CMD Prompt Cannot Find exe That Certainly Exists

I'm trying to create a batch file to open to applications, Spotify and Rainmeter, simultaneously. Spotify is, well, obviously a music player and rainmeter is an app that runs plugins, in this case I use it to display a visualizer and metadata on the TV in my living room.

I always always always launch both Spotify and Rainmeter at the same time, so I figured I'd find a way to do it with the click of a single button.

I found a tutorial on line that shows how to create a batch file, but I'm running into issues.

Here's my .bat:

Code:

@echo off
cd C:\Program Files\Rainmeter\
start rainmeter.exe

cd D:\Users\Alec J Brock\AppData\Roaming\Spotify
start spotify.exe

exit

This opens Spotify just fine (though it took some deviation from the tutorial, such as removing the slash at the end of "D:\... ...Spotify").

Rainmeter will not launch. I run the .bat and Spotify launches, but I get a dialog box that says "Windows cannot find 'rainmeter.exe'. Make sure you typed the name correctly, then try again.

I definitely typed the name correctly, but I tried use an uppercase R, dropping .exe, and all other combinations as well as using and not using double quotes around rainmeter.exe and the filepaths. No success.

I tried doing things a bit more manually by opening a command prompt, CDing to C:/Program Files/Rainmeter/ then running "start rainmeter.exe"--I get the same dialog box saying that no rainmeter.exe cannot be found. I get the same dialog if I try to start SkinInstaller.exe or uninst.exe (other executables in the same directory).

I've also tried running the .bat as an admin. All with no results.

So what gives? Why does command prompt seem unable to locate executables in this directory?

Pull up Explorer and look in Program and Program86 folders. Also the Rainmeter program will eat up valuable CPU resources. It should be set as a task, not to have it automatically start at the same time as the other.

Shouldn't Rainmeter be in either C:\Program Files Folder or C:\Program Files x86 Folder rather than in the AppData Folder. Or is it installed on a drive or partition other than the one Windows is on? With a smallish C: partition I install most programs now on D: without using C:\Program Files Folder or C:\Program Files x86 Folder, just their own such as D:\Corel for WordPerfect.

C:\Program Files is for 32-bit programs running on 32-bit Windows while C:\Program Files is used with programs on 64-bit Windows along with C:\Program Files x86 for 32-bit programs running on 64-bit Windows.

TairikuOkami said:

Code:

start "" "C:\Program Files\Rainmeter\rainmeter.exe"
start "" "D:\Users\Alec J Brock\AppData\Roaming\Spotify\spotify.exe"

Thank you a thousand times over! This works perfectly. The other solution I found appeared a bit convoluted to start; when I came up with the desire to launch the two programs, I figured it would look something like this, a lot more basic. I'm pretty handy with Windows, but not so much cmd or bat type things--

can you explain why you have the pair of double quotes between start and the filepath?

Again, thank you!

bro67 said:

Pull up Explorer and look in Program and Program86 folders. Also the Rainmeter program will eat up valuable CPU resources. It should be set as a task, not to have it automatically start at the same time as the other.

lehnerus2000 said:

Rainmeter uses a tiny amount of resources on my PCs (~30 MB and 0.4% CPU).

bro67--what are you running in rainmeter? I would assume the amount of resources rainmeter requires varies depending on what you're doing. I'm using it only to display Spotify's current track/artist as well as a spectrum analyzer on my living room TV. I've got the analyzer set in a way that probably uses as many resources as a spectrum analyzer could (100 bars, responsive from 10Hz-20kHz, high refresh rate...). As is, my rainmeter setup is currently consuming less than 1% of my CPU and 18.7MB of RAM. Even with my not-so-high-end Pentium G3250, I can run AutoCAD, Rhino (with an accurate model of my home down to the joists and studs), Spotify and rainmeter without issue.

Berton said:

Shouldn't Rainmeter be in either C:\Program Files Folder or C:\Program Files x86 Folder rather than in the AppData Folder. Or is it installed on a drive or partition other than the one Windows is on? With a smallish C: partition I install most programs now on D: without using C:\Program Files Folder or C:\Program Files x86 Folder, just their own such as D:\Corel for WordPerfect.
C:\Program Files is for 32-bit programs running on 32-bit Windows while C:\Program Files is used with programs on 64-bit Windows along with C:\Program Files x86 for 32-bit programs running on 64-bit Windows.

Rainmeter is in C:\Program Files. Spotify is installed in the App Data folder on D:\. Much to my shegrin, Spotify doesn't give you the option (I'm sure there's a way) to install where you choose. All of my programs (for the most part) are on C:\ along with my boot files, Windows files, etc. I use D:\ for libraries and Spotify decided that's where it should live.