Featured Guides • OneDrive and Rainmeter

In recent years Microsoft has been pushing users toward storing personal files on OneDrive instead of storing them on a local hard drive. This post is not to debate the whether this is a good or bad policy; it is to inform Rainmeter users how to use OneDrive with Rainmeter.


Background

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On most new Windows home computers today, creating or using a Microsoft account to log into your computer will automatically move your personal Documents, Music, Pictures, and Videos folders from your local machine to a OneDrive folder hosted in the cloud. In many corporate environments, there are policies in place to force these folders, along with your Desktop folder, into a company OneDrive folder.

In these scenarios, your default Documents folder, normally C:\Users\<username>\Documents, will be changed to a "virtual" folder based in the cloud that can appear something like:
C:\Users\<username>\OneDrive\Documents, or
C:\Users\<username>\<Your Name> - Personal\Documents.

In a corporate environment where you log into a domain, this can also appear as:
C:\Users\<username>\OneDrive - <Company Name>\Documents.

If you are unsure if your default Documents folder has been redirected to OneDrive, open a PowerShell prompt and enter the following command:In either case, when you use a file manager, like Windows File Explorer, to access these files and folders, they will behave like they are on your PC. Some files may be physically present and some may not, but in general they are kept sync'd with a mirror copy in your OneDrive cloud and downloaded locally only when needed. Unfortunately, this concept does not work well with Rainmeter.


How To Use OneDrive with Rainmeter

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When installing Rainmeter on a PC that is using OneDrive, skins will be stored in your default Documents folder, which will be your cloud-based OneDrive Documents folder. Without taking special action, Rainmeter skins will work erratically or not at all if stored in your OneDrive.

Fortunately, this problem is easy to fix. To allow Rainmeter to work successfully with OneDrive, you have two options.

Option 1 - Keep your Rainmeter folder on your device

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• Open your OneDrive folder. From Windows File Explorer, click on the OneDrive folder in the left pane to select the folder.
  OneDriveFolder.png
• Double-click the Documents folder to view the folder contents.
  • If you have already installed Rainmeter, you will see a Rainmeter folder here.
    If you log into multiple devices with the same Microsoft or domain login, and you have previously installed Rainmeter on one of those other devices, you may see a Rainmeter folder here, already sync'd from your OneDrive cloud.
  • If you have not installed Rainmeter yet, go ahead and create the Rainmeter folder now (right-click in the Documents pane and select New > Folder).
• Right-click the Rainmeter folder and from the context menu select Always keep on this device. You'll see a checkmark appear next to the menu item when this has been done.
  DocumentsRainmeter.png
• Once your Rainmeter folder has been sync'd with the cloud (indicated by a green check in the Status column), restart or refresh Rainmeter, and you should be good to go.

Option 2 - Turn off "Files On Demand"

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One objective of OneDrive is to have files safely backed up in the cloud and not taking up space on your local hard drive. Files are only downloaded when needed. You can, however, disable this feature, which will result in downloading a copy of your entire OneDrive onto your device. If you have huge repositories of photos or music files in OneDrive, this is definitely not recommended.

• Open your OneDrive settings. Right-click the OneDrive icon in your task bar notification area and select gear icon, then choose Settings.
• Open Advanced settings. Scroll to the bottom of the Sync and backup window and click the Advanced settings option.
• Click Download all files. Scroll to the bottom of the Advanced settings section and click the button. This is the equivalent of selecting the Always keep on this device option on all your personal folders.
  FilesOnDemand.png

If you are using Rainmeter and log into multiple devices with a shared OneDrive, be aware that deleting a skin from one device will delete it from all devices. Adding a skin will add it to all devices, but any necessary plugins will not be included. Most importantly, changing a skin's configuration will change it for all devices. Skins that have different configurations on different devices can end up "fighting" each other. The good news, however, is that layouts and the selection of which skins are active are stored in a location that is independent of OneDrive, so these configurations will not be sync'd across devices.


How To Stop Using OneDrive with Rainmeter

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If you would like to stop using OneDrive with your Rainmeter skins, you have a few options.

Option 1 - Change your Skins folder

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• Open Rainmeter.ini. Right-click the Rainmeter icon in your task bar notification area, and from the menu select Edit settings. This will open your Rainmeter.ini file in your preferred text editor, usually Notepad.
• Edit the SkinPath. At the top of the file in the [Rainmeter] section, change the SkinPath option to point to a folder on your local hard drive that is not included in your OneDrive. For example:

  Code:

  [Rainmeter]SkinPath=C:\.My\Documents\

• Save the file.
• Quit Rainmeter. Right-click the Rainmeter icon in your task bar notification area and select Exit.
• Move your skins. Use File Explorer or your preferred file manager application to move the Rainmeter folder (and everything inside it) from your OneDrive to your SkinPath folder. Using the example above, move the Rainmeter folder from OneDrive\Documents to C:\.My\Documents. When done correctly, all your skins will be in C:\.My\Documents\Rainmeter\Skins.
• Restart Rainmeter.

Option 2 - Change your default Documents folder

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If you are using Rainmeter in a corporate setting where your personal folders are redirected to a company OneDrive, this option will not work unless your IT department is asleep at the wheel. Your domain policies will be reapplied every time you log in, so changing your default Documents folder location will not work for long, and might get you a visit from IT (or worse, HR). Don't fight The Man, just use Option 1.

(Obviously, the instructions below assume you want to keep using OneDrive, just not for your Documents. If you don't want to use OneDrive at all, just uninstall it. After uninstalling OneDrive, you will need to follow the instructions in Option 1 to correct your skin path setting, or try doing a Safe Start to get everything back to the default state.)

If you are in an environment where you can control your default Documents location, you can easily restore your Documents folder to its original state.

• From Windows File Explorer, navigate to your C:\Users\<username> folder.
• Right-click the Documents folder and select Properties.
• Select the Location tab.
  DocumentsLocation.png
• Click the Restore Default button. This should reset your path to the standard C:\Users\<username>\Documents location.
• Follow all the steps in Option 1, except you want to set the SkinPath option to your new default Documents location.

Statistics: Posted by SilverAzide — Today, 4:24 am — Replies 0 — Views 18

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