AlphaClock - v1.3.1 (Freeware!)
Freeware desktop clock utility for Windows 95/98/Me/NT/2000/XP

Introduction

You want to always have watch on your desktop, but the standard windows watch is too small and imperceptible? Or you are the network administrator, webmaster or the astronomer and in addition to local time, it is necessary for you to watch also the universal time? In all this cases the AlphaClock it's that necessary for you!

Alpha Clock is an tiny clock utility with miniature, but very nice LCD-style watch display. You can choose any colors for display background and digits, or use any predefined color scheme. On Windows 2000 or Windows XP also possibly to set the transparency for watch display. Alpha Clock can display your local time or UTC (Coordinated Universal Time).

Color schemes

Amber

Sunny day

Green wood

Ocean

Moon lighting

LCD-display

Grey silence

Black on white

Monochrome

Requirements

• any system running Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows ME, Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000 or Windows XP.
• less than 0,200 Megabytes of free space on hard disk.

Download

Installation

Alpha Clock is very simple utility and, for this reason, does not demand any installation utility. Simply unzip all files to any folder and run the executable file (usually, "aclock.exe").

Changes history

v1.3.1

- bugs fixed.

v1.3.0

- when mouse pointer over watch display, the current local date is displayed.

v1.2.0

- support for 12-hour mode is added.

v1.1.0

- first public release.

v1.0.0

- support for multiple languages is added.

v0.9.0

- support for multiple profiles added.

v0.8.1

- bugfix release.

v0.8.0

- tracking of the screen resolution and the workspace size is added.

v0.7.0

- about box is added.

v0.6.0

- support of the UTC (Coordinated Universal Time) is added.

v0.5.0

- possibility to auto start with system is enabled.

v0.4.1

- bugfix release.

v0.4.0

- support of color schemes and various mouse pointers is added.

v0.3.0

- dialog box for choosing the display colors is added.

v0.2.0

- the possibility to remember program settings in the system registry is added.

v0.1.0

- first release for internal purposes.

Interface reference

After starting the program, on the screen should appear the watch display. Samples of this display with different color schemes you can see at the right column ("Color schemes") of this page. By default, the watch display will have the "LCD-display" color scheme and will be placed in the top right corner of desktop.

You can drag with mouse the watch display to any place of desktop. The program will remember the new position, and at next run the watch display will appear there.

Pressing the right mouse button on the watch display, you will call popup menu (see pic.1), which allow you control of functioning of the program.

Pic.1.Popup menu.

Items of it the menu carries out the following actions:

About Alpha Clock…

Call the dialog box with information about the program version, copyrights, homepage and support e-mail.

Check for a new version…

Point your browser to software updates page.

Select color scheme

quick select one of predefined color schemes.

Change color scheme…

Call the dialog box for setting the watch display properties (see pic.4).

Select language

If the directory with ACLOCK.EXE contains additional language files, this submenu allows you to select another language for interface.

"Hand" mouse pointer

If this item is checked, the mouse pointer on the watch display will have the "hand" cursor (see pic.3a).

"Move" mouse pointer

If this item is checked, the mouse pointer on the watch display will have the "move" cursor (see pic.3b).

If both items is unchecked, the standard "arrow" cursor will be used (see pic.3c).

Military time format

Check this item if you want to see time in 24-hour format.

Show Universal time (UTC)

Check this item, if you to want watch the UTC, not local system time. The "UTC" is acronym for "Coordinated Universal Time" and used for synchronization of events and actions in different time zones. This mode will be indicated with small "u" letter in bottom left corner of watch display (see pic.2). If UTC date is differ from local date, in top left corner of watch display will show small sign of day difference. The "-"(minus) sign mean that on UTC, the time still yesterday. And on the contrary, the "+"(plus) sign mean that on UTC, the time is tomorrow.

Auto start with Windows

Check this item if you want autostart Alpha Clock at start Windows.

Close

Quit from program.

  
Pic.2.Watch display in UTC mode.

  
Pic.3.Watch with different cursors of mouse pointer.

Themes dialog box (see Pic.4) allow you change background and digits color of watch display or choose its from predefined color schemes. If you are running Windows 2000 or XP system, you also can set transparency level of watch display.

Pic.4.Theme setting dialog box.

For choosing predefined color scheme, simply select his by name from dropdown list in "Preferred themes" combobox. The transparency level is changed by moving the "Transparency" trackbar slider. For setting the background or digits color simply click on appropriate colored box.

Pic.5.Showing current date.

If the mouse pointer stops on the watch display, the current local date will be displayed as tooltip (see Pic.5).

Command line parameters

Currently, AlphaClock support only one command line parameter, the profile name:

-profile <profilename>
or
-profile "<profile name>".

Using profiles allow you to simultaneously use two or more instances of program with different settings. The profile includes all settings of the program: color scheme, cursor of mouse pointer, a time mode (local or universal) and even the "Auto start" parameter.

For example, you can run one instance without profile name ("default" profile will be used) and watch local time, and run another instance with profile name (for example, "UTC time") and watch universal time.

Profile name is case insensitive and must be quoted, if contains spaces or quote symbols.

Copyrights and licenses

All copyrights to AlphaClock are exclusively owned by the author - Irnis Haliullin.

AlphaClock is Freeware, you may use this product free of charge.

You are hereby licensed to make as many copies of the complete and unmodified package of this product and distribute it by any mean. There is no charge for this right.

You may not reverse engineer, decompile, disassemble or alter anyhow this software product.

Contact

If you have any questions or suggestions about AlphaClock, please contact by mail to irnis@irnis.net.