Timer

Basic Windows features include a large variety of accessibility options. For instance, there’s always a clock in plain sight, and dedicated tools can be used to take note. However, accessibility can come from alternatives as well, and with the help of Timer, you can set up reminders so you never miss appointments, and other important events.

On the one hand, the application requires no installation, and it’s good to go from the moment download is done. This makes it possible to carry it on a thumb drive to use on other computers as well. On the other hand, it completely relies on Java Runtime Environment, which needs to be installed on the target PC for the app to work.

The visual design is minimalistic, with a clean, compact window which poses no accommodation problems whatsoever. Several numerical value fields need to be filled in, representing hours, minutes, and seconds. Sadly, you need to reserve some space for it in the taskbar, because it can’t be sent to the tray area to alert you when time is up.

In fact, the application’s lack of flexibility stretches far beyond desktop positioning. First, requirement fields aren’t fitted with name tags, even though it doesn’t take a lot of effort to figure out which is which. Moreover, there’s no possibility to select an action for when the timer runs out, so you need to keep an eye on the timer.

However, the biggest impact on practicality is represented by the lack of an alert system altogether. The only way to tell when time runs out is looking at the time directly. If not in focus, the window isn’t brought above, and it would have been useful to see at least a flash emphasis on the taskbar icon.

Taking everything into consideration, we can say that Timer comes with good intentions, but a little underprepared for what it wants to accomplish. It’s not of much help on the long run, especially because of the lack of an alert system, with no system tray minimize option, or any way to let you know time is up.