Pin pics to desktop

[firewater]

Hi. First of all, I know nothing about Rainmeter.

I've been fooling around with my Windows 8 desktop lately and I discovered I'm really fond of putting small pics all over the place (see image below).



I achieved this with a minimal image viewer called Image Eye. The reason why I want to use Rainmeter instead is because It looks cleaner (don't have to open the pictures each time I turn on the computer, no "close-minimize-restore" panel on the pic when I have the cursor over, etc), but I tried to do this weeks ago (on my first attempt at using Rainmeter) and it was an overly complex process (considering the task): I had to set the specific dimensions (so each time I changed the pic I had to change the dimensions) and set a directory... I mean, yeah, It's simple, but with this software It's just open the file, resize (if wanted) and you are set, plus It took me forever to find a "skin" that did this and the one I found had a horrible frame all over the pic.

My question: how to open a pic and pin it to the desktop with Rainmeter? I only want a 1px black border (or maybe no border at all).

That's one thing. The other: is there any way I can pin foobar2k (or any piece of software) to the desktop so it always stays there? Like, I really like my setup on the picture above, but as you may guess, each time I press the bottom right button (to go to the desktop) it also minimizes every window so It's more of a "display"-thing rather than a functional workstation.

Thanks.

[moshi]

create a a new folder in the C:\Users\%USERNAME%\Documents\Rainmeter\Skins folder.

name that folder StupidViewer.

create a new text file in that folder. name it regular.ini

now edit that file:

Code: Select all

[Rainmeter]
Update=-1

[MeterImage]
Meter=Image
ImageName=path\to\an image.jpg
W=200
H=200
PreserveAspectRatio=1

right click on the Rainmeter icon on the taskbar. choose "Refresh all".

right click on the Rainmeter icon on the taskbar. go to "Skins" and run your new StupidViewer skin.

managed that? cool. now the next step:

go to the desktop. create a new text file. name it stupidviewer.bat

now edit that file:

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"C:\Program Files\Rainmeter\Rainmeter.exe" !ActivateConfig StupidViewer
"c:\program files\rainmeter\rainmeter.exe" !WriteKeyValue MeterImage ImageName %1 "C:%HOMEPATH%\Documents\Rainmeter\Skins\StupidViewer\regular.ini"
"C:\Program Files\Rainmeter\Rainmeter.exe" !SetOption MeterImage ImageName %1 StupidViewer
"C:\Program Files\Rainmeter\Rainmeter.exe" !UpdateMeter MeterImage StupidViewer
"C:\Program Files\Rainmeter\Rainmeter.exe" !Redraw StupidViewer

you can now drag and drop an image on stupidviewer.bat and it will display on your desktop.

if you want you can also add stupidviewer.bat to your context menu. i am not going to explain that here. use Google.

you do not like that? fine, if an other application does a better job than Rainmeter, by all means use the other application.
Rainmeter is a tool to display information on your desktop. it is not meant to replace your image viewer, web browser or word processor.

That's one thing. The other: is there any way I can pin foobar2k (or any piece of software) to the desktop so it always stays there? Like, I really like my setup on the picture above, but as you may guess, each time I press the bottom right button (to go to the desktop) it also minimizes every window so It's more of a "display"-thing rather than a functional workstation.

there may be tools that make that possible. Rainmeter is not one of them. as i said above: Rainmeter is a tool to display information on your desktop.

[firewater]

wow thanks for taking the time to write all of that. i will tell you if it works in a couple of minutes.

also i got the impression that you got a little irritated by my post. i must say that it was never my intention to insult rainmeter community, developers or the capabilities of the software itself and sorry if i did.

edit: okay, it works! but I would like to ask you some stuff

a) how can I add more than one image? Each time I add something to the .bat it replaces the old pic instead of making a new one. found a way making another folder called stupidviewer2.

b) how can I add a border? white or black, dimensions don't matter but 1px will do

c) any way it can support .gifs?

I'm gonna toy around changing values to see if I can do these by myself. Thanks anyway!

edit2: sorry but have to add another inquiry because i just realized images have a limit. for example, vertical images can't get to the end of the left-right sides, but can get to top-bottom. the same way, horizontal images can't get top-bottom, but can get to where verticals can't in right-left.



edit3: it took me a while to understand how to edit Rainmeter (i changed many values but nothing happened), then i discovered i have to click "refresh all" for the changes to actually occur. so, anyway, i figured the problem i stated above is avoided when the dimensions of the pic are the exact same dimensions specified on the .ini, however, for this very same reason, if i want to change the size of a large pic and make it small it's gonna get these limitations when i'm moving it around. tl;dr i can only use the original size of an image. i guess i can resize the pic in photoshop each time i want to use a small version of it, but it would be nice if there was a way around the problem with rainmeter.

thanks.

[moshi]

look into the documentation, try things out. only you know what you like best.
http://docs.rainmeter.net/manual

maybe try this (and then use your mouse wheel over the image)

Code: Select all

[Rainmeter]
Update=-1

[Variables]
Scale=1.0

[MeterImage]
Meter=Image
ImageName=C:\Users\Alex\Desktop\DSC03429.jpg        
W=(200*#Scale#)
PreserveAspectRatio=1
DynamicVariables=1
SolidColor=000000
Padding=1,1,1,1
MouseScrollDownAction=[!WriteKeyValue Variables Scale (#Scale#+0.1)][!SetVariable Scale (#Scale#+0.1)][!UpdateMeter MeterImage][!Redraw]
MouseScrollUpAction=[!WriteKeyValue Variables Scale (#Scale#-0.1)][!SetVariable Scale (#Scale#-0.1)][!UpdateMeter MeterImage][!Redraw]

Rainmeter does display GIFs. it does not display animated GIFs. you'll have to create the animation yourself:
http://docs.rainmeter.net/tips/animated-gif-files

have a look at the "Keep on screen" setting.
http://docs.rainmeter.net/manual/user-interface/context-menus