Comments on: Recommended windows alarm software?

Question: Recommended windows alarm software?

betterton — Wed, 03 Aug 2005 12:37:50 -0800

Can you recommend alarm/timer software to run on windows?

I would particularly like to find a program with complicated alarm cycles - for example, I might want to stop and stretch for 5 minutes every half hour, so an alternating 5 and 25 minute alarm would be ideal. Even better would be the choice of both audio (beep) and visual (screen flash) alarm settings.

By: randomstriker

randomstriker — Wed, 03 Aug 2005 13:32:20 -0800

If you are comfortable with the command prompt, I recommend using the built-in AT and NET SEND tools. That will accomplish everything you want. E.g.

at 15:00 /every:M,T,W,Th,F net send myusername "Stretch!"

This will pop up an alert dialog on your screen with a chime.

By: randomstriker

randomstriker — Wed, 03 Aug 2005 13:40:31 -0800

Hmm...it seems the built-in Scheduled Tasks application also provides a nice graphical interface to the AT service. Under Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools...assuming Windows XP Professional (not sure about Home edition).

By: jacobsee

jacobsee — Wed, 03 Aug 2005 14:23:54 -0800

i'm a happy user of Kirby Alarm. It's free and quite complex. He makes you "register" but it's just for him to know how many people use it, pretty low-risk I think.

Runs in the system tray. I've had it pop up alerts and run programs but playing a sound is another option I haven't tried.

By: furtive

furtive — Wed, 03 Aug 2005 18:41:55 -0800

The Timers page on the 43 Folders wiki has a list of them for Windows, other OSs and meatspace.

By: BradNelson

BradNelson — Wed, 03 Aug 2005 21:18:06 -0800

Konfabulator has some times, countdowns, etc.

By: catachresoid

catachresoid — Tue, 09 Aug 2005 16:09:44 -0800

I use DerBrowserTimer, a clean little Firefox extension. Each browser window creates a new instance of the widget, so you could have one window set to alert you every half hour, with another window set to go off every half hour offset by 5 minutes.

The drawback would be that if you close a window, you just lost an alarm.