ScreenRest is a straightforward and easy-to-use application that will remind you to make pauses and take regular rests from your computer.

Using ScreenRest gives you complete control over how often, and how long, you wish to rest. You have the choice of being reminded to take rests at fixed intervals, or having your keyboard and mouse usage monitored to determine when it is best for you to take a rest.

When a rest is due, ScreenRest will pop up a reminder dialog onto your screen. The dialog will inform you what kind of rest you should take (a rest break or a microrest), as well as the duration of your rest.

Whether or not you have the option to cancel or delay your rests can be specified by preference settings. Once you have started your rest, ScreenRest will keep the dialog active, counting down the time to make sure you take the full of amount of time for your rest. This helps ensure you get the benefits of taking regular rests from your computer.

Here are some key features of "ScreenRest":

Customizing ScreenRest with the Setup Wizard
· Welcome to ScreenRest. The first time you run ScreenRest, you will be welcomed by the Setup Wizard.
· Stepping through the preferences. The Setup Wizard will take you through all of the preferences available in ScreenRest.
· Easy and optional. Default values are available for all preferences. If you wish, you can skip the Setup Wizard and get straight to using ScreenRest.
· Introducing you to upgrades. Each time you upgrade to a new version of ScreenRest, the Setup Wizard will introduce you to any new preferences that have been added.

Determining when it is time for a rest
· Monitoring your activity. ScreenRest can take account of how much you use the keyboard and mouse to decide when to remind you to take a rest. This is useful if you perform a lot of keyboard or mouse work, and are concerned about repetitive strain injury.
· Reminding you at fixed intervals. Alternatively, ScreenRest can ignore how much you use the computer, and will remind you to rest after a fixed period of time. This is useful if you alternate between inputting and reading from the screen, or if you simply like to be reminded to take a rest at regular time intervals.

Complementary rest types
· Rest Breaks. Taking regular rest breaks from your computer helps prevent repetitive strain injury, eye strain and tiredness.
· Microrests. These are frequent, short rests that last a few seconds. Many short rests are an important compliment to the longer rest breaks.

Rest reminders in action
· Counting down. All rest reminders will display the current duration of the rest and countdown until complete.
· Not yet ready for a rest? If a rest reminder appears at an inconvenient moment, it can be delayed, like using the snooze button on an alarm clock.
· Do you need to skip a rest? The current rest reminder can be cancelled completely.
· Keyboard control. Rest reminders support keyboard control to avoid unnecessary mouse usage.

Taking control of ScreenRest
· Preventing interruptions. If you are planning to use your computer for a presentation and want to prevent ScreenRest interrupting you, all rest reminding can be stopped, without having to exit ScreenRest. Once you have finished, rest reminding can then be resumed.
· Take a rest when you feel like it. When you feel like taking a rest before the scheduled time, you can tell ScreenRest to start a new rest break or microrest. This opens a rest reminder, as though one was due.
· Setting your own schedule. When you have taken an unplanned rest, you can tell ScreenRest that you have returned and it will take this into account for the next rest.

ScreenRest in the system tray
· That little bee. When ScreenRest is minimized, it moves into the system tray and appears as a bee icon, leaving your desktop clear. This keeps ScreenRest unobtrusive while you get on with using your computer.
· Keeping you informed. Hovering your mouse over the bee in your system tray will bring up a small text box that contains your computer usage since your last rest.
· Stay in control. When ScreenRest is in the system tray, you can tell it that you want to start a new rest, or that you have just returned from one.

Help is always on hand
· Built-in user manual. ScreenRest comes with a user manual, which shows and explains all of the dialogs, operations, and settings.
· Instant help when you need it. Should you be unsure of what to do, or how something works in ScreenRest, press F1 or a help button, and you will be taken to the appropriate page and section in the user manual.

Your rest preferences
· How your usage is monitored. ScreenRest will either monitor your keyboard and mouse usage, or remind you at fixed intervals to take regular rests from your computer.
· Take the rest types you want. Rest break or microrest reminding can be turned on or off independently depending on your needs.
· All of the preferences below are applied separately for rest breaks and microrests:
Choose how long between rests. The length of time that you wish to use the computer between each rest.
Choose how long a rest should last. The length of time that you would like each rest to last.
Allow or prevent rest cancelling. If you keep cancelling your rests, but know that you should take them when recommended, you can turn off the reminder cancel button.
Allow or prevent rest delaying. As with cancelling, the delaying of rest reminders can be prevented if you want to stop yourself from avoiding necessary rests.
Choose the duration of a delay. The delay period of a rest reminder can be adjusted to match the reason you most often postpone a rest. A short time to just save your document, or longer to finish typing a sentence, whichever suits you best.


Requirements:

· 64Mb memory.
· 25Mb free disk space


Limitations:

· 30 days trial

What's New in This Release: [ read full changelog ]

· The usage time for microrests can now be set to 3 minutes, the previous minimum was 5 minutes. This new value was added particularly to help with repetitive strain injury cases.