Problem with Alfaclock 1.99 Free Edition

from Stardock Forums

After a few frustrating months, I've finally been able to narrow Explorer lockups to a program called Alfaclock (www.alfasoftweb.com). This is an awesome program --so much so that I'm considering not purchasing Windowblinds because it conflicts with the Alfaclock program. It seems to lock up the entire taskbar and I have to Ctrl-Alt-Del both the 'explorer' process and the 'Alfaclock' process, then run explorer.exe again in order to regain control of my computer. I'm using XP Pro, SP2 with all updates. I have the latest versions of my graphic driver and I'm using the Trial version of Windowblinds 6.3.

Has anyone else experienced the same problems? Aside from uninstalling one program or the other, are there any suggestions to fixing it? Would this be a problem with Alfaclock or with Windowblinds? I really love both programs and would hate to have to give up one or the other. Thanks in advance for any feedback you might have.

windowblinds
3,492 views 5 replies
Reply #1 from WinCustomize Forums Top

You might try opening WindowBlinds and under setting exclude Alfaclock from being skinned.  Not sure if that option is available in the Trial version though.

I think you will find most folks have moved away from using the Taskbar and use Object Dock Plus or Object Bar to replace it. 

Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top

Dang... after I read your suggestion I thought DUH! Why didn't I think of that before!?!? I tried it and..... it didn't work. I ran the Alfaclock program and it froze explorer again. I had to do the 'end task' on both and rerun explorer again.

Now... I just had a thought and I used WB to set the skin back to the Windows XP default. I then started Alfaclock and Voila! It worked without freezing anything up. So with Alfaclock running ok, I tried changing to a different skin. Again.... it WORKS! Nothing froze. Now I'm more confused than ever. So it now seems that if I run Alfaclock FIRST before WB, then everything is OK?!?!? How do I fix my Startup programs now, to make sure Alfaclock loads before WB does?

TouchTasks - Access tasks with ease on Windows touchscreens.
Reply #3 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Couple things.....try updating to SP3.....there's several utilities out ther to tweak your startup programs with....http://www.freedownloadmanager.org/downloads/startup_sequence_info/

I checked out alphaclock and it does look cool.....however, there's literally dozens if not hundreds of clock programs out there....but only ONE Windowblinds....choose wisely :)

Reply #4 from Stardock Forums Top

Thanks for your feedback, Lantec. I tried updating to SP3 and had several issues with a bunch of other software that I have. I'm a little leary to go back and try that again. As for all the other clock programs out there, I have looked and really haven't found one that does the same thing as Alfaclock. I specifically liked that one program let me customize the display of the clock, had a pop-up calendar, built-in atomic time sync AND allowed you to run a program as an 'alarm.' If anyone has additional suggestions for a replacement, that would be great. (Although, doing that might be a bit off topic here on this forum. ;) )