I used TClock 2010 for quite some time now without problem. Now that I installed WindowBlinds (8.0.6) this system tray clock is not able to show a transparent background. I've tried to find in Skin Studio (I'm a newbie and never really designed skins) where I could make it transparent again but no luck. I am using Lantana 2. There are no settings in TClock 2010 for transparancy, it's enabled by default.
One thing I noticed with other skins (Precision) is that the transparency goes all the way back to the background. The clock is transparent but so is the system tray. Why would it not show the skin and get transparent only to the skin, not all the way through.
Through SkinStudio you'd have to edit the tga files with Photoshop, or an equivalent that allows adding alphas channels. You can find instructions on how to do so via google.
Another way is to directly edit the registry keys for WB:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Stardock\WindowBlinds\wb.ini\Global
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Stardock\WindowBlinds\wb.ini\Global2
forceTaskbarAlpha should have a value between 0 - 255, and if you do not currently have taskbar transparency it will probably be set to 255 (or close to). Setting it to 0 should make your taskbar completely transparent.
**BEFORE MAKING ANY CHANGES TO THE REGISTRY, BACK UP THE KEYS PRIOR TO BY USING "EXPORT".**
Thanks jmonroe0914 but the goal here is to prevent transparency for the clock. I am not trying to make the taskbar transparent.
I apologize, as I misunderstood... however, the same process "should" work. Instead of setting the value to 0, set it to 255. Also, if you're comfortable using regedit or an equivalent, I would search around the settings for TClock and see if there's a value you could change that might help.
Hi, unfortunately those settings in the registry already are at 255. It looks like the TClockEx superseed the settings of the taskbar's system tray transparency albeit there are no settings within the app.
A few thoughts... and two questions:
What OS are you currently using and if it's windows 7/8.1, why are you still using TClockEx? From all appearances, TClockEx is a piece of software developed for Windows XP and still relevant with Vista, however massive UI implementation changes were enacted with Windows 7 and increased substantially with Windows 8/8.1... all of which play a role in how the user experience with WindowBlinds is.
Better, and far more customizable, software exists that would allow you to completely design your own UI overtop of Windows with a miniscule system footprint (if you so chose), and the same software can be used to create a custom clock on the Windows Taskbar ... Rainmeter [Rainmeter.net] is a limitless piece of software and something I would encourage you to check into.
All of the features TClockEx offers are all apart of Windows already, just not in a GUI form. While some can be changed via the system clock and and Control Panel, others would require you to manually edit the registry (TClock would implement it's changes one of two ways, or a combination of both, either by taking user input and running commands on the backend to edit the registry or it supplies it's own custom files (such as plugins) which implement the changes).
I personally would simply uninstall TClockEx and use Rainmeter, especially if you're running 7/8.1, as TClockEx was never intended to be compatible with those OSs and it is for this reason you're having compatibility problems. (Whether an piece of software will function is never the question, but how it will function within the confines of an OS it was never intended to be used on... in other words, just because an application works on a newer OS doesn't necessarily mean it's compatible with that OS - both are separate unto themselves and do not always influence one another).
The clock program you are using hasn't been updated in years. Actually from what I read it doesn't even support Windows 7 or up. I have no idea what OS you are using.
Below is a link of a great working clock program. The person that makes this clock has been here on WC and told us about it. Many people have purchased it from here. There is a free trial if you wish to look and try it. It also will show the seconds if you wish. I receive nothing for giving you the link only trying to help you and show there is a clock available to use other than the Windows clock. You have question just contact the author and he will reply back. At least he always has but I have had no need to contact him in the past year. Yes after the trial you would have to purchase it but sometimes the good stuff is worth the purchase just like Stardock Programs.
http://drive-software.com/atomicalarmclock.html
I understand you guys that the app was not designed for my Win7 x64 but Rainmeter (heavy on ressources) and Atomic Alarm Clock (not really free and bulky) are not cutting it. I've tried them already. One of the key feature of TClock is to configure it to send to the clipboard the date/time in a specific format when you double click it. I sure could build a small vb script to do the same and launching it from an shortcut but it's much more simple having it straight from TClock.
One thing to keep in mind is that the app does not have an issue when Windows Blinds is not loaded. I don't have a transparancy issue on my taskbar with TClock without WIndowsBlinds. Hence my post. So there is something that Windows Blinds does that adds something to the transparency on the tray.
If Rainmeter is heavy on resources, something else is going on as Rainmeter, by design, consumes a miniscule amount of resources and is entirely dependent on INI files. I'll post a screenshot of my desktop later which shows a massive amount of ini's loaded (all of which are auto updated every .5 - 60 seconds) with a 0.6% CPU load and 26.9MB of memory. If it was a while ago, it could very well have been a bug that has been fixed. While Rainmeter does take a bit of time to customize, the end result is generally spoton since the user is designing ini's to their personal preferences (which is why what you can do with Rainmeter is limitless).
As to the compatibility.... DWM (Desktop Windows Manager) has deep hooks within Windows and WindowBlinds is altering the complete UI of Windows with (I assume) either deep hooks on its own or piggy backing on DWM's. One has to consider that the Windows XP and Vista interfaces were highly customizable, however this drastically changed in 7, even more so in 8/8.1. More likely than not, your issue is fixable by digging around the registry for the right key, however its time intensive and things can go wrong very fast if you don't backup every key prior to modifying (consequence of not doing so could be a completely trashed OS, with only a reinstall as a fix). My hunch is that TClockEx either specifies a specific area on the taskbar to not paint, or it overrides the taskbar for that specific area and paints with an alpha variable. I could very well be wrong, as its a bit beyond my knowledge, however its an educated guess. If it is done in such a manner, there's going to be a registry value somewhere for it.
I hear you, my searches in the registry did not return anything. And honestly the only feature that I lack in other clock appz is the copy date time to clip board. And I can make this happen with a simple batch file like this one:
@echo offset hr=%TIME: =0%set hr=%hr:~0,2%set min=%TIME:~3,2%echo %DATE% %hr%h%min% |clip
So I think I will go ahead and remove the app and try to see what Rainmeter can do with a newer version than the one I had (clogging the CPU). Thanks for your help guys.
As far as Rainmeter goes, there's two versions on their site, 1 a stable release [.31] and a beta version [.32]. I've used both and I haven't noticed any stability difference with any of the INIs I run. I've included a screenshot to show how many INIs I have running (everything except the Comodo widget is Rainmeter), along with the Task Manager showing Rainmeter @ .6% CPU usage. It does occasionally go as high as ~3.5%, however that's the highest usage I've ever seen with the specific INIs I run. I have a 2nd gen i7 quad core at 2.2Ghz, 24GB of RAM with a 25GB - 50GB pagefile, as well as Seagate SSHD hybrid drives. I know the Hybrid drives make a huge difference in the responsiveness of the OS and file system, so there is the possibility Rainmeter may use slightly more system resources than my current configuration uses; However, due to the basic nature of Rainmeter, I wouldn't think it would ever go above 5 - 6% of CPU usage with heavy INI usage.
While rainmeter only includes a few INIs and just one skin (I think) [Illustro], you can find a plethora of others on DeviantArt. I would also recommend checking out the Omnimo skin (google Omnimo), as having it run in the background provides more options for rainmeter INIs even if you don't use the Omnimo skin or INIs.
In reference to TClockEx, something occurred to me as I was writing this... have you attempted to run it in Compatability mode? It's in the file properties and I would select XP SP3. The other thing I forgot to ask is when you added it to the exclusion list in WB, did you also try selecting individual exclusions or just excluding the entire application (there's a bunch of checkboxes towards the bottom that address individual issues).
(You'll need to click on the image area to go to OneDrive, as for some reason, it's not allowing the picture to be shown within the reply)
There is also a Rainmeter Gallery right here at WinCustomize. https://www.wincustomize.com/explore/rainmeter
The new version I downloaded seems morre stable and uses less ressources. Your computer is a beast, mine is an old laptop with i5 at 2.4Ghz with 6Gb or RAM and a very basic video card (Intel on board). So the impact Rainmeter has on your machine is minimal because of the huge amount of ressources you have compared to mine. Anyways, I do run it since yesterday and so far so good. I only have 3 ini (date, time and weather) but that's enough.
First time I ran Rainmeter was probably last millennium [sounds better than last century]. Rainy did modules that applied to LiteSTEP ....so that would have been on a P100 running Win98 ..... something like 16 meg of ram and 1 meg GPU.
It might have grown a bit since then [most apps do] but it 'should' run on the smell of an oily rag...
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