

The approach consists of tweaking a feature of HWiNFO that was implemented years ago to support using the software with the now long-dead Windows Sidebar gadgets. Martin Malik, the author of HWiNFO, has graciously worked with us to find a solution that will allow the software to be used for personal, non-commercial use in Rainmeter without having to purchase a license, while keeping his ability to monetize his application when used by commercial entities. This would make distributing Rainmeter skins to end-users problematic at best.

As of version 7.0 of the HWiNFO hardware sensor monitoring tool, the software has changed to require purchasing a yearly "Pro" license in order to use the Shared Memory feature of the software that allowed it to interact with the HWiNFO plugin for Rainmeter.
