Rainmeter

6-2023 I now use only a few thing from Enigma

processes

system

network

hard drives

to fix LAN showing actual IP do this

open Network.inc (not .ini)

Change SysInfoData=1 to 0

[MeasureLAN]

Measure=Plugin

Plugin=SysInfo

SysInfoType=IP_ADDRESS

SysInfoData=0

I have used a basic black screen for years. I "advanced" to my favorite black leather wallpaper awhile back. Lately I decided to dig up Rainmeter and I must say, as much as I hate screen gadgets, Rainmeter can provide some useful functionality. I also can not stick with a dock for any length of time but am giving RocketDock another shot. I could use Rainmeter launchers but they are a pain to set up.

One thing that stumped me for awhile is installing the skins. The downloaded skins have names like Enigma4Patch1.rmskin but if you are using Rainmeter portable the rmskin extension is not registered to run. Go to the Rainmeter program folder to get access to Skininstaller.exe.

Just drag/drop the rmskin file onto the Skinstaller.exe and the install will perform.

Loading the individual skins is easiest through Manager. Load and Unload here to try things out.

There are many skins and some are so complex that they lose functionality. Weather in most of them seems broken and more work to fix than worth the time. http://win10widgets.com/ works without effort and gets you started. I use weather, volume and WiFi on laptops and only volume on desktops. 

Most skins are sets and you can pick and choose parts. Financial Markets that I use has only two skins but some have many. Some skins have setup skins to manipulate directories and such and some can only be edited in their text setup file. Coming from preferring a blank desktop I am slow to use the skins and most of them will be short lived. But I may keep some of them going..

Right now I use 

Enigma

SilverAzide Gadgets are nice also

I no longer use

Weather Skin 

Win10 Widgest's Volume and Wifi

Market Watch 

StormQuake 

QuickBooks Startups

Pigeon (Setup)

Pigeon universal messaging was a bit of a mystery to set up. Being a Google user I was able to set up my double authentication but had to authorize Pigeon on Google and I didn't like doing it. I also wanted to set up the people in my office. I set up dukgo.com for all of us and it works great for simple messaging.

Go to Accounts and add XMPP

Enter the name you want for the dukgo.com email

then enter dukgo.com for domain

enter a password

do not check remember password now

Do check create account.

After you click "add" a screen will present that will verify completion and you will be able to then check "remember password". 

You will now be able to log on to dukgo.com if you wish to enter a forwarding email.

At times it takes a few tries to get the account to activate for some reason.

Here is dukgo's explanation.

USB Speed and Drivers

I am running an ASRock  Z77 motherboard and installed a fresh Win7 with the latest drivers. My USB 3 speeds were hopeless.

I could not remember the USB 3 speeds before the fresh install so figured the Z77 must me slow. I had a Q77 machine to prove the USB drive was fine. It kept bugging me so I went to the ASRock site and downloaded the UsB drivers from their site. They were older but I installed them anyway.

Proof that newer is not always better. But in the confusion and desperation I tried XFast USB which I had always ignored. XFast does help somewhat.

Here is a portable SSD I put together. Before I switched drivers, even this topped at 30 MB/s. Glad my USB 3 is back in action.