Rainmeter is a desktop customization platform. Through Rainmeter, you can enhance your Windows computer at home or work with skins: handy, compact applets which float freely on your desktop, much like Windows Sidebar gagdgets, or dashboard widgets for the Mac. Rainmeter skins provide you with useful information at a glance. It's easy to keep an eye on your system resources, like memory and battery power, or your online data streams, including email, RSS feeds, and weather forecasts. Many skins are even functional: they can record your notes and to-do lists, launch your favorite applications, and send your tweets to Twitter - all in a clean, unobtrusive interface that you can rearrange and customize to your liking.

What's new in Rainmeter 2.0

Rainmeter is now just one integrated installer package.

No longer do you need to download a different installer for 32bit, 64bit or "portable" installations. The new Rainmeter installer will detect your version of Windows, and will offer appropriate choices as you are installing. Any runtime "libraries" required by Rainmeter or plugins will be installed only if you don't already have them.

Change to how featured skin suites are distributed

We have changed the way "default skins" are distributed for Rainmeter. No longer are Enigma and Gnometer part of the build, but are added after you install Rainmeter from our Recommended Downloads pages. This allows us to reduce the size of the installer and the footprint of Rainmeter on your system if you don't use Enigma, Gnometer or ABP, as well as providing a way to have the "Recommended Skin Suites" updated by the authors without having to wait for a release of Rainmeter.

New illustro "default / starter" skins

Of course there needs to be some skins distributed with the installer, so our wizard poiru has created a new set of skins called "illustro" which are automatically installed. These are designed to show off some of the capabilities of Rainmeter to a new user, be very simple to edit and change, and are fully commented so someone looking to get started with editing and creating Rainmeter skins has a good place to start and learn.

New plugins, and a new capability for C# programmers to create their own Rainmeter plugins.

InputText Plugin - Allows Rainmeter to accept user input in a customizable text box, and use this input many ways in your skins.

CoreTemp Plugin - Written by the author of the popular CoreTemp application. Monitor your CPU load and temperatures.

FolderInfo Plugin - Display information about folders on your system.

C#PluginTemplate - The Rainmeter project now includes an easy to use template for creating Rainmeter plugins using the C# language for programmers who want to dip their toes in the plugin waters without needing to know C++.

New "Script" measure integrates Lua scripting with Rainmeter! Use the Lua scripting language to add almost unlimited new functionality to your skins.

Program Information Category: Tools and Utilities Type: Free Version: 2.0 Size: 3.06MB Works on: Windows Product page: here