Photo Clock-7 for Windows

Style-7's Photo Clock-7 is a free analog clock screensaver for Windows that lets you use your own images as a clock face background. It has the usual analog clock options, such as removing the second hand, and editing things like font color, but the ability to use your own picture for the background makes it a more interesting choice, in our opinion, than other screensavers of the same type.

We installed Photo Clock-7, opened our screensaver properties, selected the program, and clicked Settings. A small dialog let us choose background and font colors, including custom colors via a standard color picker. There's also a nifty little button labeled Swap that changes the font color to the background color and vice versa. We could also choose the font, select whether to show the second hand, and browse for background images. We browsed to an image, selected it, and pressed Preview to test the screensaver. The image appears in the circular clock face area, with the rest of the image hidden, so individual faces seemed the best choice. The effect is quite attractive; however, we wish the program offered some more display options, such as selectable transparency or the ability to select another image as a background instead of a solid color. We liked the default display enough to recommend Photo Clock-7 without reservations, though.

We keep hearing about how analog clock displays are on the way out, but they have lots of advantages over digital time displays, chiefly their graphical impact, as they show the time at a glance from across the room. But they also give a better indication of passing time. The option to replace the clock face with a friendly, familiar picture makes it that much better.