DesktopClock

[wakillon]

Before I used the free DesktopDigitalClock from softwareok.com which is very good
But sometimes the clock bothered me because I couldn't see what was behind it on the screen and there was no way to move it quickly
The second problem was that the clock's display color made the time become unreadable depending on the color of the window behind it

So, why not create my own that would be draggable and would adapt its display color (dark/light) to the window located behind it

See tray menu for options

Script available in download section :  DesktopClock v1.0.0.5

 

Edited Wednesday at 12:46 PM by wakillon

[UEZ]

Salut wakillon,

nice code. 👍

1)

to enhance the quality of the clock text display you may use GDI+.

On black background the text antialias looks not good.

 

Enhanced example from here:

expandcollapse popup

;Coded by UEZ build 2026-03-18
#include <GDIPlus.au3>
#include <GUIConstantsEx.au3>
#include <WindowsConstants.au3>
#include <WinAPI.au3>

Global Const $SC_DRAGMOVE = 0xF012
Global $iW = 300, $iH = 100, $hHBitmap
Global $hGUI = GUICreate("GDI+ Transparent Digital Clock", $iW, $iH, -1, -1, $WS_POPUP, BitOR($WS_EX_LAYERED, $WS_EX_TOPMOST))
GUISetState(@SW_SHOW, $hGUI)

_GDIPlus_Startup()

Global $hBrush = _GDIPlus_BrushCreateSolid(0xD80000A0)
Global $hPen= _GDIPlus_PenCreate(0xFFF0F0F0)
Global $hFormat = _GDIPlus_StringFormatCreate()
Global $hFamily = _GDIPlus_FontFamilyCreate("Impact")
Global $tLayout = _GDIPlus_RectFCreate(0, 0, $iW, $iH)
_GDIPlus_StringFormatSetAlign($hFormat, 0)
Global $hImage = _GDIPlus_BitmapCreateFromScan0($iW, $iH)
Global $hGfx = _GDIPlus_ImageGetGraphicsContext($hImage)
_GDIPlus_GraphicsSetTextRenderingHint($hGfx, 4)
_GDIPlus_GraphicsSetSmoothingMode($hGfx, 4)
Global $hPath = _GDIPlus_PathCreate()

GUIRegisterMsg($WM_LBUTTONDOWN, "_WM_LBUTTONDOWN")

_ShowTime()
AdlibRegister("_ShowTime", 1000)

Do
Until GUIGetMsg() = $GUI_EVENT_CLOSE

AdlibUnRegister("_ShowTime")
_WinAPI_DeleteObject($hHBitmap)
_GDIPlus_FontFamilyDispose($hFamily)
_GDIPlus_StringFormatDispose($hFormat)
_GDIPlus_BrushDispose($hBrush)
_GDIPlus_PenDispose($hPen)
_GDIPlus_GraphicsDispose($hGfx)
_GDIPlus_ImageDispose($hImage)
_GDIPlus_PathDispose($hPath)
_GDIPlus_Shutdown()
GUIDelete()


Func _ShowTime()
    _GDIPlus_GraphicsClear($hGfx, 0x00000000)
    _GDIPlus_PathReset($hPath)
    _GDIPlus_PathAddString($hPath, @HOUR & ":" & @MIN & ":" & @SEC, $tLayout, $hFamily, 0, 56, $hFormat)
    _GDIPlus_GraphicsFillPath($hGfx, $hPath, $hBrush)
    _GDIPlus_GraphicsDrawPath($hGfx, $hPath, $hPen)
    $hHBitmap = _GDIPlus_BitmapCreateHBITMAPFromBitmap($hImage)
    _WinAPI_BitmapDisplayTransparentInGUI($hHBitmap, $hGUI)
    _WinAPI_DeleteObject($hHBitmap)
EndFunc

Func _WinAPI_BitmapDisplayTransparentInGUI(ByRef $hHBitmap, ByRef $hGUI, $iOpacity = 0xFF, $bReleaseGDI = True)
    If Not BitAND(GUIGetStyle($hGUI)[1], $WS_EX_LAYERED) = $WS_EX_LAYERED Then Return SetError(1, 0, 0)
    Local $tDim = DllStructCreate($tagBITMAP)
    If Not _WinAPI_GetObject($hHBitmap, DllStructGetSize($tDim), DllStructGetPtr($tDim)) Then Return SetError(2, 0, 0)
    Local $tSize = DllStructCreate($tagSIZE), $tSource = DllStructCreate($tagPOINT), $tBlend = DllStructCreate($tagBLENDFUNCTION)
    Local Const $hScrDC = _WinAPI_GetDC(0), $hMemDC = _WinAPI_CreateCompatibleDC($hScrDC), $hOld = _WinAPI_SelectObject($hMemDC, $hHBitmap)
    $tSize.X = $tDim.bmWidth
    $tSize.Y = $tDim.bmHeight
    $tBlend.Alpha = $iOpacity
    $tBlend.Format = 1
    _WinAPI_UpdateLayeredWindow($hGUI, $hScrDC, 0, DllStructGetPtr($tSize), $hMemDC, DllStructGetPtr($tSource), 0, DllStructGetPtr($tBlend), $ULW_ALPHA)
    _WinAPI_ReleaseDC(0, $hScrDC)
    _WinAPI_SelectObject($hMemDC, $hOld)
    _WinAPI_DeleteDC($hMemDC)
    If $bReleaseGDI Then _WinAPI_DeleteObject($hHBitmap)
    Return True
EndFunc

Func _WM_LBUTTONDOWN($hWnd, $iMsg, $wParam, $lParam)
    Switch $hWnd
        Case $hGUI
            _SendMessage($hWnd, $WM_SYSCOMMAND, $SC_DRAGMOVE, 0)
    EndSwitch
EndFunc   ;==>_WM_LBUTTONDOWN

Func WM_NCHITTEST($hWnd, $iMsg, $iwParam, $ilParam)
    If ($iMsg = $WM_NCHITTEST) Then Return $HTCAPTION
EndFunc

 

2)

GUICtrlSetData($idLabelDate, _StringProper(_DateDayOfWeek(@WDAY, 2)) & ' ' & @MDAY & ' ' & _StringProper(_DateToMonth(@MON, 2)) & ' ' & @YEAR)

2nd _StringProper make the char in between upper case -> MäRz 2026.
 

3)

Maybe you can add background color check for upper and lower part separately.

 

4)

The icon flashing in the system tray is a bit annoying.

 

Merci. 

Edited March 18 by UEZ

[wakillon]

Hallo UEZ und vielen Dank 😉

1) I figured you were going to ask that 😂
I wanted to do something simple with Labels,
but no problem, i will do a second version with gdi+ to improve the display

2) Instead of _StringProper could you try with _StringTitleCase to find out if it works for German language

3) For the color check, are you talking about each line of text ?

4) After all these years, you haven't noticed that most of my scripts have a blinking icon ? 😉

[UEZ]

9 minutes ago, wakillon said:

Hallo UEZ und vielen Dank 😉

1) I figured you were going to ask that 😂
I wanted to do something simple with Labels,
but no problem, i will do a second version with gdi+ to improve the display

2) Instead of _StringProper could you try with _StringTitleCase to find out if it works for German language

3) For the color check, are you talking about each line of text ?

4) After all these years, you haven't noticed that most of my scripts have a blinking icon ? 😉

1) disadvantage of this technigue is always the aa quality and with the other technigue you can achive better quality

2) _StringTitleCase() works properly

3) yes, but when I think about it, there will always be a situation where even this doesn't work propely

4) that was new to me, too. 😄

[wakillon]

Something like this ?

 

 

Edited March 19 by wakillon

[UEZ]

Yes. 👍

[wakillon]

DesktopClock v1.0.0.3.au3 updated to GDI+ Version

[UEZ]

Very good. You may add an entry to the tray menu to reset the position of the clock for the case it is out of the screen on next startup.

[wakillon]

You are right
I just thought of another problem
The "pixelgetcolor" function is done on the left side of the GUI, it would be necessary to detect if the GUI is at the extreme left of the screen to use the function on the right

[wakillon]

DesktopClock v1.0.0.4.au3 updated

[wakillon]

DesktopClock updated

Now via traymenu / Options
you can set Dark Color / Light Color / Outline color and set Font Size

Edited Wednesday at 12:47 PM by wakillon