This is a general timer utility that I wrote to count down the time I had left before I retired. It displays the time in Days, or Hours, or Minutes, or Seconds, or Hours:Minutes:Seconds. You can set it to exclude Vacation days, Holidays, and Weekends by entering a non zero value in the Vacation Days field. It displays the time left on the taskbar, in the Tray, and plays a sound and flashes when the countdown reaches zero. Since I retired I added the ability to simply enter a period of time, so that it is also a dinner timer. This is superior to my previous dinner timer, the smoke alarm.
This is what you see in the Taskbar Tray, when your mouse is over the Icon for Howlong. This is Hour:Minute:Second format, and implies that there are 4:13:11 H:M:S until zero time left.
If you right click on the Howlong icon, you get this screen, which allows you to get help or update the time interval.
This is the view you get if you doubleclick the Howlong Icon, or right click on it and pick Update Timer. This is used when setting up a date/time interval and display format. The screen also pops up when the time runs out. You can pick which icon is displayed in the tray from the six shown, simple by clicking on it and then save.
Date/Time formats shown in the help screen that the program will accept:
MM/DD/YY HH:MM:SS AM/PM Examples: 2/6/99 or 12/31/1999 11:59 PM (The time entry is optional)
+HH:MM:SS Example +3:45 is 3 hours and 45 minutes from now (The plus sign is required so the program knows it is an interval, not a date or time)
Files needed for Howlong are in two groups:
1. Howlong Version 5.0.0 files:
2. MFC42 files.
You probably have these files. If not, get this CAB file, extract the
seven files, and put them in \Windows\System. Be sure to backup any files of the
same names until you are sure this latest version of MFC42 and it's associated files
causes you no problems!!
Group 1 files go in whatever directory you choose. Group 2 files go in \Windows\System.
If you like the program, or find bugs, or have suggestions for improvement, please Email me.