Vistablogged

In the first part of this topic, I explained how to manage multiple time zones using the additional clocks feature of Windows Vista. However, this approach had two shortcomings:

• You could only add 2 additional clocks
• You could not have a permanent view of the various time zones and you had to hover/click the system tray time to view the other clocks.

In this post, we discover a way which allows you to do both of the above.

The way to do this is using the Sidebar feature of Windows Vista. If you cannot see your sidebar, then simply press the Windows Key and type "sidebar" and press enter. This should bring back your sidebar on your desktop. Now right click the side bar and choose Add Gadgets.

This should launch the Add Gadgets window, which lets you select from a range of gadgets to add to your side bar. Choose the Clock Gadget from the list of gadgets. You can add by either double-clicking the Clock icon or by right-clicking and selecting Add.

This adds the clock to your side bar. Now, the cool thing is that you can add more than one of the same type of gadget. Go ahead and add as many as you want. For this example, I will add 4.

Once you do that, you should see 4 clocks on your side bar. Now there are two things that you can do which are really cool. One: Each of these clocks is individually configurable. Two: as all gadgets in Windows Vista, these can be dragged onto the desktop and placed anywhere on the desktop (although you are free to leave them on the side bar).

To configure a clock, right click on it, and choose Options. Once you are in the options, you can choose the time zone and a label for the clock. Set up each one as you like. You can then drag them to the desktop and arrange them whichever way you like them. You can even set them to be always on top and set their opacity so they become a little transparent. Here’s what my 4 clocks look like on my desktop:

Of course, if you explore a little, you will see that you can choose different faces for each of these clocks as per your preferences.

Of course, if you want to find the time for a time zone not configured for one of your clocks, you can always ask Google.

Have fun.