HalfLife Monitoring Theme for Rainmeter

Need the Portuguese version? Read the README em português.

Minimal hardware monitoring Half-Life style overlay theme for Rainmeter to watch CPU, GPU, and more.

Features Installation Usage

• CPU: Usage %
• GPU: Usage % + Temperature °C (NVIDIA/AMD/Intel)
• RAM: Usage in GB
• Disk: Read/Write activity in MB/s
• Network: Download/Upload in MB/s

Note: FPS monitoring is not included as it requires hooking into game rendering engines (DirectX/Vulkan), which needs external tools like MSI Afterburner/RivaTuner. For FPS overlay, use those tools alongside this skin.

About TempBridge: TempBridge is a tiny .NET helper (~50 MB RAM at peak) that bridges LibreHardwareMonitor sensors to Rainmeter. Rainmeter cannot read GPU temperature/usage natively, so TempBridge runs in the background, writes a lightweight hwstats.txt, and stays invisible by starting as a Windows service.

• Real GPU monitoring - Uses LibreHardwareMonitorLib for accurate readings
• Lightweight - Minimal resource usage (~10MB RAM)
• Customizable - Edit colors, position, and metrics easily
• Auto-start - Runs on Windows startup
• Open Source - MIT License

• Windows 10/11 (x64)
• Rainmeter 4.5+ - Download
• .NET 8.0 Runtime - Download

1. Download the latest .rmskin file and the TempBridge.exe + install.bat assets from the Releases Page (place the .exe and .bat in the same folder).
2. Double-click the .rmskin to install the Rainmeter skin.
3. Open an elevated Command Prompt, navigate to the TempBridge folder, and run install.bat (this installs the helper as a hidden Windows service so Rainmeter can read GPU sensors).
4. Done! The overlay will appear in the top-right corner and TempBridge will auto-start at boot.

After installation, you should see:

• TempBridge running (console window or tray icon)
• Rainmeter overlay in the top-right corner
• All metrics updating in real-time

Edit HalfLifeMonitoring.ini to customize:

[Variables]
; Change colors (R,G,B,Alpha)
textColor=0,255,255,190
barColor=0,255,255,160

; Change position
WindowX=(#SCREENAREAWIDTH# - #width# - 20)
WindowY=40

GPU shows 0%?

• Ensure TempBridge is running
• Check that @Resources/hwstats.txt exists and is being updated
• Try restarting TempBridge

Disk always 0 MB/s?

• Open Command Prompt as Administrator
• Run: lodctr /r
• Restart your computer

Skin not loading?

• Refresh Rainmeter (right-click → Refresh All)
• Check Rainmeter logs for errors

Antivirus blocking TempBridge?

• Your antivirus may flag TempBridge as a false positive due to its low-level hardware access
• The installer automatically detects and configures exclusions for 10+ antivirus products
• If detection fails, see Antivirus Fix Guide for manual instructions
• Supported antivirus: Windows Defender, Bitdefender, Avast, AVG, Norton, McAfee, Kaspersky, ESET, Avira, Trend Micro, Malwarebytes, Sophos

• .NET 8.0 SDK
• Visual Studio 2022 or VS Code (optional)

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/yourusername/halflife-monitoring.git
cd halflife-monitoring

# Build TempBridge
cd TempBridge
dotnet restore
dotnet publish -c Release -r win-x64 --self-contained true -p:PublishSingleFile=true -o ../dist/TempBridge

Output will be in dist/ folder.

halflife-monitoring/
├── TempBridge/              # C# background service
│   ├── Program.cs           # Main sensor reading logic
│   ├── TempBridge.csproj    # Project file
│   └── install.bat          # Startup installer
├── HalfLifeMonitoring.ini   # Rainmeter skin
├── @Resources/              # Skin resources
│   └── hwstats.txt          # Sensor data (generated)
├── scripts/                 # Build automation
│   └── build-release.bat
├── installer/               # Distribution
│   └── setup.bat
└── README.md

Contributions are welcome! Please:

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a feature branch (git checkout -b feature/amazing-feature)
3. Commit your changes (git commit -m 'Add amazing feature')
4. Push to the branch (git push origin feature/amazing-feature)
5. Open a Pull Request

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

• LibreHardwareMonitorLib - Hardware monitoring library
• Rainmeter - Desktop customization platform

• Issues: GitHub Issues
• Discussions: GitHub Discussions

Made by Kaic