squares: system monitor skin for Rainmeter

A Rainmeter skin that displays system metrics in compact squares designed to fit inside the Windows taskbar. No external dependencies — built entirely on Rainmeter's built-in measures and the UsageMonitor plugin (ships with Rainmeter).

Inspired by GerosMonitor 2.0.

Layout

squares2.ini displays 8 metrics in a 4×2 grid:

UTL   GPU   RAM   MPS
DIO   C:    D:    NET

Label	Metric	Source
UTL	Processor Utility — frequency-scaled CPU load	UsageMonitor / % Processor Utility
GPU	GPU engine utilisation	UsageMonitor / GPU Engine / Utilization Percentage (index-based)
RAM	Physical memory used	Measure=PhysicalMemory
MPS	Memory Page Swap — bytes paged to disk as % of committed memory	Engineered from SwapMemory and PhysicalMemory
DIO	Total disk I/O activity	UsageMonitor / % Disk Time
C:	C: drive space used	Measure=FreeDiskSpace
D:	D: drive space used	Measure=FreeDiskSpace
NET	Network throughput as % of max speed	Measure=NetTotal

Hover over any square to expand it into a real-time line graph. Mouse away to collapse.

Features

• Compact: Fits inside the Windows taskbar — no desktop real estate consumed.
• Dependency-free: Uses only Rainmeter's built-in measures and UsageMonitor (bundled with Rainmeter).
• Engineered metrics: MPS (Memory Page Swap) is derived from existing measures to surface memory pressure beyond simple RAM fill.
• Resolution scaling: Set ScaleFactor = 1 for 1920×1080, or 1.11 for 1920×1200 — all dimensions scale proportionally from a single variable.
• Taskbar anchoring: Set TaskbarX once. On every Refresh the skin auto-moves to the correct taskbar position for the current resolution — no dragging after display changes.
• Hover graphs: Each square expands on hover to reveal a scrolling line graph.
• Refined UI: Rounded corners, per-metric subtle glow, and a curated colour palette.

Installation

1. Download and install Rainmeter if you haven't already.
2. Download the ZIP of this repository and extract it to your Rainmeter skins folder (usually Documents\Rainmeter\Skins).
3. Load the skin:
   1. Right-click the Rainmeter tray icon → Manage.
   2. Click Refresh all.
   3. Expand squares (or whatever you named the folder).
   4. Select squares2.ini → Load.
   5. Set the skin position to Stay topmost.
4. Drag the skin onto your taskbar.

Customization

Edit the [Variables] section in squares2.ini (right-click the skin → Edit skin), then right-click → Refresh skin to apply.

Variable	Description
ScaleFactor	1.0 = 1920×1080 · 1.11 = 1920×1200. Scales all dimensions proportionally.
TaskbarX	Horizontal pixel offset from the left edge of the screen. Set once for your machine. On every Refresh skin, the skin moves to (TaskbarX, taskbar top + TaskbarYOffset) automatically.
TaskbarYOffset	Pixels from the top of the taskbar down to the skin's top edge. 2 centres a ~36px skin in a standard 40px taskbar.
FontFace, FontSize, FontColor	Label typography. Default: MesloLGL Nerd Font 7pt white.
BackgroundColor	Skin background in R,G,B,A. Set to 0,0,0,0 for fully transparent (recommended when placing on the taskbar).
GPUUsageIndex	GPU retrieval mode for [MeasureGPUUsage]. -1 = average across detected instances (safer on multi-GPU), 1 = busiest single instance (often closer to Task Manager feel).
*Color	Per-metric bar/graph/border colour, e.g. CPUColor, GPUColor.
*BoxColor	Per-metric square fill — same RGB as *Color but alpha 20.
*Label	Display text for each square, e.g. ProcUtilLabel = UTL.
SquareSize, GraphWidth, Spacing, BarPadding, LabelWidth, LabelPadding	Dimensions and spacing (all multiplied by ScaleFactor).
ColsUsed, RowsUsed	Grid dimensions for background auto-sizing.

Network speed

In [MeasureNetworkPct], adjust 25000000 to match your connection's max bytes/sec:

MaxSpeedMbps × 1,000,000 ÷ 8

Examples: 200 Mbps → 25000000 · 1 Gbps → 125000000 · 100 Mbps → 12500000.

GPU retrieval mode

[MeasureGPUUsage] is intentionally index-based (not machine-specific), so it works across different hardware without editing Instance= strings.

• GPUUsageIndex = -1: average across detected GPU Engine instances. Good default when you want stability and to avoid summed spikes.
• GPUUsageIndex = 1: busiest current GPU Engine instance. Often feels closer to Task Manager's displayed load.

Notes:

• Index=0 is the sum of instances and can produce unintuitive values for GPU counters.
• Small differences vs Task Manager are normal because Windows counters are aggregated differently across tools.

Requirements

• Rainmeter (4.5 or later recommended)

squares.ini is deprecated. It was the original 4-column variant using raw Measure=CPU and a CoreTemp dependency. Use squares2.ini instead.

License

This project is open-source and available under the MIT License.