If you’re a Reddit fan, for instance, you can visit r/Rainmeter to search for skins. You can also use a website called VisualSkins, which has a superb collection of Rainmeter packages. Rainmeter’s own website recommends DeviantArt, Lifehacker, Discord, Reddit and its own forums as places to find quality Rainmeter skins. Instead, we show you how to find skins and install them, followed by some of our own recommendations at the end of the tutorial. The possibilities are essentially a whole blue ocean, but for the sake of this tutorial, we won’t cover all of that. Rainmeter has a bustling community of developers making various skins focused on high levels of aesthetic appeal, added functionality or both. Let’s move on to installing and using skins! 1. To us, this is the best part about using Rainmeter. This setup is important if you want Rainmeter to become a big part of your daily desktop usage. Using “Layouts,” you can save your favorite Rainmeter setup for the next time you reset your computer or relaunch Rainmeter. The default layout is the one you see whenever you open the program. “Layouts” saves and manages certain layouts for your skins. In this tab, you can easily manage your active skins as well as refresh them to account for edits or changes. Remember that Rainmeter skins range in functionality from basic widgets to what could be considered full applications in themselves. The default set of skins that comes with Rainmeter is Illustro, which offers various counters, monitors and even a nifty little Google search function to give a slight idea of what Rainmeter is capable of. You can add a new folder if you want for these downloaded skins. To find the directory path, click on the tiny folder button next to “Active skins.” This will open a new window where you can search for the skins saved to the existing directory. If you have an older Windows version, you might have better compatibility with an older Rainmeter build. Be sure to select the latest “Final Release” to ensure stability. Installationĭownload Rainmeter from its official site. We demonstrate how to install and configure skins later in this article. Be sure to read the documentation before installing any skin.

In addition, you should be aware that some “skins” require that you set them up on your own and may have special hardware requirements. Windows 7 or higher: some features require Windows 10 or Windows 11.

Hold up just a second there – you’re going to need some things before proceeding with the installation and setup of Rainmeter: