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Exper1mental — Start Menu for Windows v1.5.7
by-nc-sa
Published: 2012-12-09 00:46:56 +0000 UTC; Views: 107201; Favourites: 124; Downloads: 6974
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Description
Build InformationRelease: v1.5.7
Development Status: Discontinued
I simply do not have to time to continue work on this project at any reasonable rate. If anyone else would like to pick up where I left off they are welcome to as long as they give credit where credit is due (not just to me but to all those whose works I used).
Download Page
Click Here
Windows Vista, 7, 8, 8.1, or 10 with Rainmeter 3.0.2+ ( rainmeter.net/cms/) installed.
Note: Internet Explorer sometimes renames .rmskin files to .zip files. If this happens you will need to go to the file location and rename it back to a .rmskin before running it.
Important: Using With a Portable Installation of Rainmeter
If you want to be able to launch the Start Menu from your windows taskbar using a portable installation of Rainmeter, a little tweaking is required.
1. In the Menu and MenuSmall folders there are subfolders called Link and LinkSmall. Contained in these are the .LNK shortcut files used to launch the menu from your taskbar.
2. Right click on the .LNK shortcut, select properties, and go to the shortcut tab
3. Replace the current folder paths for the Target and Start In parameters. Be sure not to delete the !ToggleConfig bang.
If you followed the steps correctly the taskbar Start Menu shortcuts should now run without problem on a portable installation of Rainmeter. If you have any further questions feel free to leave a comment below.
1.5.7
- More bug fixes
- Added six new icon packs
1.5.5
- Various bug fixes including to the broken Rainmeter update checker
- Compatibility improved for portable Rainmeter installations
- Added ability to check for Rainmeter beta releases
- Added confirmation popups when pressing shutdown, log off, and restart buttons
- Performance and appearance has been optimized
- Added auto-update checker to start menus (can be disabled in settings menu)
- Added new icon pack
1.5.1
- Fixed a bug in the update checker incorrectly displaying a new version available.
1.5.0
- The overall UI has been refined and updated and should have a much more metro feel
- There are now arrows above the power buttons that allow you to view the weather and wifi status in addition to the app list.
- Settings menus have been polished and simplified
- The outdated small Classic start menu has been updated with the new features (Metro still not available)
- There is now a guide accessible from the settings menu that will step you through the process of importing old application tile settings
- You can now search directly into Windows Explorer
- You can now use Locate32 to search your computer. Locate32 creates a search database in its folder to allow for near instant searches of anything on your computer. When selected as search engine there will be a button by the search bar to refresh its database (it does not update automatically.
And Much more!
1.3.0
- New Start Menu variant, the Metro Menu, which is only currently available in standard size.
- A separate settings menu has been added for the Metro Menu, including the abilities to change metro icons, the metro app background color, and the metro app icon tint.
- Several minor improvements to the Setup menu
- Improved flow of settings menus (not finished however)
- Fixed a text error in the setup section
- Moved part of the Change Log to a txt file in the ZIP folder
- File size reduced by deleting unused images
Please visit the Rainmeter forums thread for information about pre-v1.3.0 release builds ( rainmeter.net/forum/viewtopic.…).
What is this?
A skin for Rainmeter supported Operating Systems (excluding Win XP) to bring back the start menu and orb.
Do I have to have Rainmeter installed to use this?
Yes, you MUST have Rainmeter installed to use this Start Menu. In addition, you will need to update Rainmeter if your current version is older than v2.5.
How do I manually change one of my Apps icon, name, or path?
If you want to change that stuff manually, those variables (like the 7th app name) are in a file called VariablesApps.inc
Its location should be this:
Go to %USERPROFILE% then Documents then Rainmeter then Skins then Start Menu and finially resources
How do I access the settings menu?
For the Classic start menu, click the black settings icon in the lower right-hand corner of the start menu.
For the Metro start menu, click the title called setting icon.
The credits section has grown too large and is now viewable as a popup from the Settings display of the skin.
Questions, thoughts, and feedback are welcome and encouraged.
Related content
Comments: 94
Thanks for letting me know, I already fixed the issue changing App 7 (Lightroom) info, (haven't uploaded it yet as I wanted to make a few other tweaks first) will go fix App 4 (sketchup).
If all goes well I'll post a small update this later today.
If you want you can in the meanwhile manually change them (refer to the Questions and Answers section in the above description, where I'll post how to do it once I finish typing this).
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Awesome \i hate complaining... \i must admit though its one of the best launchers i have come across and will be recommending it to a lot of people and all my clients we deal with
Thsnks for a great product
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No worries, IMHO bug reporting isn't a complaint, its actually very helpful b/c it makes bug fixes a lot easier and quicker than if it was just me checking for bugs.
Glad you like it
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For some reason or another I am unable to change the name of the 7th application icon in the start menu, for some reason when I edit this it changes the name of the 6th. I'm not sure what file I can find this setting in and edit it manually. Otherwise this is great work and looks absolutely stunning!
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Just a note, you currently have to redo you app info setup every time you update, this is b/c it either backs up or deletes the old files when you update to new ones.
Once I have the time I'm planning on moving the App info stuff to their own file and setting things up so that people can retrieve their old App info easily after doing an update.
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Thanks, I'll go fix that bug, had a hunch something like that might slip through.
If you want to change stuff manually most of the variables (like the 7th app name) are in a file called Variables.inc
Its location should be this:
C:\Users\%USERNAME%\Documents\Rainmeter\Skins\Start Menu\@Resources
The 7th app info and related stuff will be one third of the way down the page. Look for variable App7Name.
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Np, in v3.0 you will be able to cut out the middle man and run it directly in Rainmeter (latest version of 2.5 Beta though, else scrolling wouldn't be possible) alongside your other skins.
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There is no readme.txt in the zip. Help pls.
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There is just an address that doesn't exist.
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Try it now, I've updated the ZIP and verified the Readme.txt is in the host-zip in addition to what I uploaded.
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Ah, I put the wrong file in the zip, 
Just a note, v3.0 should be much easier to setup, and hence will get rid of the need for reading a readme.
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Thanks a lot. It worked. Keep up the good work.
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Np, glad its working for you.
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I am having problems installing this.... it keeps saying Rainmater.ini does not have any meters and will be deactivated
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My best guess is the download got corrupted somewhere along the line, if rainmeter is actually shutting itself off (I've never heard of someone having this error before).
If it is still running in the background, you might try going to your taskbar and checking the notification icons section (it might be hidden if you have notification icons set to hide) for an icon that looks like a raindrop, by right-clicking on it and in the pop-up menu going to skins then Start Menu then Setup and Select Setup.ini.
If somewhere along the line you can't find what I'm talking about after right-clicking, right-click on it again, select Refresh All, and try then. If it still displays nothing try deleting, redownloading, and installing the package.
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Could you post a screenshot of the error message for me? Also, this issue should go away when I release v3.0.
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Hm, i am using Windows 7, but still it's awesome. Good job!
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Thanks!
Just a heads up, there is a major update coming soon, which will IMHO take this from being a fancy prototype to a viable Start Menu replacement.
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I didn't say I didn't like it. I just find it funny to always seeing a new one every two weeks. Because I literally found yet another right before I found this on here. And yes each one did have it's own fuck ups here and there, personally I like the main start screen but I don't dislike original Start button by any means. But I have yet to find a Start button that boots Directly to desktop without showing the start screen FIRST, If there is one thing that is needed in yet another Start button....is that it needs to NOT be yet another application. It basically needs to be somehow imbedded into Windows so we won't have to necessarily install it. Like maybe somehow have one that is put into a certain dll or just put easily into the system32 folder and maybe we press a certain button combination that enables it "forever" and can still disable it whenever we want. I'm pretty sure it doesn't get more easier then that. Don't get me wrong a customizable version would certainly be nice. But you know what I am saying though in general right? And last time I used Rainmeter it slowed my system WAY WAY down. How do I know this won't do the same? As cool as I know Rainmeter is,my system won't ever be able to handle the incredibly LAG
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FYI, Classic Shell lets you skip the metro menu if I remember right (I didn't like the start menu though it b/c it felt clunky and hard to mess around with.)
The CPU usage by Rainmeter varies based on how complex the skin is and what items are constantly updating in it.
What processor are you using? I run this program (referring to the stand-alone package above, not Rainmeter with random skins installed) both on my near brand new laptop with an i7-3630QM 2.4 GHz and a 5-year old laptop with some single core 2 GHz Celeron 575 piece of crap for a processor.
On my new laptop (this is total CPU usage, not per core):
- Approx. 0% when running in the background
- Up to 2% when loading the Win8 start menu (from the invisible pressure-pad)
- Up to 2.5% when loading the Win7 start menu (from windows taskbar)
On my old laptop:
- Approx. 0% when running in the background
- Up to 27% when loading the Win7 start menu (from windows taskbar)
I don't have the metro style on my old laptop so I can't speak for that.
RAM usage (from both computers):
- 7-10 MB when running in background
- Around 45 MBs with either start menu running
The point is, your computer should be able to run this program, unless you have a processor worse than the stupid Celeron 575... The problem you had was more likely that some dope was sloppy with his script and made the program go into turbo-update, murdering your CPU (I've actually had this happen to me a couple of times even with my i7).
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Why is there like 9 different types of Start menus....all that anyone needs is 1 out of them all. You can't install all 9 of them. They assume everyone doesn't have one yet? Is that how they come up with these dumb ideas to create yet ANOTHER start menu APPLICATION that just takes up more space and memory?
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It depends, each one seems to have its own pros and cons. I tried some of the free ones including Classic Shell, and didn't like them, in part b/c I wanted more style and color customization options.
This is what I personally use instead. Its far easier for me and anyone familiar with Rainmeter-based code to stylize this Start Menu compared to others. Not to mention IMHO Rainmeter-base code is easier to learn than say C++.
My goal is to create a Start Menu that is as customizable as possible while still be relatively simple to use.
Bear in mind that IMHO the v1 prototypes are more of Beta releases in terms of content, but without the bugs usually found in a beta release. v2 (which is nearly complete) will overhaul the color and theme customization abilities, v3 will either (hopefully) finish what v2 started or work on making changing of the Apps and their Icons more user friendly.
As for size, its only about 9 MBs now and v2.0 at release will be about 15 MBs (which doesn't take into account files that I'll remove from the package before release)
Anyways, if you don't like it, don't use it.
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It appears you have forgotten to credit my icons used in this screenshot, pls add credit. Thanks.
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My bad 
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Just a little update guys, I'm working on integrating a fade-in fade-out setup for the start menu. This will look better and means the start menu will fade out when not being hovered over.
I already come up with have a simple way to go from opaque (255) to transparent (0) but there is no fade between the two, which is why I have not released anything to the public quite yet.
The goal is so you can access the rainmeter based start menu like you access the windows start menu, by going into a certain part of your screen.
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Would anyone mind if I removed the 7Z folders and just used executable? I can cut in half the download file size and it speeds up the compiling process.
Also, does anyone know of any good EXE compilers? (besides 7-ZIP SFK Maker) Namely something that I can setup an option to select between 32-bit and 64-bit files.
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normally Zipping it i guess . or just use dropbox
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I considered that, the problem is that if I did use ZIP files instead of 7Z they would be 2x as large as the 7Z ones.
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Just stick with 7z I guess . . .
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Resized start menu released 
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here is my screen with the smaller sersion: [link]
just... perfect!!! it just fits perfect and it is also very beautifull!!! awesome man!
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Quick question: How did you change the taskbar icon background to that dark color from the standard "glow" of sorts? What about the hidden icon arrow?
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Np, glad you like it.
Let me know if you have any other ideas or suggestions for improving the menu.
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What's your screen resolution? On my 17" 1920x1080 monitor it looks about right.
If you could resize it, how much smaller would you make it?
Thanks.
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here is an screenshot: [link]
and my screen resolution is 1440x900
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Ok, for your resolution that does look awful big when on my second screen (which I think is around 20" 1600x900). Just a note, it would be helpful if you provided the length of your monitor (which are diagonally going from corner to corner in case you don't already know)
The current start menu takes up an area of approx 600x400. Looking at your picture I'm thinking something around 450x300 (75% of the current size) would be suitable?
Here's a rough sample of what it would look like on your desktop: [link]
The problem is that each item on the start menu is told where to place itself using X and Y coordinates, meaning that resizing it will require resizing and relocating each and every item on it, one-by-one, which will take some time, although it is feasible.
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hmmm ok thanx, maybe if you could tell me how i can relocate those icons? thx anyway man
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Do you want to change the icon file path entirely or just swap out an icon?
Note: These icons have a size of 48x48 so be sure to save your .ico or .png images at least that large or they won't look proper.
---Changing Icon File Path---
First, copy the file path of the icon you want to use.
Example path:
%USERPROFILE%\Documents\Rainmeter Powered Startup Menu (64-bit)\Skins\Multi Start Menu\@Resources\Imported Icons\SketchUp.ico
If you put the icon in the @Resources file mentioned above (located wherever you installed the application) or in a subfolder of it you can use the code #@# to make the path text shorter.
Example: #@#\Imported Icons\SketchUp.ico
Now, to change out an icon, go to wherever you installed the application, and then open \Skins\Multi Start Menu\Menu
In that folder, you should see a file called Variables. Open it. (if your computer asks what to open it with I recommend just using Notepad)
Scroll down to the Apps section and find the App you want the change the icon for.
Look for App[AppNumberHere]Icon=icon path
Example:
App4Icon=#@#\Imported Icons\SketchUp.ico
Remove the icon path and where it was paste your new icon path.
Finally, save the file. Next time you open the start menu it should display the new icon.
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i'm going to try it out after the examinations
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Np man, I'm also working on creating a smaller start menu, although its not ready yet.
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Amazing! Great work I love it all!
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