Cool Timer is, as its name suggests, an application that can time your activities. It can be used in three different modes: as a countdown timer, as an alarm clock or as a stopwatch.

With a simple yet intuitive interface, Cool Timer attracts through its simplicity and ease of use. At first launch, you are greeted by the default theme of the application, but you can customize the main image and the background color if you fancy.

You can gain a better understanding of the program’s features by exploring its menus. They encase options to create time presets for later use, to switch between the three modes or to access the Preferences section.

The first of the three modes, namely the countdown timer, is able to visually display time passage through a radial motion.

This is especially useful for parents or teachers to monitor how much time is left when taking a test, for instance. When the time’s up, the application pops up a message in LED style, warning you that the period you have set has expired. Furthermore, if the visualization feature is on, it jiggles the image in a more visually appealing warning.

Setting up the alarm clock and stopwatch

The alarm clock mode features a snooze option, while the stopwatch mode is able to measure the elapsed time to a hundredth part of a second.

Behavior and appearance can be customized using the Preferences window. Here, you can create a new look for the countdown timer, as well as configure the alarm system. You can assign sounds, be it a built-in audio file or another one that’s stored on the local disks. Cool Timer works with WAV, MP3 and MIDI files and can play the files in a loop or just a single time.

Another interesting aspect is that you can run multiple instances of the application when you require to time different activities. In other words, you can start one instance to use it as a timer, one to use it as an alarm clock and another one in the stopwatch mode or any other combination that works for you.

Cool Timer also places an icon in the Windows System Tray that opens the main window of the application or closes it and stops the playing alarm. The good news is that although it’s supposed to run most of the time you’re working on the computer, the program is not at all a memory hog and remains very friendly with hardware resources.

In conclusion, Cool Timer impresses through ease of use and the wide array of customization options. The visual incentives make it all the more attractive and cool, so to say.