StartClock

chaos945 · May 19th, 2004

This program will completely replace the tray clock on the right hand side of your start menu bar by replacing the 'start' text with the current time.

To access the date/time menu press CTRL+ALT+D, to exit the script press CTRL+ALT+X.

Changes:

added INI configuration for easy customization of StartClock
- 24HourClock ; turns on 24 hour clock
- 12HourClock_WithSeconds ; turns seconds on 12 hour clock
cannot double click on the icons in systray to open them. Resolved?
when StartClock is running, the tool tip hovering forum links does not work. Resolved.

* New official homepage, thank you Electronic Punk!
Official Homepage

**Electronic Punk** · May 19th, 2004

Here is a screenshot and a link to the download, hosted by OSNN

http://startclock.osnn.net/files/StartClock.zip

ziptrx · May 21st, 2004

It's getting better. Still some bugs that I see. Not being picky, just helping you improve on a great desktop enhancement.

1) Double clicking on systray icons is improving, although the problem is still there. It works better in 24hr format than 12hr.

2) When a window appears, the clock disappears and takes some time to reappear. It appears quicker in 24hr format than 12hr. (I can make a video showing this if need be.)

3) Don't know if this is a bug or caused by my start button. My start button has no words on it. The problem is the clock appears in 12hr format, but in 24hr it only shows the first digit. Screenshot is attached.

Keep up the good work.

chaos945 · May 21st, 2004

Originally Posted by ziptrx

It's getting better. Still some bugs that I see. Not being picky, just helping you improve on a great desktop enhancement.

Thanks for your help!

Originally Posted by ziptrx

1) Double clicking on systray icons is improving, although the problem is still there. It works better in 24hr format than 12hr.

I think this is a performance issue related to either the running of the script directly, or the way it locates the windows to refresh. The fact that the 24hr clock works better is probably due to the simplicity in the coding of that function.

Originally Posted by ziptrx

2) When a window appears, the clock disappears and takes some time to reappear.

This is the refresh rate of the clock, after starting the program for the first time, the program waits for a set period, calculated ( 60000 - ( 1000 * current seconds) ) so if you start the clock at 12:45:10, the program will wait 50 seconds with a constant refresh. After this time the refresh gears itself down to 10 seconds, inside the INI configuration I have made it possible to adjust this value based on what you want. It is being run this way to preserve memory and CPU usage.

If I can get the program to constantly refresh the bar without memory issues I will. The original start bar does not need to worry about having to refresh since the text is static. The only time windows forces a refresh of the tray is when it is modified or when certain programs call the function, opening task manager does this for instance...I need to override the built-in refresh to stop the flickering of the clock.

Originally Posted by ziptrx

3) Don't know if this is a bug or caused by my start button. My start button has no words on it. The problem is the clock appears in 12hr format, but in 24hr it only shows the first digit. Screenshot is attached.

That is really strange, I've not seen that. I'll see if there is anything that could be causing it inside the coding.

ziptrx · May 22nd, 2004

Update: When using 12hr format, the clock will not show the last digit. It is similiar to the screenshot I attached earlier.

Example: When the time reaches 10:00, it will display the time as 10:0 This is in 12hr format. Once the time reaches 1:00, time is displayed correctly.

chaos945 · May 26th, 2004

New version available, minor updates.

**Electronic Punk** · May 27th, 2004

Cool

Is there a list of (maybe) custom themes that this application works with, I don't use Luna so haven't tried it myself.

chaos945 · May 27th, 2004

▪ only Visual Styles that don't replace the start button with a bitmap will work

▪ if you change the Visual Style StartClock must be restarted

Here is a quote on the issue I had posted with an older version, I should put it on the mainpage I guess.

It should work with any theme that does not obscure the start button text with a bitmap. I've not done much testing on this though, themes that are confirmed are only Luna and Classic. I tested a few custom themes from Deviant that used bitmaps, the clock will not replace the images used in these visual styles.

**Khayman** · May 30th, 2004

Is this a little bug?

When you open task manager, StartClock dissapears and then comes back once you close it. At least it does on mine

Not a biggie though. Its not like i have task manager open all the time

**SPeedY_B** · May 30th, 2004

I'm guessing that it doesn't work with Windows 2000 ? Doesn't seem to be mentioned on the site, but it just makes my start button wider when trying to use it

chaos945 · May 30th, 2004

I've only tested on Windows XP (home/pro) with Luna, Classic and a few other misc themes. Maybe when I go to work today I'll commandeer a few workstations for testing.

**Glaanieboy** · May 30th, 2004

I see you fixed the 24-hour format bug in your new release. Thanks for that

Oh, and a bug, possibly related to the refrsh thing, but I though I'd mention it anyway. The Start Menu button expands to accomodate the text displayed. But sometimes the button isn't expanded, while the time shows up correctly. This beheaviour disappears quickly though. I'll make a screenshot when I see it again.

chaos945 · May 31st, 2004

Yes, this sounds to be related to the refresh bug. For those of you not caring about CPU usage just lower the refresh times in the configuration INI to solve most refresh related 'bugs'.

1000 ms = 1 second, default is 10 seconds.

I explained the way the program gears itself down after x.x seconds above. Go there..

**ShepsCrook** · October 2nd, 2004

nice little program, it'll take some time to get use to the clock not being on the right.

chaos945 · October 30th, 2004

Just a heads up, I've begun the next build and started adding all the features that have been requested. Below is a screenshot of the new build in action.

I've also overhauled the site and added a mailing list, if you want to be notified when the next build is released just sign up.

Things to look forward to:
* less resources used
* fewer/no crashes
* cleaner code/revised logic
* date and time feature
* hide trayclock without restarting or modifying the registry
* revised configuration
* allow custom formatting of clock text (example: @12hour @AMPM - @Date -> output -> 12:00AM - Oct. 30)

**Hipster Doofus** · October 31st, 2004

Never had a problem with it. Looking forward to the update.

**FishBoy** · November 16th, 2004

i have flyakite transformation pack on

i wnated to try the clock thing but i can't now

**Hipster Doofus** · November 17th, 2004

Great little feature. Keep it up chaos945.

chaos945 · December 16th, 2004

New version, StartClock 1.0

I didn't get all the things I wanted to add in this version, but its a big improvement.

http://startclock.osnn.net/

**Hipster Doofus** · December 17th, 2004

This program is really starting to take shape. Good work chaos945. Keep it up.

Much more stable when you unhide icons on the system tray. Comes back instantly.

May 19th, 2004	Top \| #1
chaos945 OSNN Senior Addict Joined: February 2003 Posts: 949 Reputation: 300 Power: 95	StartClock This program will completely replace the tray clock on the right hand side of your start menu bar by replacing the 'start' text with the current time. To access the date/time menu press CTRL+ALT+D, to exit the script press CTRL+ALT+X. Changes: added INI configuration for easy customization of StartClock - 24HourClock ; turns on 24 hour clock - 12HourClock_WithSeconds ; turns seconds on 12 hour clock cannot double click on the icons in systray to open them. Resolved? when StartClock is running, the tool tip hovering forum links does not work. Resolved. * New official homepage, thank you Electronic Punk! Official Homepage

May 19th, 2004	Top \| #2
Electronic Punk The Last High Joined: December 2001 Location: Stonehenge Posts: 18,835 Blog Entries: 49 Reputation: 3591 Power: 321	Here is a screenshot and a link to the download, hosted by OSNN http://startclock.osnn.net/files/StartClock.zip Attached Thumbnails

May 21st, 2004	Top \| #3
ziptrx OSNN Addict Joined: January 2004 Posts: 52 Reputation: 0 Power: 72	It's getting better. Still some bugs that I see. Not being picky, just helping you improve on a great desktop enhancement. 1) Double clicking on systray icons is improving, although the problem is still there. It works better in 24hr format than 12hr. 2) When a window appears, the clock disappears and takes some time to reappear. It appears quicker in 24hr format than 12hr. (I can make a video showing this if need be.) 3) Don't know if this is a bug or caused by my start button. My start button has no words on it. The problem is the clock appears in 12hr format, but in 24hr it only shows the first digit. Screenshot is attached. Keep up the good work. Attached Images

May 21st, 2004	Top \| #4
chaos945 OSNN Senior Addict Joined: February 2003 Posts: 949 Reputation: 300 Power: 95	Originally Posted by ziptrx It's getting better. Still some bugs that I see. Not being picky, just helping you improve on a great desktop enhancement. Thanks for your help! Originally Posted by ziptrx 1) Double clicking on systray icons is improving, although the problem is still there. It works better in 24hr format than 12hr. I think this is a performance issue related to either the running of the script directly, or the way it locates the windows to refresh. The fact that the 24hr clock works better is probably due to the simplicity in the coding of that function. Originally Posted by ziptrx 2) When a window appears, the clock disappears and takes some time to reappear. This is the refresh rate of the clock, after starting the program for the first time, the program waits for a set period, calculated ( 60000 - ( 1000 * current seconds) ) so if you start the clock at 12:45:10, the program will wait 50 seconds with a constant refresh. After this time the refresh gears itself down to 10 seconds, inside the INI configuration I have made it possible to adjust this value based on what you want. It is being run this way to preserve memory and CPU usage. If I can get the program to constantly refresh the bar without memory issues I will. The original start bar does not need to worry about having to refresh since the text is static. The only time windows forces a refresh of the tray is when it is modified or when certain programs call the function, opening task manager does this for instance...I need to override the built-in refresh to stop the flickering of the clock. Originally Posted by ziptrx 3) Don't know if this is a bug or caused by my start button. My start button has no words on it. The problem is the clock appears in 12hr format, but in 24hr it only shows the first digit. Screenshot is attached. That is really strange, I've not seen that. I'll see if there is anything that could be causing it inside the coding.

May 27th, 2004	Top \| #8
chaos945 OSNN Senior Addict Joined: February 2003 Posts: 949 Reputation: 300 Power: 95	▪ only Visual Styles that don't replace the start button with a bitmap will work ▪ if you change the Visual Style StartClock must be restarted Here is a quote on the issue I had posted with an older version, I should put it on the mainpage I guess. It should work with any theme that does not obscure the start button text with a bitmap. I've not done much testing on this though, themes that are confirmed are only Luna and Classic. I tested a few custom themes from Deviant that used bitmaps, the clock will not replace the images used in these visual styles.

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May 22nd, 2004	Top \| #5
ziptrx OSNN Addict Joined: January 2004 Posts: 52 Reputation: 0 Power: 72	Update: When using 12hr format, the clock will not show the last digit. It is similiar to the screenshot I attached earlier. Example: When the time reaches 10:00, it will display the time as 10:0 This is in 12hr format. Once the time reaches 1:00, time is displayed correctly.

May 26th, 2004	Top \| #6
chaos945 OSNN Senior Addict Joined: February 2003 Posts: 949 Reputation: 300 Power: 95	New version available, minor updates.

May 27th, 2004	Top \| #7
Electronic Punk The Last High Joined: December 2001 Location: Stonehenge Posts: 18,835 Blog Entries: 49 Reputation: 3591 Power: 321	Cool Is there a list of (maybe) custom themes that this application works with, I don't use Luna so haven't tried it myself.

May 30th, 2004	Top \| #9
Khayman I'm sorry Hal... Joined: January 2002 Location: England Posts: 5,695 Reputation: 1210 Power: 164	Is this a little bug? When you open task manager, StartClock dissapears and then comes back once you close it. At least it does on mine Not a biggie though. Its not like i have task manager open all the time
	"I'm on the server side. I don't know what side you're on"

May 30th, 2004	Top \| #10
SPeedY_B I may actually be insane. Joined: March 2002 Location: Midlands, England Posts: 16,127 Reputation: 2877 Power: 283	I'm guessing that it doesn't work with Windows 2000 ? Doesn't seem to be mentioned on the site, but it just makes my start button wider when trying to use it
	1. SPeedYB.co.uk 2. CamPortal.co.uk 3. MacIRC.co.uk

May 30th, 2004	Top \| #11
chaos945 OSNN Senior Addict Joined: February 2003 Posts: 949 Reputation: 300 Power: 95	I've only tested on Windows XP (home/pro) with Luna, Classic and a few other misc themes. Maybe when I go to work today I'll commandeer a few workstations for testing.

May 30th, 2004	Top \| #12
Glaanieboy OSNN Veteran Addict Joined: March 2002 Location: The Netherlands Posts: 2,647 Reputation: 270 Power: 122	I see you fixed the 24-hour format bug in your new release. Thanks for that Oh, and a bug, possibly related to the refrsh thing, but I though I'd mention it anyway. The Start Menu button expands to accomodate the text displayed. But sometimes the button isn't expanded, while the time shows up correctly. This beheaviour disappears quickly though. I'll make a screenshot when I see it again.

May 31st, 2004	Top \| #13
chaos945 OSNN Senior Addict Joined: February 2003 Posts: 949 Reputation: 300 Power: 95	Yes, this sounds to be related to the refresh bug. For those of you not caring about CPU usage just lower the refresh times in the configuration INI to solve most refresh related 'bugs'. 1000 ms = 1 second, default is 10 seconds. I explained the way the program gears itself down after x.x seconds above. Go there..

October 2nd, 2004	Top \| #14
ShepsCrook Red Sox Fan! Joined: September 2003 Location: Raleigh NC Posts: 1,555 Reputation: 590 Power: 96	nice little program, it'll take some time to get use to the clock not being on the right.
	There's no place like 127.0.0.1 Antec P182b, Q6600, 8GB Ram,GTX260, X-Fi Platinum, 2x 640GB AALS This is Bunny Dead ---> (\__/) No world domination <--(='.'=)--<< For him today.. hahaha (")_(")

October 30th, 2004	Top \| #15
chaos945 OSNN Senior Addict Joined: February 2003 Posts: 949 Reputation: 300 Power: 95	Just a heads up, I've begun the next build and started adding all the features that have been requested. Below is a screenshot of the new build in action. I've also overhauled the site and added a mailing list, if you want to be notified when the next build is released just sign up. Things to look forward to: * less resources used * fewer/no crashes * cleaner code/revised logic * date and time feature * hide trayclock without restarting or modifying the registry * revised configuration * allow custom formatting of clock text (example: @12hour @AMPM - @Date -> output -> 12:00AM - Oct. 30) Attached Images

October 31st, 2004	Top \| #16
Hipster Doofus Good grief Charlie Brown Joined: May 2002 Location: Melbourne Australia Posts: 5,930 Reputation: 560 Power: 156	Never had a problem with it. Looking forward to the update.
	Pentium 4 2.6ghz 400mhz @ 3.07ghz 472mhz / Gigabyte GA-8IHXP v2.1 / RAMBUS PC 800 768mb / Sapphire Radeon 9600XT 256mb / 2 x Maxtor 80gb ATA133 DiamondMax, RAID0 :: 1 x Western Digital 7200 40gb / Liteon DVD-RW Dual Layer SOHW-1633S @ 1653S / Liteon 52x24x52 CD-RW LTR-52246S / Zalman CNPS7000A-Cu Fan / Antec TruePower 480w / RD3XP Gladiator Rounded Cables

November 17th, 2004	Top \| #18
Hipster Doofus Good grief Charlie Brown Joined: May 2002 Location: Melbourne Australia Posts: 5,930 Reputation: 560 Power: 156	Great little feature. Keep it up chaos945.
	Pentium 4 2.6ghz 400mhz @ 3.07ghz 472mhz / Gigabyte GA-8IHXP v2.1 / RAMBUS PC 800 768mb / Sapphire Radeon 9600XT 256mb / 2 x Maxtor 80gb ATA133 DiamondMax, RAID0 :: 1 x Western Digital 7200 40gb / Liteon DVD-RW Dual Layer SOHW-1633S @ 1653S / Liteon 52x24x52 CD-RW LTR-52246S / Zalman CNPS7000A-Cu Fan / Antec TruePower 480w / RD3XP Gladiator Rounded Cables

December 17th, 2004	Top \| #20
Hipster Doofus Good grief Charlie Brown Joined: May 2002 Location: Melbourne Australia Posts: 5,930 Reputation: 560 Power: 156	This program is really starting to take shape. Good work chaos945. Keep it up. Much more stable when you unhide icons on the system tray. Comes back instantly.
	Pentium 4 2.6ghz 400mhz @ 3.07ghz 472mhz / Gigabyte GA-8IHXP v2.1 / RAMBUS PC 800 768mb / Sapphire Radeon 9600XT 256mb / 2 x Maxtor 80gb ATA133 DiamondMax, RAID0 :: 1 x Western Digital 7200 40gb / Liteon DVD-RW Dual Layer SOHW-1633S @ 1653S / Liteon 52x24x52 CD-RW LTR-52246S / Zalman CNPS7000A-Cu Fan / Antec TruePower 480w / RD3XP Gladiator Rounded Cables

Similar Threads
Thread	Thread Starter	Forum	Replies	Last Post
StartClock - Released!	chaos945	Windows Desktop Systems	35	May 19th, 2004 9:07pm

November 16th, 2004	Top \| #17
FishBoy Feeeesh Joined: August 2004 Location: Khobar, Saudi Arabia (for summer vacay) Posts: 1,725 Reputation: 530 Power: 87	i have flyakite transformation pack on i wnated to try the clock thing but i can't now

December 16th, 2004	Top \| #19
chaos945 OSNN Senior Addict Joined: February 2003 Posts: 949 Reputation: 300 Power: 95	New version, StartClock 1.0 I didn't get all the things I wanted to add in this version, but its a big improvement. http://startclock.osnn.net/