Grayhound Basics

Rainmeter Core Features

I recommend browsing the Rainmeter documentation for all the details about it. I will vaporize it here to the very basics.

All Rainmeter skins work the same. There are “Measures” that provide information from your system and “Meters” that display them. Besides that you can add meta information, e.g. name, version and author of a skin.

Rainmeter works based in *.INI files, a rather outdated but still effective way to tell a program what do and what parameters to use. Three components define the format of an *.INI file:

1. Comments

2. Sections

3. Variables and their values

Here is an example:

; This is a comment line. The program will ignore it
[MySection]
MyVariable=1

All in one file ?

Yes, no problem. You can do that. But it is not recommendable, specifically if you are designing a cluster of skins that have things in common, e.g. where they get their readings from, colors or fonts. Grayhound is such a skin collection.

Grayhound Concept

Grayhound skins are organized in folders. This folder contains all variants of a skin, e.g. the normal, medium and large size of it. It also contains a file with variables that apply to all variants.

I will use my AIO skin as an example.

The AIO folder contains these files:

• AIO.ini

• AIO Large.ini

• AIO Medium.ini

• Variables.ini

Grayhound Skin INI File

;==============================================================================
; Grayhound AIO Normal
;
; @category Rainmeter
; @package: Grayhound
; @version: 4.3.1
; @date: 2020-06-23
; @author George Lewe <[e-mail]>
; @copyright Copyright (c) 2012-2020 by George Lewe
; @link http://www.lewe.com
; @license https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/
;
 
;------------------------------------------------------------------------------
; METADATA
 
[Metadata]
Name=Grayhound AIO Normal
Author=George Lewe
Version=4.3.1
License=Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 3.0
Information=This skin displays AIO information (fan speed, pump speed, temperature).|(Requires the installation of HWiNFO.)|------------------------------------------------------------|Details: https://github.com/glewe/grayhound
 
;------------------------------------------------------------------------------
; SKIN OPTIONS
 
[Rainmeter]
Update=1000
 
;------------------------------------------------------------------------------
; VARIABLES
;
 
[Variables]
;
; Global settings
;
; To change the global settings of this skinpack, edit the file:
; "@Resources\Global.inc" in the Grayhound folder.
;
@include=#@#Global.inc
@include2=#@#Normal.inc
@include3=#@#HWiNFO.inc
@include4=Variables.inc
 
;------------------------------------------------------------------------------
; MEASURES
[Measures]
@include=#@#/Measures/Measures-Options.inc
@include2=#@#/Measures/Measures-HWi-AIO.inc
 
;------------------------------------------------------------------------------
; METERS
[Meters]
@include=#@#/Meters/Meters-Canvas.inc
@include2=#@#/Meters/Meters-AIO.inc

As you can see, the file has comments, sections and variables.

The most important variable here is the “include” variable. It tells Rainmeter to read another *.INI file. That is the key to load instructions that apply to all Grayhound skins or to all variants for this specific one.

INC Files

INC files are INI files as well. They follow the same format and rules. The extension “inc” just identifies them as files that are incldued from original INI files.

Grayhound Include Structure

Variables

All Grayhound skin INI files include the following INC files for variables:

• Global.inc (resides in the @Resource folder, contains variables for all Grayhound skins)

• Normal.inc/Medium.inc/Large.inc (reside in the @Resource folder, contains variables applying to the normal/medium/large version of all skins)

• HWiNFO.inc (resides in the @Resource folder, contains HWiNFO settings for all Grayhound skins needing those readings)

• Variables.inc (resides in the same folder as the skin INI file and contains variables applying to all variants of this specific skin)

Measures

All Grayhound skin INI files include the following INC files for measures:

• Measures-Options.inc (resides in the @Resource/Measures folder, contains measure options for all Grayhound skins)

• Measures-HWi-AIO.inc (resides in the @Resource/Measures folder, contains measure options for these specific Grayhound skins)

Meters

All Grayhound skin INI files include the following INC files for meters:

• Meters-Canvas.inc (resides in the @Resource/Meters folder, contains meter options for all Grayhound skins)

• Measures-AIO.inc (resides in the @Resource/Meters folder, contains meter options for these specific Grayhound skins)

Keep this include structure in mind when you want to customize your individual Grayhound skins.