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Transparent Windows Desktop Clock

Martin Brinkmann — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 18:36:55 +0000

I never felt the need to add a secondary clock to my desktop. That does not necessarily mean that all computer users feel that way. I know a few first hand that like to have a larger clock on their desktop visible all the time. Most use Windows gadgets to display a secondary clock on the desktop, some a clock that shipps with shell replacements or themes.

The Aero Clock is a lightweight standalone software for Windows that adds an analog clock to the desktop. The software is fully portable and can be started from from the location it is unzipped to.

It is by default always visible on the desktop. The always on top feature and other settings can be changed in the program options.

First thing that non-German speakers should do is to click on the Lng button to change the program interface language to English. The Second to modify the size of the clock, as most will probably dislike the large default size of 512 pixels in width.

Once they have done that they can play around with the transparency slider to modify the clocks visibility on the desktop, and the image texture pull down menu to switch the design of the clock. Available are seven designs in total, from the default Zitro design to silver, gold and stars.

Other settings include removing the second hand from the clock. It could be irritating to some users as it is always moving and visible all the time.

The position of the clock can be fixed so that it is no longer possible to drag and drop it to another location on the desktop. You can move the clock around otherwise by holding down the mouse button when it hovers over the clock and moving the clock around on the screen.

The two final preferences are to center the clock on the screen and to start the application with the Windows operating system.

Users who want an analog clock on their desktop should take a closer look at The Aero Clock. It is a free lightweight solution for all versions of Windows from Windows NT to the very latest Windows 7.

Replace the Windows System Tray Clock

Martin Brinkmann — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 10:56:22 +0000

The Windows System Tray clock does not provide many ways to customize its appearance and format. The only two options that are available are to display the clock – or not – and to change the time. The position of the taskbar changes the information that the clock is displaying. The clock will only display the time on a horizontal Taskbar and provide date information when the user moves the mouse over the clock.

A vertical taskbar on the other hand displays the time, date and the weekday in the system tray. The best way to create a custom solution would be to use a third party tool like Timekeeper which can fully replace the Windows clock. Timekeeper adds itself to the available Toolbars of the Taskbar which can be selected by right-clicking the taskbar.

The Windows clock can be disabled in the same right-click menu as well. Timekeeper basically can display date and time information in multiple ways to suite the needs of the user. It comes with predefined time and date formats that can be added with just a click and custom ones where the user can pick the information that he wants to see.

Data can be placed separately in various formats. It is for example possible to display the time in 24 or 12 hour format with or without leading zeros. Several information are unique to the application and not provided by the Windows system clock. This includes displaying the timezone as well as day and week of year.

The software adds also visual elements that can be changed. The user can select an alignment for the clock, a text color, background color or choose a transparent background and even the font. That’s great if a custom theme is being used or if the user wants a larger font for the time so that he can see it better.

Change the Windows System Tray Clock

Martin Brinkmann — Wed, 04 Jul 2007 15:41:58 +0000

The default clock that is shown on every Windows operating system in the lower left corner was always a thorn in my eyes. It displayed the time but the current date was always a click away. I always wanted to change this and customize the way the clock was displayed in the system tray leaving the boundaries of the Microsoft clock.

Tclock 2 is a freeware that offers a simple way to customize the system tray clock the way you want. The main feature is the ability to select the exact format of the data and time in the system tray by either choosing a locale like English (United States) or using a fully customized form like hh:nn:ss mm/dd/yy for it.

It is furthermore possible to use AM/PM, 12H instead of 24H and write the months and days instead of using digits for them. That is however not all that can be achieved. You are free to select the font, the font size, the position and height plus width of the clock.

Still not convinced ? The software does not need to be installed and can be run from any location. It adds functions to synchronize the clock with Internet servers, alarm functions, a calendar and ways to customize the taskbar and start button as well.

Here are the features in list form:

change the clock’s text, appearance, etc.
change the the taskbar (make it flat, etc.)
make the taskbar transparent
change the Start button
change the Start menu
change the appearance of the desktop icons (somewhat glitchy)
synchronize your clock
set alarms
assign functions to the clock (drag file to clock = open in Notepad, etc.

This is really a nice software that I’m going to use from now on. The program is Open Source, you can download the source code from the developer website.