RND - I'm not sure how your download ended up the way it did, because ABP is in .rmskin format. When you clicked on download, it should have come up with choosing to open it using rainstaller or save it. If you chose open, it would have installed it to all the right folders.

Just discovered what the problem is likely to be...

There is a posting http://rainmeter.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=5888&start=30 at the Rainmeter Forum for ABP, and someone else was having the same problem. Read it and see if it's the same as yours, if so, the answer is...

Your zip program. It coud be detecting the .rmskin as a .zip file, and unzipping it. Don't let it, or zip it back up and rename it to .rmskin. Then just double-click it.

Hope that helps.

And to add to what you said RND you do not have to sort any files if the skin is not in .rmskin format. There are still a lot of skins that you just unzip the folder directly to your rainmeter/skins folder found in your documents or place the the extracted folder there. Just make sure your not placing the individual skin files there. They have to be in a folder with the skin name inside the rainmeter skins folder or they will be all over the place in your config option and not work. As time goes on.rmskin format will be the standard but for now most skins are still downloaded in files that are zipped.

Cool thing about Rainmeter is Vark. A UI right up front you can build the skin with. Way cool. What I found a little confusing (no surprise for me) was all the different ini's. But if you take your time with them I guess they're okay. A far cry from what it used to be.

Uvah - Vark's creator did an earlier version called Infinity, which is a single ini, you can get it at http://theumad.deviantart.com/gallery/28043747#/d2s9zje But what I like best about Vark is that you can have the icons going vertical, horizontal, slanted, squared, etc.

Did that, no go.

Really! Now that is very interesting. Thanks Karmat.

RnD. Try this. If the folder you download is a .zip right click and rename it .rmskin. I did that and the rainmeter image comes up like Vark. The teardrop. Click on it and it should install. If it does that will automatically place the folder where it belongs. Hope this helps.

"RnD. Try this. If the folder you download is a .zip right click and rename it .rmskin. I did that and the rainmeter image comes up like Vark. The teardrop. Click on it and it should install. If it does that will automatically place the folder where it belongs. Hope this helps."

That will only work for some skins. It depends on the files and how they are zipped. An example could be taken from sysmetrix. If you right click and highlight all the individual files of a sysmetrix skin you can then zip them and rename the zip extension to smx. But if you zip the folder that the files are in your sysmetrix skin will not work. I know that sounds obvious but you would be surprised how many people get that step wrong.

RND what skin again are you trying to install? At this point I do not know why your having a problem. The only 2 procedures I ever use to install rainmeter skins are to simply click on an .rmskin file which installs itself or to extract non rmskin format folders into the rainmeter skin folder in my documents.

I think you should do what karmat said. I agree that perhaps it has something to do with the way the files are being recognized.

ABP

If I was in your situation I would do 2 things. First thing I would do is try a different zip program and make sure to set it as the default zip. I am not sure what your using but a nice free one that I have used before is 7-zip. Right now I use winzip pro but that cost and I think 7-zip is probably just as good. http://www.7-zip.org/

Like I have said you would have to make sure that whatever new zip you try it is set as the default program for opening zip files. In this case it might give you that option when you install it or ask you what files you would like to associate it with.

The next thing I would do is uninstall rainmeter completely. I would go further by searching for rainmeter in the registry and deleting everything that came up but you do not have to do that. Just uninstall it and then head over to the site and download either 1.3 or 1.4. As karmat has said the 1.4 beta is stable and that is what I am using.

Once rainmeter is installed it gives you the option to choose what default skin you want. Choose ABP and it should load right up for you.

ABP isn't installed yet, when you first install rainmeter.

I use winrar, but I also have 7 zip.

I'll try this stuff asap. Been a bit busy repairing a laptop.

Thanks JC!!!

"ABP isn't installed yet, when you first install rainmeter."

RND it is installed if you choose it. Let me make this clear. When you download rainmeter at the end of the installtion I believe it is the last window it has 2 checkbox's. I am going from memory here but I believe those 2 boxes say launch rainmeter and the bottom box says download more skins. Make sure they are both checked. Then when you click OK or close, (again going from memory) a rainmeter website page will open with 3 themes for you to choose. They are Gnometer, Enigma, and ABP . Click on ABP and another page will open up showing the skin in detail with a box in the lower right of the screen that says click here to install the release version. Click it and it will download. When it is finished downloading a raininstaller window opens that has ABP skin info and 2 boxes that say Apply ABP theme and launch rainmeter automatically after install. Make sure they are both checked and click install and ABP will be launched. The instructions I gave are for the 1.4 beta but I think it is the same for 1.3.

As far as your zip program is concerned I think your problem is winrar has detected .rmskin format as .zip so the installtion went screwy. Make sure to use 7-zip and I believe you will not have the problem again.

Just a question, why did you choose the zip version?  I used the installer version and everything worked like a charm right from the start. 

The skin itself was a zip, Karen. Not the installer for the program.

Jim ABP only comes in .rmskin format which confirms my initial statement that winrar is detecting it as a zip file. I repeat again follow the instructions I gave and you will not have any problems. The issue is your using winrar to launch the rmskin file and it detects it as a zip file.

Edit. I should say that if you choose to install it the way I said the file is only in rmskin format. There might be zip formats with ini files out there but why anyone would choose those when you can choose the much easier rmskin format is beyond me.

Well, I don't want to uninstall winrar. I don't see an option to say which is default.

I am not saying to uninstall winrar. If there is not an option in 7-zip settings to select it as the default program then just do this simple 4 steps.

1. click on default programs in your start menu.

2. when the default programs window opens click on associate a file type or protocol with a program.

3. scroll down almost to the bottom of the list until you see zip and then click on it.

4. when the window opens and if 7-Zip is not in the first option of programs to select then click on other programs and choose 7-Zip. If 7-Zip is not listed you can use the browse option to find the 7-Zip exe file in your programs.

Now when you launch rainmeter 7-Zip will be the default program to open rmskin files and it should work just fine for you.

OK. I'll try that.

OK, now that helped. But ABP is still not listed in my skins, configs, or themes.

Running Enigma, I get no backgrounds. 

AAAAAAARRRRRRGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!

OK, Finally. I checked and the downloaded skins that were zips, I changed the extension to rmskin and now it works...shew!

I'm not going to try Rainmeter until you get if figured out RedneckDude, then you can walk me through it. 

YAY!  Karma to you for not giving up!

I double the YAY. Now I can keep my trap closed. Glad you got it working.

Still can't figure out how to get music to the player, or pics to the slideshow....but I will!!!