Windows Vista Features : Notification Area and System Clock

As the name suggests, the tray is designed for notifications and shouldn’t be used as a taskbar replacement although some developers try to use it that way for some reason (some applications inexplicably minimize to the tray rather than to the taskbar as they should). Applications like Windows Live Messenger and Microsoft Outlook, which need to alert the user to new instant messages, e-mails, or online contacts, also use the tray, and display small pop-up notification windows nearby.

One thing that has changed demonstrably is the system clock. In Windows Vista, this feature is now dramatically better than its XP relation. At first glance, it’s not obvious what’s changed. The clock displays the time, as you’d expect. And if you mouse over the time display, a yellow balloon tip window appears, providing you with the day and date. In Windows XP, you could access the system’s Date and Time Properties dialog box by double-clicking the clock. This doesn’t work in Windows Vista.

Instead, you can singleclick the clock to display a new pop-up window, shown in image below, which provides a professionally formatted calendar and analog clock. And there’s an option to display the new Date and Time Properties window.

From the Additional Clocks tab of this dialog box, you can add up to two more clocks. Each clock gets its own time zone and optional display name. What’s cool about this feature is the way it changes the clock displays. Now, when you mouse over the clock, you’ll see a pop-up that lists data from all of your clocks, as shown in image below.

And when you click the clock, you’ll see the nice display shown in following image.

When you click Date and Time Settings, you’ll see the new Date and Time Properties window, as shown in image below. Here, you can configure options you’d expect, such as date, time, and time zone. But you can also configure additional clock displays, which is an excellent feature for travelers or those who frequently need to communicate with people in different time zones