Alarm Clock

Alarm Clock is a software utility that you can schedule to set off an alarm at any given sharp time. It's not as complex as other alarm notifiers, so it can be handled even by users with little or no previous experience in such programs.

It gets unpacked quickly and requires minimal attention on your behalf, since the setup wizard doesn't have special options, prerequisite software products, or third-party offers.

Afterward, you're welcomed by a small window with a dark background and colorful text, which displays the current time in the 12-clock format, along with all options put at your disposal.

All you have to do is write the alarm time just like typing in a common text editor, and click a button to initialize it. This triggers the application to automatically minimize to the system tray. It runs in the background to become minimally invasive and lets you continue working on your computer while counting down to the specified time. It plays a sound file when the time's up.

Double-clicking the tray icon brings the main panel, while the right-click menu lists options for stopping the timer, showing or hiding the panel, as well as for exiting the program. Multiple instances are allowed. It doesn't have any other notable options.

Unsurprisingly, it didn't hog system resources in our evaluation while running in the background, since it needed a low amount of CPU and memory to work properly. No error dialogs were displayed and it didn't freeze or crash.

On the other hand, Alarm Clock has a very light set of options. For example, it doesn't implement an option for replacing the default sound file with another item. Nevertheless, it's easy to use and free.