14 DAY TRIAL // When it comes to checking the weather in your area, you will find solutions galore: websites, computer programs, widgets, smartphone apps. WinThunder is a nifty little program designed to stay in your system tray and show you the details about the temperature outside.
Knowing the temperature outside is basic information nowadays. You no longer have to wait for the weather report in order, unless you also want the details, but this can be easily found out with a gander on the right website.
With WinThunder things are extremely simple since the program does not abound in information about the atmospheric conditions. It won’t relay details about UV-index, wind state, humidity level or rain risk like this Windows Media Center plugin. Instead it will offer the most basic information generally men require, and that is the current temperature; no predictions for the future days. And while this may seem like a little too meager a piece of information, most of the times this is all we need.
Before proceeding to using WinThunder you have to know that the application is currently in beta stage and that some features may still be added. The development stage is so early that even the name is temporary and the author expects suggestions for a new one, although this one seems quite original.
Given its simplicity in options, WinThunder could not be too large a download. Actually it comes compressed at 1.26MB, and the extracted folder weighs in at 1.42MB. No installation is required to start using the program, just a double-click on WinThunder.exe and it’ll assume its position in the system tray area, marked by the lightening icon.
The interface of the application is nothing much and you can easily access it by clicking the tray icon. It won’t move from that spot, but then again, there is no reason for that. There are two more themes to choose from in case the default one does not suit your aesthetic needs: Windows Blend and Windows Live; we went with the second for the screenshots.
Aside from showing the temperature in a specific place WinThunder can also be used as a launcher. You can add the path to a folder, application or web page and access it when calling the program. All shortcuts are displayed together with the weather details and you can add as many entries as you want, but our recommendation goes for a small amount (four or five) as too many of them would make finding the right one more difficult.
Setting up the program is a job fit for beginners since you get to configure it to start with Windows, choose the location for which you want to be displayed the temperature and the update interval (between one minute and every four hours). Additional options available include picking the measurement unit (Fahrenheit or Celsius) and changing the default icon of the program. Shortcut editing options also let you choose an icon and also let you name the entry.
WinThunder seems pretty stable at the beginning, but its early development stage begins to take its toll as you continue using it. During our testing glitches like not being able to view the main application window or access the editing screen for the shortcuts fragmented our evaluation.
On the upside, what we loved was the fact that you can pick your own update interval for the temperature and its sheer simplicity. Also, if you take a closer look, the temperature is not the only detail displayed; the atmospheric condition for the selected area is also present, through graphic representation.
Turning back to the less pleasant aspects, it looks like the application needs to be restarted each time you change the settings. Even changing the measurement unit required a restart in order to take effect. However, when selecting a different location the right temperature would be displayed.
Hopefully future development of the program will extend the current set of features and options, allowing you access to more weather condition details from more than one location. A very neat feature would be for it to replace the clock area completely and show weather information as well.
The Good
Besides temperature, you also have a graphical representation of atmospheric conditions available. Additional functionality is given by the fact that it can double as a launcher for apps, disk locations or web addresses.
The Bad
The Truth
A single click is all you need to learn about weather conditions in your location and it can also be used to access frequently used web locations or files and folders on the disk.
Note: WinThunder is currently in beta stage and because it is work in progress we’ll award it the 3-star default rating.
