Stay on track

Simple and reliable, this free desktop alarm is one of the better ones we've seen. Users of all levels will appreciate the useful features that it brings to the table.

Alarm 3.5.5 offers a basic, digital-style display. The program comes with a large selection of themes that really only change the color-scheme. Drop-down menus let you quickly set the hour and minutes for the alarm, but the minutes can only be set in 15-minute increments. If you don't feel like going through the trouble of manually setting the alarm, the Quick Alarm feature lets you set it using preset time increments. Once you set the alarm, the current time is replaced by the alarm time. The default alarm sound is rather harsh, but we were able to quickly and easily add our own MP3 files to replace the sound. If you are a fan of the snooze button, the program lets you adjust the snooze time, as well as the number of allowed hits. We especially liked that you can set multiple timers at once, which appear as a new window on your desktop.

The program doesn't offer any real help, but we doubt you'll need it thanks to its intuitive interface. If you're looking for a straightforward alarm clock with useful functions, Alarm 3.5.5 is the one for you.