News and Reviews > Best Weather Monitor Tool

There aren't many great choices for weather software

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superboyac:
I'm trying to find a good weather software, and I've gone over the ones in our DC review here.  Maybe it's because it's a few years old, but none of those are all that great.  

Weatherbug is no good.  It's too busy, and is ad-infested.  

Weather Watcher is not freeware anymore.  

Weather Pulse was ok, but I had stability issues with it.  And it's ridiculous how the temperature numbers don't fit in the box int he system tray.  I had a real problem closing the winow.  I would keep pressing the close button and it would never close.  So, it's a little buggy in my opinion.

I've tried a few others I've searched the web for:

Accuweather.  It has a very nice, clean interface.  but it's ad-infested (video ads at that!).

Tray Weather Forecast.  This is my favorite of the bunch so far.  It's small, lightweight, simple.  Shows me the temp in the tray, and has a very simple forecast popup window.  All the other programs are very busy.  All I want to know is the temperature, if it's going to rain, and the forecast for the next day or two.  I don't really need anything else.  I'm not trying to analyze wind patterns and all that.  I mean, really.  It's fun, but I don't need it.  So this program was the best for that it seems.  Unfortunately, it's $30 which is ridiculous.  And I don't think it's been updated for a while, although it works fine on my XP system.


So, I just wanted to express my disappointment with this entire genre of software.  This happens occasionally.  Sometimes, one company does their software a certain way, and other companies keep following suit, even though they have no reason to.  They figure the other companies are getting away with it so they do the same.  For example, why does every single DSL company offer annual contracts, and cable companies don't?  There's no reason.  Why do all websites that do hardware reviews have multi-page reviews?  No reason.  Well, there is a reason, they get you to click "next" more and it's better for ads.  But you see how one company does it one way, and then everyone follows suit?  And the part they are copying is inevitably the bad stuff.  Nobody ever copies something that's good about a product.  Only the bad things.  Things that allow more ads, etc.  Nobody ever looks at a program like FARR (eg) and says, "well, this is small, lightweight, free and highly customizable, yet simple.  I will try to do the same!"  No, that doesn't happen.  However, if FARR had a big bar on top with ads on it, you'd see a few copycats also make a launcher with ads on top of it also.  Eventually, people will know that most of the launcher software come with ads on top of it.

joiwind:
Same for me, I have tested many of these apps and been disappointed by pretty well all of them for one reason or another.

But, do you know Meteo Fusion ? I am using it all the time now and I'm really pleased with it - give it a try out...

superboyac:
Same for me, I have tested many of these apps and been disappointed by pretty well all of them for one reason or another.

But, do you know Meteo Fusion ? I am using it all the time now and I'm really pleased with it - give it a try out...
-joiwind (December 23, 2009, 04:34 PM)
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Nice suggestion!  I like the screenshots a lot.  However, I installed it and it keeps crashing all the time.  As soon as I open the options screen, it's crashing continuously.  I'm mad because it looks like just the program I'm looking for.  This is on Windows XP.

Stoic Joker:
Same for me, I have tested many of these apps and been disappointed by pretty well all of them for one reason or another.

But, do you know Meteo Fusion ? I am using it all the time now and I'm really pleased with it - give it a try out...
-joiwind (December 23, 2009, 04:34 PM)
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Nice suggestion!  I like the screenshots a lot.  However, I installed it and it keeps crashing all the time.  As soon as I open the options screen, it's crashing continuously.  I'm mad because it looks like just the program I'm looking for.  This is on Windows XP.
-superboyac (December 23, 2009, 05:15 PM)
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It's VB .NET 2.0 ...Make sure your .NET is up to date, if the program is using a control whos discription is corrupt it can cause issues (I ran into that last week). Program comes with Source Code ... Interesting.

superboyac:
I'm positive I already have .NET 2.0.  Unless they've updated it in the last year.  I'll reinstall and see if that fixes it.

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