Download Rainmeter 4.3.0 r3298

The final release of Rainmeter version 4.3 has been released. This program can display all kinds of useful, but also less meaningful information on the desktop in real time, such as free hard drive space, network activity and whether there is new e-mail. Functional applets can also be used to, for example, make notes or send tweets. The most important changes made in version 4.3 are listed below for you.

Direct2D and Hardware Acceleration

Rainmeter 4.3 has changed entirely from using an older GDI+ graphics engine in Windows to the more modern and capable Direct2D (known as D2D for short). Not only does D2D offer additional capabilities we will be taking advantage of in the near future, but it also allows us to optionally support hardware acceleration. (known as HWA for short) This means that some of the processing, and the memory used, can be offloaded from the CPU to the GPU, and things will be rendered or “draw” significantly faster.

Hardware acceleration defaults to “off”.

This to help us to identify general issues that might come up with the conversion from GDI+ to D2D, and isolate any problems that are strictly related to hardware acceleration. Hardware acceleration can be turned “on” in the Settings dialog, and we recommend it. Future versions will change the default to “on” in Rainmeter.

Hardware acceleration and Intel HD integrated graphics
There is a known issue with certain Intel HD integrated graphics chips, often seen on laptop computers, and hardware acceleration. This is due to a bug in the drivers for these chips from Intel, and the problem can generally be solved by updating your system to the most recent version of the graphics drivers from Intel. Details and suggestions for this issue are at: Intel HD Graphics drawing issue(s) with hardware acceleration

Reporting problems with Direct2D
We would be very interested in anything you see that is “different” for you when using Rainmeter 4.3. Things that looked different in Rainmeter 4.2. The goal here is to ensure that we fully protect backwards compatibility with existing skins in the change from GDI+ to D2D. Any skin you run in Rainmeter 4.2 should look and work exactly the same in Rainmeter 4.3. Please report these issues in this forum area: Rainmeter 4.3 D2D Issues.

New Container Functionality

Added a new Container option to all meter types. This will allow you to place the contents of a meter inside another meter, acting as both a “container” and a “mask”. See the documentation for important details and a .rmskin with several examples.

Section Variables:

Added new [SomeMeter:XW] and [SomeMeter:YH] section variables to allow you to make a meter relative to the end of another meter without requiring X=([SomeMeter:X] + [SomeMeter:W]) as a formula.

Line gauge:

Added a new TransformStroke option, which determines how the line (stroke) width is treated when TransformationMatrix is used on the meter.

About dialog:

Corrected an inconsistency with how Measure and Variable values ​​are “displayed” in the About/Skins dialog, and what is “copied” to the Windows clipboard when you use CTRL-C or right-click to copy string values. All string values ​​will display up to 259 characters in the dialog window, being truncated and appended with “…” if longer. The full length of the value will always be copied to the clipboard.

Audio Level plugin:

Fixed an incompatibility with the Nahimic audio driver.

NowPlaying:

Corrected an old issue with the Lyrics PlayerType option.

AccurateText:

When AccurateText=1 and the size of a meter was used in a dynamic way in a formula, any fractional amount of size was being rounded down, or truncated. This has been changed so fractional amounts are rounded up to the nearest whole pixel.

Rainmeter Installer:

If Rainmeter was previously installed wtih “Launch Rainmeter on startup”, re-installing it with that box unchecked would not remove the shortcut from the Startup folder.

Skin Installer:

Corrected an issue where skins and layouts that were selected to load after the installation of a .rmskin were often not being loaded.

Manage dialog:

Corrected an issue where information in the dialog was not properly updated when a layout is loaded.

Rain gauge:

Using the notification area tray icon will now properly restore minimized Manage, About and New skin dialogs.