THE EXTREMELY UNOFFICIAL WEB PAGE FOR
Stoic Joker's T-Clock
Taskbar System Tray clock replacement utility for Windows


   POSTED: Tuesday, 17 Feb 2009 at 21:33 PST
UPDATED: Thursday, 4 June, 2009 at 16:32 PST
 
By Gregg L. DesElms

This is a special, temporary web page created so that persons who have been given its URL (or who happen to stumble onto it via Google or some other search engine) will be able to download the version of Stoic Joker's T-Clock system tray clock replacement utility that I just happen to have on my computer, which I downloaded from his site back in... er... well... I can't even remember how long ago it was.

As of this writing, Stoic Joker's web site has been down for a while (though since this writing, it may be back up again... who knows... it seems to come and go), and so, since his site's been down, no one has been able to download any of his truly outstanding versions of the venerable freeware T-Clock utility...

...a utility which I've been using, in one form or another, since it first appeared, as written by a fellow who called himself "Kazubon," back in 1995 (yes, I'm an old-timer).

Stoic Joker's version, however, is the first one that truly worked properly on Vista. There are other versions out there, though, which can be found if one looks around long enough. Some of them may even offer a few more features than Stoic Joker's version. He trimmed down his version a little to include only the most salient features, and by so doing I (and many others) think he actually made it better. In fact, those, like me, who have a long history with T-Clock, generally consider Stoic Joker's version to be best-of-breed.

NOTE: Since Stoic Joker's site is down so much, and this site is fast becoming the ex-officio T-Clock site (at least for Stoic Joker's version of it), I should probably explain, for the benefit of the uninitiated new site visitor, that T-Clock is a little utility which, once installed and properly configured, launches when Windows starts, and changes the appearance of the little clock in the System Tray (aka, the "Notification Area," which is down in the lower-rightmost corner of the screen in Windows) so that it will display not just the time, but also the day-of-the-week and date... in any desired format... even on two lines, if the user likes... and all without forcing the taskbar to be vertically taller. T-Clock also boasts some other interesting and useful features, as well... such as quick access to certain built-in Windows utilities and/or configuration panels, access to network drives, quick reboot, a nice pop-up calendar, timers, the ability to change window tiling; and it allows the user to add several of his/her own items, as well.

It's really a very slick little utility that's completely free, and actually works. I've been using one version or another of it for years. I'm not sure I could live without it anymore, in fact.

Some have said that the new "SuperBar" feature in upcoming Windows 7 (slated for release in October of 2009) will permit much the same kind of Notification Area clock appearance customization as T-Clock offers. They suggest, then, that if one only uses T-Clock for how it can make the Notification Area clock look, and not for any of its other useful features, then Windows 7 users may not even be interested in T-Clock... thereby leaving it just something which XP and/or Vista users would likely appreciate.

However, though I've not played with it yet myself, I've heard that Windows 7's SuperBar can't really achieve T-Clock-like Notification Area clock appearance feats without making the taskbar vertically taller... which no one would want. Plus, T-Clock does way more than just change how the Notification Area clock looks. So, then, even Windows 7 users may still want T-Clock... that is, if it will even run in Windows 7. If anyone out there tests T-Clock in Win7, and it works, please let me know.

Anyway, back to the main text...

Lately, and sadly, Stoic Joker's version of T-Clock seems to have all but disappeared from the Internet.

In a programmer forum posting from early 2009 that I happened to stumble onto while searching for a place from which to download a newer version, Stoic Joker himself posted that he had had a massive computer motherboard failure of some kind which somehow wiped-out his code libraries for the most recent versions which he had, up to that

UPDATE - June 4, 2009: Since this page was first created back in February 2009, Stoic Joker got his web site back up and working again. In fact, he even emailed me and thanked me for this page; and we finally got a chance to chat, which was nice. After reading this page, he even asked me if I'd be interested in writing some kind of how-to or HELP file or something for T-Clock... which, of course, I'm perfectly happy to do (though he and I haven't yet finalized any of that).

I also offered (and, for the record, I'm still offering) to let him mount his T-Clock site on one of my servers... where it will at least be reliable (since his seems so unreliable). For no more bandwidth and disk space than a simple T-Clock site would likely use, I'll even let him have it for free! It certainly seems like he could use a better server. But, ultimately, he can decide. I'm sure he'll let me know.

At any rate, having finally heard from him, I, for a while, had a little note, like this one, at the very top of this page, explaining that since his site was back up, this page was kinda' moot; and I suggested that everyone should just download T-Clock itself from Stoic Joker's site... since that's the obviously better place, and also because I assumed that the version there was newer than the one here. After that, the only reason to view this page might be for its T-Clock configuration information (see below).

However, within a month or so, I started getting email from people telling me that his site was down again... then up... then down... then up... then down... Oy!

Interestingly, during one of Stoic Joker's site's "up" periods, I went and snagged a copy of the T-Clock version he was making available... and guess what: Turns out it's the same version I've been making available here. Hmm. All along I thought the version I had here was older. Go figure. Perhaps the newer versions that I thought I saw on Stoic Joker's site were the ones that wouldn't run right on 64-bit Vista, as he wrote about in that earlier-referenced forum posting. If so, then maybe that's why the one he had on his site more recently turned out to be the same one I have here. Who knows. Maybe he'll clear that all up for us at some point in the future.

Anyway, since it seems that one never reallly knows when and/or if Stoic Joker's site will be up and running, I'll go ahead and keep this page up. Time will tell what utilmately happens.

Now, back to the original text from when I first mounted this page in February 2009...

The link to download T-Clock is further down on this page. For those who need a little help installing and configuring it once they've downloaded it, here are the basics...

To manually install it, first create a "T-Clock" sub-folder to the "Program Files" folder, then copy (preferably move) the three unzipped folders into it as sub-folders thereof. Then navigate into the sub-folder for whichever version of Windows (32-bit or 64-bit) that you're using. Then left-double-click on the "Clock.exe" file to launch it (T-Clock will initially look funny in the system tray because you will not yet have customized its font and colors... just don't worry about that temporarily).

Once T-Clock is loaded into the system tray and has replaced Windows's native system tray clock, right-single-click on the weird-looking T-Clock display and select from the pop-up menu the item labeled "T-Clock Properties" and the "Stoic Joker's T-Clock Properties" pane will open. Once there, go to the "About" tab and specify (by checking the box near the bottom) that T-Clock should start when Windows starts, and then click on the "Apply" button. (NOTE: If the box is already checked, then just uncheck it, and then click on the "Apply" button; then immediately re-check it, and then click on the "Apply" button again.) That will put a shortcut to load T-Clock into the "Startup" folder so it will auto-load when next Windows is restarted. And so then basically, at that point, T-Clock will technically be installed... but don't close the pane yet (or, if you have, re-open it)...

With the "Stoic Joker's T-Clock Properties" pane still open, go ahead and configure the appearance of the clock in the System Tray, and of the calendar that will appear when it's double-clicked upon...

On the Clock Text tab, I use the following settings:

T-Clock Text Options

   Font: System
   Size: 9 (leave "Bold" and "Italic" unchecked)
   Color: Red=160, Green=160, Blue=160 (click on the square "..." button to access)
   Line spacing: -2 (that's negative 2)

Clock Size

   Width: -4 (that's negative 4)
   Height: 0

Text Position

   Horizontal: 0
   Vertical: -1 (that's negative 1)
   Rotate: None

Now, on the Time Format tab, there's a weird little bug in the utility that will keep the custom setting that I like from displaying quite properly unless at least a few things described below are exactly as I recommend setting them, to wit:

First make sure that the locale is set to "English (United States)".

Then make sure that the "Custom Format" box near the bottom is unchecked.

Then, make sure that only the following boxes are checked:

   - Year
   - Date
   - Day
   - Month (digit)
   - Hour
   - Minute
   - CR
   - 12H
   - AM/PM
   (All other boxes should be unchecked)

It matters not what's in the "AM Symbol" and "PM Symbol" drop-down selector fields.

Then, put a checkmark into the "Custom Format" box (all other checkboxes will turn grey).

Then, in the field beneath the words "Custom Format," type this exactly:


   ddd m-dd-yyyy\nh:nn:ss tt

   That's "ddd" and then a space;
   and then "m-dd-yyyy" and then (no space) a backslash;
   and then (no space) "nh:nn:ss" and then a space;
   and then "tt" (all of it in lower-case)

Then, on the Mouse tab, I personally, prefer the settings to be:

Drop files: None
Mouse click: Left button, double click
Action: Show Calendar
Tooltip: LDATE TIME

Then click the "OK" button (to save the changes and close the pane).

Then look at the T-Clock display in the System Tray. Left-double-click on it to see the calendar pop-up. If you like the way those settings make T-Clock look and behave, then you're all set...

...and if not, then, sorry, but you're on your own. The above is how I have mine set and I like it. If you don't, then by all means don't hesitate to figure a better way through trial and error (which is the way I originally did it... though that effort was, admittedly, informed by my having used so many previous versions for so many years... so I kinda' knew my way around). Just remember that the letters in the "Custom Format" field are case-sensitive; and that the carriage-return/line-feed is a backslash, not a pipe symbol ("|") as in some older (or as in some other people's) versions.

Beyond that, you'd really have to just poke around on the other tabs and figure out what all the other settings do and how everthing else works... which I'll leave up to you. I will tell you that on my personal copy, I've configured "Quicky" menu commands that do little utilitarian things... like opening and/or closing my various CD/DVD drives, for example, just to name one. Use your imagination.

Then restart Windows to verify that T-Clock really does start automatically when Windows starts, and that it kept its configuration. If so, then you're all done. Explore the other settings and capabilities at your leisure and I believe you'll agree that not only did Stoic Joker do a terrific job even on this old version; but also that his is, overall, the best version ever released. Some others may do more fancy-dancy things, perhaps, but they tend to be larger, more complex, and may run as services... which isn't necessarily good in a utility like this one. That it loads from an icon in the Startup folder is just perfect... or so it is my opinion, in any case.

Here's the downloadable .ZIP file: