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Portable Rainmeter Changelog

What's new in Portable Rainmeter 3.0.2 Rev 2161

Oct 30, 2013
  • Rainmeter: Fixed an issue where skins would "flicker" when refreshed.

New in Portable Rainmeter 3.0.1 Rev 2151 (Oct 21, 2013)

  • Direct2D: Fixed crash of Rainmeter in D2D when String meters had a negative width or height.
  • Rainmeter: Fixed an AnchorX/Y issue caused by a change to support D2D.
  • SkinInstaller/SkinPackager: Support Unicode characters in skin paths when creating or installing .rmskin files.
  • Installer: Fixed that the illustro default layout was not loaded when Rainmeter was installed in portable mode.
  • Language: Updated Hungarian and Romanian languages..
  • NowPlaying: Clear details when track ends with iTunes.
  • Installer: Reset to English instead of Arabic when a user's system has an unrecognized language code in Windows.
  • Installer: Removed 64-bit install checkbox for standard installs on 32-bit systems.
  • Rainmeter: Updated project files to support Windows 8.1.
  • Installer: Removed the need to support / install older versions of .NET and C++ runtimes.
  • Installer: Embed msvcr110.dll and msvcp110.dll C++ 2012 runtime libraries, so if they are not currently installed on the user's system, Rainmeter will not need to try to download and install them.

New in Portable Rainmeter 3.0.0 Rev 2116 (Oct 14, 2013)

  • There are a lot of new features and capabilities in the latest Rainmeter. You can safely install the new release version right over your existing Rainmeter installation, and nothing you have done will be lost or changed. There is never any need to uninstall any earlier version of Rainmeter to use the newest version.
  • Improved font rendering:
  • The biggest single change in Rainmeter is that we have moved from the older GDI+ display rendering method for applications to the newer and vastly better Direct2D rendering engine. As a part of a bigger effort to move all of Rainmeter to the new engine, the initial change concentrates on improving the quality of text displayed in String meters.
  • There will be a dramatic improvement in the quality of text you display in your skins.
  • Rainmeter will use the new Direct2D rendering by default if your system supports it. If not, it will fall back to the older GDI+ engine, and there will be no impact. Direct2D requires either Windows 8, or Windows 7 with the latest Platform Update.
  • The Rainmeter user is given complete control over when Direct2D is used and when it is not. The overall default use of Direct2D for your entire Rainmeter installation is controlled with the UseD2D option in the Manage / Settings Tab. In addition, the user can have individual skins override this setting by changing the UseD2D option in the skin context menu.
  • There may be some minor differences when Direct2D is used with older Rainmeter skins, due to differences in the way Direct2D and GDI+ handle font metrics and create the "container" the meter is displayed in. It is possible that some older skins, particularly those using 3rd-party custom fonts, may need some tweaking for position with Direct2D.
  • Other enhancements in Rainmeter:
  • The WebParser plugin now supports Dynamic Variables. This is a long-awaited and very welcome change to the way WebParser works, and should provide a lot of flexibility in creating skins that access the web. See Change Announcements for additional information about this change.
  • Added support for Unicode characters in Lua scripting. This means that you can use languages and alphabets in Lua other than those supported by standard "ANSI" in your text editor.
  • Added a Padding=left,top,right,bottom option to meters. Allows adding pixels around any or all sides a meter. The width and height of the meter will dynamically be adjusted to the new size. This can be very useful for positioning meters relative to each other with more flexibility, and when used with the SolidColor meter option, can give you a lot of control over the "background" of your meters, without having to create additional meters specifically for this purpose.
  • Added a AccurateText option in the [Rainmeter] section of skins. One of the failings of the older GDI+ rendering engine was some forced and undesirable extra padding around fonts when rendered in String meters. Whether your system or skin uses Direct2D or not, this option can be used to render fonts with the much more accurate method used in Direct2D. This option defaults to 0, which will use the GDI+ positioning of the string within all meters. When set to 1, the more accurate method will be used, giving you much better flexibility with relative positioning.
  • Added a new UniqueRandom option. If set to 1, any Calc measure using the Random constant and UpdateRandom will not repeat until all values between and including LowBound and HighBound have been used. Note that any dynamic change to LowBound or HighBound will reset the tracking of values.
  • Added !PauseMeasure, !UnpauseMeasure, and !TogglePauseMeasure bangs. This is similar to a disabled measure, however the measure retains its current value instead of changing to zero. Group versions of these bangs have also been added.
  • dded a Paused=0/1 option to measures. This allows setting the "paused" state of a measure, in addition to the !PauseMeasure/!UnpauseMeasure/!TogglePauseMeasure bangs above.
  • Added a OnWakeAction option to the [Rainmeter] section of skins, to take action when Windows returns from sleep or hibernate states.
  • Important improvements made to the Process plugin to correct issues with the plugin not being able to detect processes started with a higher security level than Rainmeter, 64bit processes when Rainmeter is 32bit, and processes run as a Windows "service".
  • Added a OnDismissAction option to the InputText plugin. This will allow you to define an action to be taken when you hit escape to dismiss the input text field without submitting any value.
  • Added a ImagePath option to General Image Options. This replaces the existing Path option on Image meters, and extends the functionality to all other meters that support images. Note that Histogram uses PrimaryImagePath, SecondaryImagePath and BothImagePath due to the fact that the Histogram meter has an optional secondary measure binding.
  • Added a UseExifOrientation option for meters using images, to automatically correct the orientation of the image based on the EXIF data encoded by a camera.
  • Added new "Config" and "File" parameters to the !Manage bang. This will allow opening the Manage / Skins panel with the desired config and / or skin .ini file automatically selected in the list.
  • Added a new #ROOTCONFIG# built-in variable. This provides the name of the root config - The highest-level folder under the skins folder for the current skin.
  • Made improvements to the About / Log dialog to better show the source of errors. Where possible, the config or skin.ini, and meter or measure section producing the error will be displayed. In addition, improvements have been made to to the level of detail in the Rainmeter log when there are command or bang errors, and added a "Clear" button to the panel to remove the current contents of the log displayed in the panel.
  • Improved performance when using the !SetWallpaper bang with large images.
  • Changed the mouse over behavior on Button meter images, to ignore transparent areas of the image. This make the behavior visibly match the existing mouse click behavior.

New in Portable Rainmeter 3.0.0 Rev 2106 Beta (Oct 14, 2013)

  • Changed Direct2D (UseD2D) rendering is now used by default if the system supports it

New in Portable Rainmeter 3.0.0 Rev 2097 Beta (Oct 14, 2013)

  • [Changed] Due to some Direct2D issues with image quality when an image meter is "resized" in Rainmeter with W and H, all image rendering is changed to use the GDI+ engine while a more permanent solution is found.

New in Portable Rainmeter 3.0.0 Rev 2094 Beta (Oct 14, 2013)

  • [Fixed] Lua Scripting: Fixed a problem with a defined "default" value not working with SKIN:GetVariable() and meter:GetOption().

New in Portable Rainmeter 3.0.0 Rev 2090 Beta (Oct 14, 2013)

  • [Added] Variables: New #ROOTCONFIG# built-in variable. Name of root config - Highest-level folder under the skins folder for the current skin
  • [Fixed] Bangs: Fixed a bug where the !Manage bang would not function without any parameter. "Skins" is the default parameter
  • [Fixed] Meters: Fixed a bug where in some cases the width and height of a meter was not dynamically changing correctly when the Padding option was used

New in Portable Rainmeter 3.0.0 Rev 2085 Beta (Aug 29, 2013)

  • [Added] About: Added a "Clear" button to the About / Log panel to remove the current contents of the log displayed in the panel.
  • [Changed] Bangs: Added "Config" and "File" parameters to the !Manage bang. This will allow opening the Manage / Skin panel with the desired config and / or skin .ini file automatically selected in the list.

New in Portable Rainmeter 3.0.0 Rev 2081 Beta (Aug 29, 2013)

  • [Added] Calc: Added a new UniqueRandom option. If set to 1, any Calc measure using the random constant and UpdateRandom will not repeat until all values between and including LowBound and HighBound have been used. Note that any dynamic change to LowBound or HighBound will reset the tracking of values.

New in Portable Rainmeter 3.0.0 Rev 2076 Beta (Aug 15, 2013)

  • [Changed] Script: We have now added support for Unicode characters in Lua scripting.
  • [Changed] Direct2D: There have been many fixes and improvements for compatibility with the new UseD2D / Direct2D functionality and older skins

New in Portable Rainmeter 3.0.0 Rev 2050 Beta (Aug 10, 2013)

  • [Fixed] Rainmeter: Fixed an issue with Direct2D where a string meter with an empty string would still have a width and height.
  • [Fixed] About: Fixed a bug in the Log panel that could cause problems with the "Source" column.

New in Portable Rainmeter 3.0.0 Rev 2047 Beta (Aug 10, 2013)

  • [Changed] WebParser: WebParser now supports Dynamic Variables. See Change Announcements for important details.
  • [Changed] Rainmeter: Important improvements made to the D2D (Direct2D) rendering option for Rainmeter. See Change Announcements for important details.
  • [Added] Manage Dialog: Added "UseD2D" option in the Manage / Settings Tab. If checked, all skins are refreshed using D2D (Direct2D) rendering. The option is disabled on systems that do not support D2D. Windows 7 with the latest Platform Update or Windows 8 is required.
  • [Added] Rainmeter: Added AccurateText option in the [Rainmeter] section of skins. When AccurateText=0 (default) and UseD2D=0, inaccurate GDI+ measuring of text is used. When AccurateText=1 and UseD2D=0, Accurate measuring occurs similar to D2D. When AccurateText=0 and UseD2D=1, D2D adds padding to the text similar to GDI+. When AccurateText=1 and UseD2D=1, Accurate measuring occurs using D2D.

New in Portable Rainmeter 3.0.0 Rev 2022 Beta (Aug 3, 2013)

  • [Removed] String meter: Due to problems and inconsistent behavior, removed the ability to include trailing spaces on the Text option that was added in previous betas. See the new Padding option for an alternative solution.
  • [Added] Meters: Added Padding=left,top,right,bottom option to meters. Allows adding pixels around any or all sides a meter. The width and height of the meter will dynamically be adjusted to the new size.
  • [Added] Measures: Added Paused=0/1 option to measures. This allows setting the "paused" state of a measure, in addition to the !PauseMeasure/!UnpauseMeasure/!TogglePauseMeasure bangs previously added.
  • [Fixed] !SetWallpaper: Improved performance when setting the wallpaper with large images.
  • [Changed] Button meter: Changed the mouse over behavior to ignore transparent areas of the image, to match the mouse click behavior.

New in Portable Rainmeter 3.0.0 Rev 1871 Beta (Apr 1, 2013)

  • Added InputText: Added OnDismissAction to the plugin.
  • Fixed FileView: Fixed an issue with the Open command which in rare instances could crash Rainmeter.
  • Changed Localization: Updated language files.

New in Portable Rainmeter 2.5 Rev 1842 (Apr 1, 2013)

  • New FileView plugin. This powerful new plugin will index and gather information about all files and folders in a defined path. Information supported includes the path, name, size, type, date, and icon. Commands can be used to scroll through the index of files, move up and down in the folder tree, and select files for display or opening with the associated program.
  • Added new ClipString=2 setting and new ClipStringW / ClipStringH options. This will allow for more dynamic clipping and wrapping of a string while sizing the containing meter to accommodate the entire contents. Details are at Change Announcements.
  • Added new Mouse Actions to support the scroll wheel. Details are at Change Announcements.
  • Added new Mouse Variables. These are "macro" variables used in the context of a mouse click action to provide the current X and Y position of the mouse cursor relative to the meter or skin in pixels or a percentage. Details are at Change Announcements.
  • Added new OnUpdateAction command to Skins, Meters and Measures. This will allow an action to take place when the element is updated normally or by any bang.
  • Added new OnChangeAction command to Measures. This will allow an action to take place when the value of a measure changes.
  • Added new OnFocusAction and OnUnFocusAction options to the [Rainmeter] section of the skin, to execute actions when a skin gains or loses focus (by clicking it) in Windows.
  • Added "*" as a wildcard parameter to the !UpdateMeasure and !UpdateMeter bangs to immediately update all measures and meters.
  • Changed the behavior of the WebParser ProxyServer option to better handle how WebParser interacts with Internet Explorer for proxy management.