# Rainmeter for Windows PC - **Name:** Rainmeter for Windows PC - **Version:** 4.5.28 - **Developer:** Rainmeter - **License:** Open Source - **Platform:** Windows - **Requires:** Windows 10 / 11 - **File type:** EXE Installer - **Size:** 2.5 MB - **Category:** System & Utilities - **Updated:** 2026-10-25 - **SHA-256:** de6e010f8c28882bc28dcd8f319c899f34dfddec51e1e4dd4e7a23f68ebfe14d - **Canonical page:** https://filecobra.com/app/rainmeter-desktop-customizer-pc/ - **Download page:** https://filecobra.com/download/rainmeter-desktop-customizer-pc/ - **Direct download:** https://github.com/rainmeter/rainmeter/releases/download/v4.5.28.3936/Rainmeter-4.5.28.exe > Rainmeter 4.5.28: the free, open-source (GPL) desktop customisation tool that puts live clocks, weather, system monitors and launchers on your Windows desktop as skins. Rainmeter is a free, open-source (GNU GPL v2) desktop customisation application that displays small floating applets called skins directly on the Windows desktop. A skin can be a clock, a CPU/RAM/GPU meter fed by built-in measures and PerfMon data, a weather panel pulled from a web feed by the WebParser measure, an RSS reader, a music display driven by the NowPlaying measure for players such as Spotify and foobar2000, a disk-space gauge, or a honeycomb-style app launcher. Skins are plain INI-style text files with meters, measures and Lua scripting, so anyone can open a skin in Notepad, change a font, colour or API key, and refresh it — and the community has published thousands of ready-made suites on DeviantArt and the Rainmeter forums, installable in one double-click as .rmskin packages. It is best for users who keep their desktop visible and want glanceable information arranged exactly their way, from a single minimal clock to a full heads-up display across two monitors. Version 4.5.28 (build 3936) continues the long-running 4.5 line, which the developers note is the last series to support older Windows versions and 32-bit systems before the 64-bit-only Rainmeter 5.0. ## Installation 1. **Download Rainmeter from the official site** — Get Rainmeter-4.5.28.exe from rainmeter.net, which links to the project's official GitHub release — avoid skin-bundle sites that repackage it. 2. **Run the installer** — Launch Rainmeter-4.5.28.exe and choose the Standard installation so Rainmeter starts with Windows and manages its own skin folders. 3. **Load your first skins** — Rainmeter starts with the default illustro skins; right-click any skin to open its settings, or use the Manage window to load and unload skins per folder. 4. **Add community skins safely** — Download .rmskin packages only from known creators (for example on DeviantArt), double-click to install, then load the skins you actually want and unload the rest. 5. **Save your arrangement as a layout** — In the Manage window's Layouts tab, save the current skin positions so a resolution change or new monitor cannot scatter your setup. ## Editorial verdict Rainmeter 4.5.28 remains the deepest free way to rebuild a Windows desktop around live information: a clock, weather, system meters and a music display can sit exactly where you want them, in the style you want, for zero cost and with source code anyone can audit. A light setup idles at well under one percent CPU, the installer is under 3 MB, and because skins are readable text files, fixing a broken weather feed usually means editing one line rather than waiting for an update. The limits are honest ones. Rainmeter is a platform, not a finished look — the default skins are plain, and the attractive desktops in screenshots come from community packages of uneven quality, some abandoned with dead weather APIs. Heavy visualiser suites do consume real GPU and CPU, and older skins can misalign on high-DPI displays. It rewards tinkerers and quietly frustrates anyone expecting one-click beauty. ### Strengths - Completely free and open source under the GPL, with no ads, accounts or feature tiers, and skins themselves are almost always free too, so a full desktop redesign costs nothing but time. - Measures for CPU, RAM, disks, network, PerfMon counters, web feeds and now-playing media cover nearly any information a desktop can show, and they can be combined freely inside a single skin. - Skins are editable INI text with Lua scripting, so colours, fonts, sizes and data sources can be changed without any development tools, and a refresh shows the result immediately. - A modest set of skins uses negligible resources — typically under one percent CPU — and Game mode pauses everything for full-screen play, so gaming performance is not sacrificed for decoration. - Layouts can be saved and restored, which makes multi-monitor and docked/undocked laptop setups practical instead of fragile, and positions survive resolution changes far better than manual arrangement. ### Trade-offs - The bundled illustro skins look dated, so a good-looking desktop depends on finding and vetting third-party skins yourself, which can take an evening of trial and error. - Many older skins broke when free weather APIs shut down, leaving blank widgets until you supply a new API key or replace the skin with a maintained alternative. - Animated visualisers and sensor-heavy suites can noticeably raise CPU and GPU use, especially on older or integrated-graphics machines, and stacking several suites compounds the cost. ## FAQ **Is Rainmeter for Windows PC free and open source?** Yes. Rainmeter for Windows PC is completely free and open-source software. You can download and use it at no cost, and its source code is publicly available. **Do Rainmeter skins slow down my PC?** Simple clocks, launchers and text meters use almost no CPU, typically under one percent. Animated audio visualisers and suites that poll many sensors every second can use noticeably more, so unload skins one by one in the Manage window if the desktop ever feels heavy. **Why is my Rainmeter weather widget blank?** Most weather skins depend on free third-party weather APIs, and several of those feeds have changed or shut down over the years. Open the skin's settings or its .ini file, check the API key and location variables, or replace the skin with a currently maintained one. **How do I get Spotify working with Rainmeter?** Modern music skins use the WebNowPlaying browser extension or a Spotify integration such as Spicetify to fetch track data, because Spotify no longer exposes everything the old NowPlaying measure used. Install the companion the skin's author specifies, then select that player in the skin. **How do I uninstall a Rainmeter skin?** Right-click the skin on the desktop and choose 'Unload skin' to remove it from view. To delete it completely, remove its folder from Documents\Rainmeter\Skins; Rainmeter itself uninstalls like any normal Windows program. **Is Rainmeter safe for Windows?** Rainmeter itself is open-source software distributed from rainmeter.net and GitHub, and it is safe. The risk sits in skins from unknown uploaders, which can contain scripts and shortcuts — download .rmskin packages only from established creators. --- Source: https://filecobra.com/app/rainmeter-desktop-customizer-pc/ · Mirrored from the publisher's own release channel by FileCobra. FileCobra runs no antivirus lab of its own.