Tclock2

Tclock2 is a tiny and portable tool that can be used to personalize Windows settings. It comes loaded with rich customization options for the desktop, taskbar, Start menu, and system clock.

Before proceeding any further, you should know that the app hasn't been updated for a long time, and it doesn't work on newer Windows editions.

Since it's not wrapped in a setup kit, you can save its files anywhere on the disk and just double-click the .exe to launch the application. It runs in the system tray and facilitates customization options via the right-click menu.

Multimedia files can be scheduled to play on a countdown timer (in minutes), to repeat the alarm, as well as to make the tray icon blink. This can be tested on the spot before applying changes.

When it comes to the taskbar, you can modify its transparency and style (e.g. flatten). It's possible to hide the Start button or change its color, icon or caption text, apply a bitmap image as the Start menu background, pick the desktop icon size, as well as synchronize the system clock to an online server.

The clock's text, font, size, rotation, height, width, line height, along with the horizontal and vertical position can be adjusted. It's also possible to tweak its display mode (e.g. year, date, month, hour, Internet time, 12- or 24-hour format), activate an alarm, as well as to specify an action when dropping files in the systray (send to Recycle Bin, copy or move to another location, open with a specific application). Tclock2 can be asked to run at every system startup until further notice.

It didn't put a strain on the computer's performance in our tests, running on low CPU and RAM. On the other hand, Tclock2 doesn't run on newer OS versions, and its features are not that intuitive for casual PC users.