Timing Events and Actions

Getting your computer to shut down unattended nowadays is nothing surprising. There are so many methods to achieve this that there is almost no room for innovation. And yet, some developers managed to adapt their software to the new technology on the market, such as the ubiquitous Bluetooth or the more and more popular wireless.

Regardless of how you want to transmit the desired signal for the system to perform a specific action, the number one condition is to grab the appropriate software, capable of fulfilling the actions your way. There are plenty of solutions on the market and most of them are absolutely free, despite the wide range of options they make available. My personal favorites are Reohix's Sleep Moon Xpress for my laptops and the old PowerOff for the desktop equipment. If you read the reviews you'll get why I use different apps for a laptop and a desktop.

But even if I settled just fine with these two, I am still keeping my ear to the ground waiting for a better solution. TimeComX is not the perfect answer for carrying out automatic actions such as restarting, shutting down, putting into hibernation or suspending your system from the current activity, but it does represent an easy way to replace the aforementioned two solutions should they be considered too complicated, and it is a tad different from the traditional batch in its category.

Installation is eventless and smooth, with no obstacles in your way. A small interface greets you after the installation process is complete, with no possibility to resize it. This should not be viewed as a downside given that the entire suite of options are accommodated perfectly. All the commands you need to program an action for your computer are available in the main screen, together with the different countdown modes to the occurrence of the event.

Main application window provides access to the five different event triggering time modes as well as the list of tasks supported by TimeComX. Joggling through the modes will give you a new perspective on the many ways a task can be programmed. In the case of TimeComX an action can be triggered by a user-defined time of the day or even by CPU and network usage.

For the latter you are presented with the current usage of the processor and network. A 10-second countdown (this default value can be modified) for the set action will be triggered as long as the utilization of the two resources is under the set threshold. The moment usage exceeds the defined brink the action will be interrupted until the values are within the set parameters. Enabling both CPU and network usage as triggers for the defined action is not mandatory and you can enable only one of them.

As for the list of actions that can be set in motion by TimeComX, there is nothing complex or out of the ordinary. The application supports the most basic activities: computer restart, shutdown, sleep and logoff, as well as file execution and audio file playing (MP3, OGG, WMA and WAV).

If you want to prevent anyone else but you from interrupting the set action, TimeComX gives you the possibility to set a locking password. Once applied, it will be required in order to unlock the software and the option for halting the process becomes active.

Configuring the program does not require a genius. Any sort of user with proper command of English or German can handle the “Options” panel with no trouble. The alternatives here permit you to enable/disable the warning signal, adjust the master volume by simply dragging by a slider to the left or right, set the 24-hour clock mode, enable the forcing of the actions (very useful when some processes hang and delay the action), get rid of warnings before executing the action or the shutdown-event-tracker in Windows registry (Windows NT/Server). You can also give up the welcoming splash screen that pops up when the application launches, or minimization to system tray (but in this case the only alternatives are closing the program, thus bypassing the set action, or occupying taskbar space).

Benefiting from an intuitive interface, TimeComX can be employed even by the less computer savvy users out there. It is small and does not require too much of a slice of the computer resources (considering today's RAM requirements, 12MB is not such a big chunk to spare). The fact that there are quite a few actions to work with should be considered its downside, but given that TimeComX was not designed with the professional user in mind, but rather with the average and beginner one, the lack of a monitor turnoff or remote computer control can be overlooked. There is, however, one feature that should have been implemented: the possibility to customize the warning signal.

The Good TimeComX is lightweight, straightforward and with an intuitive interface that poses no trouble handling it. It sports the basic actions that can be scheduled in a variety of ways, plus the possibility to execute any type of file as well as an audio file.

Locking your settings is another positive aspect in the application as it prevents anyone else from tampering with your configuration.

The Bad I could not quite comprehend the use of the “Stopwatch” mode. I was expecting a way to set an action to be executed in an amount of time set by the user, but that was covered by “Easy Counter.”

The Truth