Microsoft Time Zone

Martin Brinkmann — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 13:43:00 +0000

There is no build in way to display different time zones in Microsoft operating systems. The clock in the system tray will always display the time of the selected time zone. Users have to rely on third party programs or the Internet to view multiple time zones at once. One of the possibilities is a small Microsoft application that can be used to display the times of various time zones in the Windows system tray. The application will pull the information directly from the default time zone list of the Windows operating system which means that every time zone in the world is covered by it.

The user can select the time zones that he wants to display at the same time. By default five time zones are displayed: London, Los Angeles, New York, New Delhi and Sydney. The software program makes use of balloon tips to display the time zones which means that balloon tips have to be activated for the program to work properly. The easiest way to enable balloon tips again is by using Microsoft PowerToys.

It takes one click to display the configured timezones in the balloon tip. A left-click on the system tray icon will display the time zones. A right-click opens up a context menu with configuration options. This can be used to add and remove time zones from the display.

Microsoft Time Zone uses roughly four Megabytes which is acceptable for users who regularly have to check the times in various time zones.

Display Time In Games

Martin Brinkmann — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 16:09:59 +0000

Good games can suck a player into the game world. Players can lose the feeling for the time and the Internet is full of stories of gamers who stopped playing in the middle of the night because they lost track of the time. Not many games provide access to the time while playing. Some players might have enough self discipline to look at a watch or cell phone for the time but many don’t.

Those players would probably prefer a way to display the time directly in games. Applications that can do that are limited to a handful. One of the better solutions is to use the free software Xfire which is some sort of Instant Messenger for gamers. It’s like Steam in many aspects as it provides access to a chat and the installed games even when playing a game.

One of the features of Xfire is that it displays the time in the screen overlay. The feature can be activated by pressing the chat hotkey while playing the game. This opens up the time and other interfaces. Don’t worry, everything can be closed so that only the time remains on the screen. Once the overlay has been activated each element of it can be moved around the screen.

Move the time to a location where it does not interfere with the gameplay. A corner at the bottom is usually a great spot.

Click in the tiny pin to pin the time to that location. Now close the main overlay again. Everything that has not been pinned will be closed again leaving only the time on the screen.

Xfire requires registration before the features become available which is a nuisance. Does anyone know of a better application or way for the purpose? Let us know in the comments.

gHacks Technology News | Latest Tech News, Software And Tutorials » display time

Microsoft Time Zone

Display Time In Games