Counts down days/minutes/hours to whatever with an overlay anywhere on the screen. Can appear as top-level or not, and can be dragged around the screen. Works well along the top of the screen.
Introduction
This application starts with a fairly simple premise—counting down to a date—then starts adding interesting features.In writing this application, I wanted to display a countdown, but also glitz it up a bit. Just showing a battleship-grey dialog with a standard title, minimize/close buttons and borders didn't sound very appealing. Instead, I decided to explore some methods of creating non-traditional windows. Though the effect is still somewhat simplistic, it was a great introduction to "windows without borders" (sounds like a political organization!). As with typical System Tray applications, hovering over the icon displays the application name. Of course it also displays the countdown itself. Right-clicking the icon displays a context menu, and you have the option of changing the settings, or exiting (but why would you do that?).
Usage
When you launch the application, its settings immediately appear. The first two checkmarks should be obvious enough. The Constrain to Right Side option forces the countdown itself to stay along the right edge only. Date and Event should be obvious. The event's name only shows when the time is up and it pops up in the tray. Opacity determines how opaque or transparent the countdown is. Just click Close to get rid of settings.If you don't see the countdown itself right away, play with the settings! It's not 100% perfect every time. Let me know if you want to help.
Event Countdown has been tested all the way to Windows 7 RC1.
This project was originally published as part of an MSDN Coding 4 Fun article.