There is a wealth of add ons, doo dads, widgets, and other style elements that can be added to Windows. Being one who prefers a minimalist approach, I tend to avoid the eye candy and opt for a clean desktop. Of course there is always the exception.

TclockEx is a small freeware utility that enhances the clock on the system tray. This is not a replacement for Windows' default clock. Instead, the code hooks into the existing clock and adds the functions that complete what Microsoft left unfinished. By using this method, the author insures that this utility uses a very tiny bit of system memory.

Besides the default clock elements, TclockEx includes date elements, a small pop up calender and several system resource elements such as CPU load (%), memory load (%), avilable RAM (MB), etc. Along with that is the ability to choose custom background colors, fonts and font color and size. Now you have the ability to choose the appearance and exactly which elements to include on your system tray clock.

This screenshot of my own desktop shows just how unobtrusive this little gem can be made to look.

A very simple clock style suits my taste, however there is one resource element that I include which I glance at nearly as often as one would check a rear view mirror. That is the available RAM. Upon closing a program, I like to check to see if it released my memory. A quick look shows me I have 368MB of available RAM. Sweet.

You can configure your clock to appear any way that strikes your fancy. The combinations are endless. For users who like to mod their Windows styles, you can match any custom style color... or not.

The three reasons I enhance my clock are to make it easy to read, add the date and display RAM. You may find many more uses. I've used this nifty little utility for several years and it's thumbs up all the way.