TheAeroClock

TheAeroClock by Nenad Hrg is a simple but unusually attractive desktop analog clock display. You can change its size from tiny to full-screen and its transparency from practically invisible to opaque. It offers a wide range of colorful 3D textures that give it a unique and highly customizable look. It displays system time, and that's it--no date or text message. TheAeroClock is all about the look, and it's got that.

TheAeroClock is portable freeware that opens as soon as you click its extracted program file, displaying its clock face and its settings dialog. This simple pop-up has sliders for setting the clock's size and transparency and a drop-down menu for Image/Texture choices. A series of check boxes include Always on Top and Fixed Position options as well as an option to start the program at Windows startup. We could also enable or disable the sweeping second hand. This option shouldn't be underestimated since some users might find the second hand's motion distracting. A large button centered the clock on our screen. We could click a small button labeled LNG to change the interface language. A system tray icon toggled open the program's settings when we needed to change them.

We tried a variety of sizes, transparencies, and textures with TheAeroClock. We really liked the Copper-style themes, especially Orange-Copper and Blue-Copper, and the Ice themes were nice, too. But our favorite turned out to be Glass, the most subdued of the looks but the one that proved the value of the transparency tool since we were able to increase the opacity. Most of the time we kept TheAeroClock small and tucked away in a corner of our desktop, but the full-screen display is visible clear across a large room, making TheAeroClock versatile as well as attractive.