14 DAY TRIAL // Surfing the Web you will bump into all sorts of applications, more or less useful. I even encountered one that ejected your DVD tray. That was its entire use. It would lay low in the system tray and once clicked it opened the disc tray. Thank God it was free.
Alarms and clocks are practically all over the place and they have their use, despite the triviality they are regarded with. Usually when I am in front of my computer I am also wearing my headphones and listen to God knows what. A utility that alerts me about a task I have to take care of comes in really handy, especially if I am deep into my work.
eCounter is a time management tool designed to perform different actions at a user defined time interval. As the name suggests the software is actually a digital countdown until the occurrence of the action. Immediately after installing the application, you will be asked to choose the language for the interface. Double click on the desired language folder and start your countdown.
The main window is actually a countdown timer that displays the time left to the happening. The font of the clock can be increased or decreased according to your wish (A+ and A- options in the lower left hand corner). If you already have an action set up you can fix the timer's hour, minute and seconds. Some users may prefer having the countdown window in permanent view so the developer made possible this option (the little pin). If you want to keep it as small as possible you can switch to compact mode and the box will immediately shrink and move to the upper left hand corner of your desktop.
The third option available in the countdown window is also the most important. Settings is where you configure the entire program and what actions it should take when the timer reaches zero. Settings area is divided into seven sections, each having its own use. In the top left corner there is Effects section. It represents the core of the application as it provides the most interesting options. This section enables the behavior when the timer gets to zero.
The eleven options available in the drop down list allow the user to enable playing a sound when the time is up (WAV audio files only), apply a visual effect on the timer (this effect is pretty lame in my opinion the number will start to blink), shutdown the computer, hang up the Internet connection (only if it is not established through a digital modem or LAN), display an image (BMP, JPG), hibernate PC, run a program, lock workstation, display a text message or play a flash movie.
The text messages can be customized in terms of font, background color, size of the font, and font color. The only issue here is that if you get to set one of the colors (background or font), the other one refuses to cope with you.
Another section of the Settings area includes the timer setting. The user can set the number of hours, minutes and settings just by clicking the arrows available. Typing in the time directly is not yet supported in the software and this may come as a drawback for some users that are a bit hasty in their actions.
The font of the timer can also be customized and a little preview is available. The fonts you can choose from are the regular ones and there is nothing fancy available. But this is only normal as you won't spend your time watching the time go by.
In the right side of the Settings window there are the general options for configuring the software. Here you can choose the language of the program, protect the countdown with a password this way the action cannot be paused unless the right countersign is typed. The last two options deal with updating the program and defining your Internet connection type.
At the bottom of the Settings window there are some more options the user might consider. Skins is one of them that the software seemed to be in desperate need as the two themes available cannot be applied (at least I have seen no difference between them). The forum of the software will provide you with more options for this matter, but after trying one or two I gave up as eCounter kept crashing because of them.
The software works fine and successfully carries on all the tasks/effects. However, it runs short of a few options like minimizing it. I know it can be shrunk to compact mode but some users may feel the need of checking the timer every once in a while and may find disturbing seeing the time running down on them at every look in the top left corner of the desktop screen.
The Good
Nice application. It works fine and the developer took the time to specify why on some computers the hang up connection will not work.
The Bad
I wish the software could terminate the Internet connection on digital modem and LAN connections, too. Also, adding an option that allows the user to lock the workstation with a password and not only the timer would bring value to the software as well (this can be achieved with the help of Windows, but adding such an option in eCounter would be of great use).
The Truth
The software is free and does what it says. The list of options is rich enough and you will definitely not miss the alerting.
Here are some snapshots of the application in action:
