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There are a lot of awesome third-party skins to play with, just as there are a lot of duds. To get you started, we're going to show you a handful of our favorites and where you can get them. Have a favorite of your own? Be sure to post it in the comments section below!
Image Credit: AKH-Arazand
Just as the name implies, this is a basic theme decked out in black. Looks great on a light backgrounds, especially Vista's stock green wallpaper, and will save you a ton of time if you're jonesing for all black text but aren't in the mood to go on an editing-frenzy on another theme. It's not nearly as robust as Enigma or some of the other fully fleshed themes, but does include just about everything you need if you're primarily looking for a system monitor, and it includes applets designed for both the Sidebar and Taskbar. And don't forget you can mix and match skins.
http://customize.org/rainmeter/skins/46829
Image Credit: LAvalon
Another fairly simple skin, Black Glass includes all the components to assemble a high-tech looking sidebar, which it owes to its digital-inspired font. Among the included modules you'll find a calendar, clock, HDD monitor, system monitor, and WinAMP applet. There's also a blank box, which you could edit the size and create a blank slate for a custom sidebar or taskbar.
http://customize.org/rainmeter/skins/48761
Image Credit: mani0008
Taranbeer provides a variety of system monitors to get you started, but the gem here is the clock, which looks decidedly futuristic. Because of the bright while text, this one looks best on a dark background, and is a great choice to combine with other skins. For an example of how well it meshes with others, check out the Starview theme here.
http://mani008.diaviantart.com/art/Taranbeer-Rainmeter-126619432
A must-have for any serious RSS nut, BlueFeed does one thinng and one thing only, and that's serve up RSS feeds in a big way. The blue text on black background is very easy to read, and it comes ready to serve up to anywhere from 10-40 RSS items. Never miss a news story again!
http://customize.org/rainmeter/skins/59532
Image Credit: gbernal
A no-frills skin best suited for the office environment, and much friendlier on the forest than those dead-tree tear-away calendars! Comes ready to be configured with an assortment of colors.
http://customize.org/rainmeter/skins/63487
Image Credit: Gabro
One of the relatively few skins to include a ton of applets, you'll find just about everything you're looking for in Xpert 2, even applets for the word of the day and quote of the day. But far from a hokey skin, you'll also find a news reader with 63 RSS feeds, some of the best looking system monitoring applets available, clocks, calendars, and plenty more.
Comments are closed on this article
girlicious101
December 04, 2010 at 8:18pm
i added a url to the RSS and im not seeing any feeds... can someone help me i dont knw wut to do.
Bluue
November 04, 2010 at 4:40am
Just downloaded and started to set up the Seven Dock skin. It's kinda uselss with the file paths he put in but I'm not sure how to properly write the ones o my computer. I'm running Windows 7 Home 64bit and I can't figure out how to put the proper name for say, firefox.exe so that it works from the dock, any help is appreciated.
119silky
March 13, 2010 at 6:22pm
Yes indeed Rainmeter is one of the best things to hit the Windows world since modern GUIs.
xsponse
February 27, 2010 at 12:12am
does anybody know where to get that background image that is right under the section "Sounds like samurize"?
thematejka
January 25, 2010 at 11:30pm
@Cy-Kill
the ram usage is almost nothing. I run many widgets with my rain meter and it never consumes more than 10mb of ram. Peanuts, I have 4gb of ram so you are fine with your 6:)
lien_meat
January 25, 2010 at 8:33pm
there is finally something like conky for windows...accept better even(in ease of use at least)...which is kinda impressive.
That actually makes the windows desktop pretty appealing (I prefer kde or gnome's desktops usually).
siphenviper
January 25, 2010 at 6:51pm
Regarding the image right under "Rainmeter vs HTMLifying..." with the gray, block orientated theme: I was wondering where you got the picture for that background and what apps you're using in it? It's pretty wicked.
mdkplus
January 25, 2010 at 6:17pm
PAUL WHY DO You do this for us! Your awesome man, this is great THANKS to you my desktop kicks ass
Cy-Kill
January 25, 2010 at 6:01pm
What's the RAM usage like, I am using Vista x64 with 6GB of RAM, plan on reinstalling Windows soon because I seem to be using about 2 1/2GB of RAM lately, when it's usually around 1.50GB - 1.60GB when not playing games, etc.
Cy-Kill
