topbanner_forum
  *

avatar image

Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.
Did you miss your activation email?

Login with username, password and session length
  • Thursday March 28, 2024, 6:07 pm
  • Proudly celebrating 15+ years online.
  • Donate now to become a lifetime supporting member of the site and get a non-expiring license key for all of our programs.
  • donate

Author Topic: Seeking a just-right countdown timer application for windows  (Read 4121 times)

ayryq

  • Supporting Member
  • Joined in 2009
  • **
  • Points: 101
  • Posts: 289
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Hi, my pastor just asked me if I could find a way to have a timer display on our projector screen counting down to the time when our service starts. We show a timed powerpoint show of announcements prior to the service, so this would need to display over the top of that.

There's about a million countdown timers out there for Windows but I need one feature that seems pretty uncommon, namely, to count down to a time (e.g. 10:45 AM) instead of by an amount (e.g. 10 minutes). I need this so I don't have to do math, or be precise about when I start the timer.

Here's the rest of my wishlist:
Displays on top of powerpoint (on 2nd monitor) with no border, background, etc.
Configurable font face, size, color, and opacity.
Ability to have it just disappear or exit when reaching 0:00. (I.e. no message, no blinking; I don't even want it to stay there saying "0:00."
(as mentioned) Counts down to a specific time, according to the system clock.

Some more "wants":
It would be nice if it remembered everything from week to week so I could just hit "start"
It would be nice if the number string was configurable (e.g. I don't want leading zeros on the minutes)

The best one I've found so far is:
http://www.da-share..../presentation-timer/ - it lacks the ability to count to a specified time.

Has anyone already done this search and found the perfect countdown timer?

Thanks,
Eric

ayryq

  • Supporting Member
  • Joined in 2009
  • **
  • Points: 101
  • Posts: 289
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: Seeking a just-right countdown timer application for windows
« Reply #1 on: April 14, 2015, 02:05 PM »
Here's another "almost"
http://download.cnet...2350_4-10805510.html

+Counts down to a specified time, and disappears at zero
-Size and color of text not configurable
-Has some compatibility problems with Windows 8 (error on exit)
-doesn't remember settings (like where the time was displayed) This might be because of the error above.

Ath

  • Supporting Member
  • Joined in 2006
  • **
  • Posts: 3,612
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: Seeking a just-right countdown timer application for windows
« Reply #2 on: April 14, 2015, 03:25 PM »
-Has some compatibility problems with Windows 8 (error on exit)
-doesn't remember settings (like where the time was displayed) This might be because of the error above.
You might be able to fix that by applying "Run as Administrator" on it, it probably tries to write to protected registry locations. It's from 2008... :huh:

mouser

  • First Author
  • Administrator
  • Joined in 2005
  • *****
  • Posts: 40,896
    • View Profile
    • Mouser's Software Zone on DonationCoder.com
    • Read more about this member.
    • Donate to Member
Re: Seeking a just-right countdown timer application for windows
« Reply #3 on: April 14, 2015, 03:41 PM »
This sounds like a good candidate for a Coding Snack if you don't find something perfect already made..

kunkel321

  • Supporting Member
  • Joined in 2009
  • **
  • Posts: 597
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: Seeking a just-right countdown timer application for windows
« Reply #4 on: April 14, 2015, 03:46 PM »
Looks like there's also a freebie coming up on
http://www.bitsdujou...n=upcoming-discounts

Iv'e never used it, so don't know how great it is.

EDIT:  Also search
https://sourceforge....s/?q=desktop%20timer

Looks like "Desktop Timer" might be a candidate for you(?)

ayryq

  • Supporting Member
  • Joined in 2009
  • **
  • Points: 101
  • Posts: 289
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: Seeking a just-right countdown timer application for windows
« Reply #5 on: April 15, 2015, 07:57 AM »
-Has some compatibility problems with Windows 8 (error on exit)
-doesn't remember settings (like where the time was displayed) This might be because of the error above.
You might be able to fix that by applying "Run as Administrator" on it, it probably tries to write to protected registry locations. It's from 2008... :huh:

Good call, that fixed it. The program was writing to the program directory to save previously-used settings. So it does save the location and time previously used. I'll have to try this one at church and see if the (non-configurable) font face and size works on the projector.