Installation

How to install, configure, and run FinalShot.

Requirements

  • Rainmeter 4.x or later
  • .NET Framework 4.8
  • Windows 7+ for screenshots and GIF recording
  • Windows 10 version 1903 (10.0.18362) or later for OCR functionality
  • An installed Windows OCR language pack (for -ocr commands only). Add via Windows Settings, Time & Language, Language.

Installation Steps

  1. Build or download the FinalShot.dll plugin file.
  2. Copy FinalShot.dll into your Rainmeter Plugins folder. The default location is: 
    %APPDATA%\Rainmeter\Plugins\
  3. Restart Rainmeter or refresh all skins to load the new plugin.

Building from Source

If building from the repository:

  1. Open the solution in Visual Studio.
  2. Ensure the target framework is set to .NET Framework 4.8 or higher.
  3. Build in Release mode.
  4. Copy the resulting FinalShot.dll from the output folder to your Rainmeter Plugins folder.

Basic Configuration

Add a FinalShot measure to any Rainmeter skin .ini file:

[MeasureScreenshot]
Measure=Plugin
Plugin=FinalShot
SavePath=C:\Users\You\Pictures\shot.png
ShowCursor=1
ShowNotification=1

Replace the path and options as needed. See the API Reference for all available settings.

First Capture

Trigger a capture using a Rainmeter bang:

[!CommandMeasure MeasureScreenshot "-fs"]

This performs a full-screen capture and saves it to SavePath. If ShowNotification=1, a toast notification with a preview is displayed.

GIF Recording Setup

To enable GIF recording, add GIF-specific settings to your measure:

[MeasureGif]
Measure=Plugin
Plugin=FinalShot
GifSavePath=C:\Users\You\Pictures\recording.gif
GifFPS=10
GifDuration=0
ShowNotification=1
GifShowOverlay=1

Start recording with:

[!CommandMeasure MeasureGif "-gif-start"]

Stop and save with:

[!CommandMeasure MeasureGif "-gif-stop"]

See the API Reference for all GIF-related settings.

OCR Setup

For OCR text extraction, ensure a Windows OCR language pack is installed, then configure:

[MeasureOCR]
Measure=Plugin
Plugin=FinalShot
OcrLanguage=en
OcrScaleFactor=2
ShowOCRWindow=1
DetectWindows=1
DetectControls=1

Trigger OCR with:

[!CommandMeasure MeasureOCR "-ocr"]

After recognition, retrieve the text with:

[&MeasureOCR:GetLastOCRText()]

See the API Reference for all OCR-related settings.

Global Hotkeys

To enable global hotkeys, add chord definitions to your measure:

[MeasureHotkeys]
Measure=Plugin
Plugin=FinalShot
SavePath=#@#Screenshots\shot.png
GifSavePath=#@#Screenshots\recording.gif
HotkeysEnabled=1
HotkeyCustom=Ctrl+Shift+PrintScreen
HotkeyOCR=Ctrl+Shift+O
HotkeyGifToggleSnap=Ctrl+Shift+G
ShowNotification=1

Chords use + as a separator. Supported modifiers: Ctrl, Alt, Shift, Win. Supported keys: A-Z, F1-F24, PrintScreen, and more. See Hotkey Settings for the full list.

Matched hotkey keys are suppressed so the OS does not also handle them. Antivirus software may prompt about the low-level keyboard hook.

Debug Logging

To troubleshoot issues, enable debug logging:

DebugLog=1
DebugLogPath=C:\Temp\FinalShotDebug.log

Logs are written to FinalShotDebug.log in the Rainmeter profile directory by default. Log files automatically rotate at 5 MB.

Next Steps