I set it to "run as administrator" in the compatibility tab before this and I turned UAC off since what seems like forever (most annoying part of windows hands down). I'm not sure what you mean by setting it back to normal, is there a way to change the security? It still has the shield on it.

[jsmorley]

Once you set a program to "run as administrator" it gets that shield which means "this program may require elevated privileges" and if I understand correctly will give you issues when run from the Startup folder, but I gather only with UAC enabled. Another known issue is that you can uncheck "run as administrator" and the shield is not removed. Still, without UAC, it should not be a problem.

I'm not sure. Something is borked up, but I'm not sure what. I'd be tempted to completely uninstall Rainmeter (don't remove your skins or themes folders you don't want to have to start over), make sure the entire C:\Program Files\Rainmeter folder is gone, and reinstall it. Make sure it doesn't have a shield on the shortcuts, and ensure it put a shortcut in Startup. I can't imagine why that would not work. We have like a million folks using Rainmeter, and this is the first time I have ever run into this situation.

If you want to install the latest TeamViewer and PM me the ID and Password, I can jump on and see if I can spot something we are missing here.

[reu91]

Sure, I"ll completely wipe it then reinstall it. Will update you in a bit.

[reu91]

I wiped it (uninstalled skins and everything, i saved a folder of it beforehand) completely, used CCleaner to clean off registry, reinstalled. Added shortcut to startup folder. Rebooted. Same problem. I tried it with the last stable version and the same result happened. I will attach a youtube video of it once it uploads (will take a long time).

[reu91]

I finally got it to start with windows. Changing my registry to make it start didn't help. After many hours of googling and checking everything was okay (registry entries in the shell folder points to the right folders etc.) I created a task to start Rainmeter.exe. After I rebooted it started with it and I was like, yay, finally. But I still wasn't happy because it was an indirect way of solving it. So I went to my user account to double check. I was an administrator, so no problems there. Then I went to the UAC settings, checked that it was set at never notify, then pressed ok. Windows then told me I had to restart to turn UAC off (I was thinking, it was always off, why tell me it was just turned off?). So I restarted it after that.

Rainmeter loaded again but I noticed other stuff loaded in the system tray too (HP stuff which I never needed) so I removed the task and rebooted. Rainmeter loaded.

It's one of those times where I just want to say screw you windows.

I'll upload the video for anyone and post it here (it takes 4 hours to upload and I got disconnected twice).

[jsmorley]

I really hate UAC.