YTrayClock

Recently I have found that using vertical task bar is much more useful than using horizontal task bar.
There is much more space for task buttons (started applications) plus there is enough space for quick lunch. One more important thing is that now there is usually (with wide screen monitors) more horizontal space, which is not efficiently used. I prefer task bar on the left side, but it is not that important. The thing is that with vertical taskbar I have a huge space for clock which is nearly empty:


I try to find some way to format whatever I have inside clock, but to my surprise there is no way to do that. Then I try to find some external programs. I have found few (TClockEx, TClockLight), but they didn't do what I want (plus the do not work for win7). I want to have big clock and small info about weekday (plus calendar week, because this is something I need). So I decide to make it by myself. Here you can download my implementation. Before starting program please take a look inside .ini file, there you will find a format specifiers (how to customize it). With my settings you will get something like this:
If you use horizontal task bar then it might look like this (there is no enough room for everything with horizontal bar):
Clicking on clock you will get calendar (like this):
Click again on clock to close it. Use mouse wheel to change months, or click on buttons to change years, months ([!] button jumps to today)
Stopping a program can be done by clicking with middle mouse button (usually wheel) on clock or by starting program for second time (it will ask whether to stop already running instance).

Tray replacement implementation for Windows XP and win7 (separate versions - 32 and 64 bit), not tested on 95/98, 2000, vista)

Use YTrayClock in order to have configurable tray clock. It can be used under Windows XP, Vista, Win7.

Installation

No installation is required. Just unzip downloaded archive in some folder. Then start: or depending on what type of OS you have (32/64 bit).
There is no need to have administrative rights in order to have it running.

Deinstallation

To uninstall program there is nothing special to do: If you simply remove files from your disk (without removing registry settings and unckecking Auto start) ... well - you will notice no problems, but there will be some dirty registry entries (perhaps removed later by some smart registry cleaner) and there will be some incorrectly auto start setting for windows (BTW again registry setting) which will not harm your computer, but is better not to have it.

Usage

Besides having customizable clock (and looking on it easily) one can do following things:

Calendar

Calendar is activated with left mouse click on clock (inside tray).
Clicking again on clock will hide calendar (it could also be hidden if clicked on its close button: top right corner [x]).
On the left side of calendar there are calendar weeks in blue color.
Today is marked as a sunk rectangle.
Turning wheel will change calendar month.
Buttons on calendar has following actions:

Settings

Activating settings could be done by either starting YTrayClockOptions.exe or by clicking with middle mouse button (click wheel if you have wheel) and then selecting "Options".

Currently there are 3 tabs in settings dialog: General, Clock and PerfMeter

Settings: General Tab

Settings: Clock Tab

What YTrayClock displays in tray is configurable. There are two different settings: for vertical and for horizontal taskbar. Which setting is visible (and editable) depends on current state of a taskbar (so move it if you want to see/edit the other state).
On the right side in a list "Format Characters" one can see meaning of format strings (it's only for help purposes, list does not do anything else - just displays formats).
On the left side one can see table with currently configured rows and columns displayed in a tray.
Clicking on any item will display details above table. This details could be edited.
Selected Cell group
Details of a selected cell (from the table with rows/cols) are shown in "Selected Cell" group and has following meaning (editing any setting has instant effect, so no OK button):
Space around Clock group
One can configure space around entire YTrayClock. Adding additional space to the left and right works on horizontal task bars (right space will have no effect on vertical task bars). For vertical task bars adding space it's usable to add space above/below clock (below space has no effect on horizontal task bars).
Changing number of rows/columns to display
Use buttons on the right side of the table to add/delete columns/rows from a table with cells. To use them (make them enabled) first select either row or column (by clicking on column header or on the row). By default YTrayClock is configured to have two columns on horizontal task bars.
To have just one column (like default windows clock):
  1. select first column and then press key [Del Column].
  2. edit empty cell and put there something useful (for example dd.MM.yyyy)
Formating text
All the text entered in quotes is displayed as is (without quotes). So "day" is displayed as day (try it in some cell). Some special character combinations are displayed in a special way if entered without quotes. So day without quotes will display as ?ay where ? is today date as number (so something between 1..31). Formatting strings are: