Desktop Clock-7

CNET Editors' review

by: CNET staff on January 19, 2011

Desktop Clock-7 from Style-7 is a free analog desktop clock. It's a very simple program that displays only the system's time settings, not the time in world cities nor the temperature nor. It's just a good, old, round clock face with hour, minute, and second hands and a central date display that can show a custom text logo instead. Desktop Clock-7's chief advantage is its stylishness, with clean black-and-white graphics and highlights and shadows that give the clock face a realistic look.

Desktop Clock-7 opened in the lower right-hand corner of our desktop with a compact yet quite readable display about the size of a man's wristwatch; dragging the corner let us enlarge the display until it was about as big as a bedside alarm clock. We were also able to drag the display around the desktop and set the program to remember the position in the Options. The program displayed our system time and date accurately, and the second hand swept along with a stepped, second-by-second motion that closely mimicked a good analog movement. Right-clicking either the clock face or Desktop Clock-7's system tray icon opened a menu accessing the options dialog, a full Help file, the program's Web site, and the Hide and Exit controls. Clicking Hide removed the clock display from our desktop. We clicked Show on the system tray icon's menu, and the clock display reappeared. The options included basics like autorun and always-on top settings as well as the capability to select either the date or a custom text logo of 10 characters or less. The Pro version adds a color option, picture clock faces, and the capability to set numerous alarms.

If you're looking for an attractive analog clock for your desktop, Desktop Clock-7's free version is just fine as it is. The Pro version is less than five bucks, though, so if you like Desktop Clock-7 and think adding pictures or colors or an audible alarm sounds good, it's not a clock-stopper.