Introduction

Since Microsofts Windows VISTA reached the public status in January 2007 the development of especially new Sidebar Gagets have increased more and more. To participate on this “euphoria” it was and is still my aim to design a usefull Gadget for everyone which include a lot of different tools.

Generally, the Microsoft Sidbar is one of the most expectand feature in the new operating system VISTA. This Sidebar can include a lot of different Gadgets. Gadgets are easy-to-use mini programs that give you informations at a glance and provide easy access to frequently used tools. With this Software you get a clearly arranged overview of some important informations. So you can check the weather or some RSS-feeds, open an application to view your calendar or open a calculator program and so on. Until now there are exists already some of such little Gadgets, which can be downloaded for free at the official Windows Live-Gallery Site.

With some little knowledge of HTML, JAVAscript and CSS it is possible to develop your own Gadget and to showcase it to the public. A small guidedance for how to create such a Gadget you can find on this Microsoft site: link .

An example how such a Sidebar could be on Windows VISTA is shown on the right hand side. Interesting are mostly Gadgets which show important system informations. With some Gadgets you can readout for example the CPU and RAM usage or your internet connection. Tools like a notepad or a shortcut manager can make the work on Windows definitly easier.

CTcontrol

CTcontrol stands for Computer & Time Control and it shows some important informations on your desktop. Furthermore with this Gadget you can standby, shutdown, restart or logoff your computer very easily. More feature are….

Feature Overview

o shows digital time, toggle between 12, 24 hour and internet Beat Time
o shows the date: day, month, year and day of the week.
o shows the current day of the year and week of the year number.
o shows the quarter of the year
o individually countdown to any date, with your title
o refreshung of all shown data after every second
o system uptime (time since last windows restart)
o embedded stopwatch for difference opportunities: e.g. stopp a calling, a delivery or whatever…
o simple manage: standby, shutdown, restart, logoff and soundoptions. Buttons protected by a “glass” slider
o automatic shutdown, restart etc. for a special point of time or time span
o adjust the design of the gadget. Choose one of 11 different skins
o alarm clock (24 h)
o timer function
o individual sound for alarm and timer
o “gong” sound at midnight
o statusbar shows information for chrono, timer, alarm

Download

CTcontrol 3.1 (de, eng, ru) 40.935 Downloads (372,5 KiB | Upload: 6. Oktober 2011)
"Computer & Time control" zeigt Ihnen übersichtlich die aktuelle Zeit, Datum & Betriebszeit Ihres Computers. Weitere Features sind....

Guideline

Skins

History

v. 1.0 – 16.02.2007
+ Release

v. 1.1 – 22.02.2007
+ New: AM/PM function
+ New: shows current week number and day of the year
+ New: quarter and season of the year
+ New: some minor fixes on the appearance, removing the strong glare in the left corner of the gadget, minimize the gadget height a little bit

v. 1.2 – 25.02.2007
+ New: settings option
+ New: choose 8 new skins
+ New: some graphic improvements e.g. rearrangement of the AM/PM and seconds

v. 1.3 – 27.02.2007
+ New: collapse or expand Gadget, including suiteable skins
+ New: 3 new skins + one over-worked (green Mamba)
+ New: toogle between 24H, 12H and Swatch Internet Beat Time (over one Button)
+ New: Countdown till new year
+ Removing: season, because of some problems with south and north hemisphere
+ New: some graphic improvements

v. 1.4 – 05.03.2007
+ New: simple alarm for 24 hour clock
+ New: language support: english, german, dutch (thx Toon)
+ New: 2 new skins

v. 1.5 – 13.03.2007
+ New: individually countdown, toggle standard countdown (new year)
+ New: now with full language support: english, german, dutch (thx Toon)
+ New: 1 new skin (VISTA)
+ New: Flyout with Guideline
+ Modified: 2 digits by uptime 0d 00h 00m 00s
+ Modified: stop watch buttons
+ Modified: shutdown, restart, logoff. should now works on every partition %windir%

v. 1.6 – 22.03.2007
+ fixed: runtime error on starting on a minor computers with an “Debugger” program.(thx ALL for reporting)
+ fixed: runtime error when clicking on “?” in the gadget.
+ fixed: wrong display of time at midnight by 12 h clock: now it shows 12:23 AM instead of 0:23 AM
+ modified: 12 h clock now have two digits by hour. 9:23 AM –> 09:23AM
+ fixed: wrong navigation through the skins in settings. Now all skins are showen. (thx Toon for reporting)

v. 1.7 – 09.04.2007
+ fixed: runtime error when pressing “stop” on stop watch.
+ fixed: some language parts, now complete “guidline” for german and dutch.
+ New: Option for 12/24 h clock (settings now saved after a restart)
+ New: Option for hidding some gadget infos: day/week/quartal and [?]; [@]
+ New: Option to change time and date
+ New: Added a “credit” part and a “PayPal” donate button.

v. 1.8 – 30.05.2007
+ New: Language support for french (thx André Tran)
+ New: Added “standby” button next to other button

v. 1.9 – ??.08.2007
+ New: smooth shadow around main skins.
+ New: timer function with sound and popup-box.
+ New: symbol for timer, showing timer is running
+ New: buttons in system control section: standby and soundoptions.
+ New: mouseover infobox above the system control buttons.
+ New: options for hidding countdowns and slider.
+ New: Language support for norwegian (thx Jørgen Næss).
+ modified: minimize-gadget-button in right upper corner instead invisible button.
+ modified: change priority of countdowns. First the personal countdown is showen now.
+ update: guidline.
+ fixed: stopwatch runs in background while pausing.
+ fixed: uptime bug on some machines
+ fixed: some cosmetic rearrangements.

v. 2.0 – 01.02.2010
+ New: Bugfix week of the year, now ISO8601 is default, monday first day of the week
+ New: timer now set by typing in the values of time
+ New: automatic shutdown, restart, hibernation of Windows at special point of time
+ New: individually sound for alarm and timer
+ New: re-worked option menu
+ New: code optimizing
+ New: fading statusbar for chrono, alarm and timer
+ New: re-design of some skins

Credits

- PuTTee [GERM, webhost, programming]
- Toon van den Bersselaar [NL, translation, tester]
- Dan Palmer [UK, translation, tester]
- André Tran [FR, translation}
- Jørgen Næss [NO, translation}
- a lot of people [bug reporting, suggestions]

Modified versions of CTcontrol

Here you can find modified versions of CTcontol, which was devoloped of a requests from some users. These gadgets include only the function of system-uptime and/or the system control buttons. So this versions are space-saving and power-saving. All minimalist people who have waited for such a version can try it now. Hope you like it. (idea: Attolini and others)

Screenshots:

CTcontrolMini1.0.1 5.831 Downloads (87,9 KiB | Upload: 21. Oktober 2007) Abgespeckte Version von CTcontrol

CTcontrolNano1.1 3.683 Downloads (44,8 KiB | Upload: 4. November 2007)

CTcontrolMINImod by Patrick/Schweiz 6.850 Downloads (82,4 KiB | Upload: 23. Februar 2008)