The original Hourglass FAQ can be found here.
- How do I start, stop, pause or resume a timer?
- What do symbols ⏺⏸⏹⏏🔁 mean?
- What formats are supported when entering a duration or date and time?
- How do I start a second timer with the Hourglass?
- How do I keep the timer window on top of other windows?
- How do I run a timer in full screen mode?
- How do I stop the timer from prompting me when I close the window?
- How do I minimize the timer window to the notification area?
- What are the notification area actions?
- How do I repeat the timer automatically when it expires?
- How do I stop the timer from popping up on top of other windows when it expires?
- How do I automatically close the timer window when the timer expires?
- How do I automatically shut down Windows when the timer expires?
- How do I start a timer for a duration or until a date and time that I recently entered?
- How do I clear recently entered durations and dates and times?
- How do I resume a timer that I accidentally closed?
- How do I save a timer?
- How do I clear saved timers?
- How do I set a title for a timer?
- How do I change what is displayed in the timer window title?
- How do I change the timer window color theme?
- Is there a dark color theme available?
- How do I add a custom color theme?
- How do I rename a custom color theme?
- How do I delete a custom color theme?
- How do I change the notification sound?
- How do I add a custom notification sound?
- How do I remove a custom notification sound?
- How do I loop the notification sound?
- How do I stop the timer keeping the computer from going to sleep?
- How do I show the time elapsed rather than the time left?
- How do I create a shortcut that automatically starts a timer with the Hourglass?
- What command-line arguments does the Hourglass accept?
- How to launch the Hourglass on Windows startup?
- How to speed up the Portable Hourglass startup?
- What should I do if the Hourglass does not start?
- What should I do if there is no notification sound?
To start a timer enter a duration or date and time in the large text box in the middle of the timer window and click Start or press Enter.
To stop a timer click Stop or press Ctrl+S or simply close the timer window.
To pause or resume a timer, click Pause or Resume or press Ctrl+P.
To pause or resume all the timers click Pause all or Resume all in the timer window options menu or in the notification area context menu.
Note
The Pause and Stop buttons only appear when you move your mouse cursor onto the timer window.
| Symbol | Meaning |
|---|---|
| ⏺ | New |
| ⏸ | Paused |
| ⏹ | Stopped |
| ⏏ | Expired |
| 🔁 | Looped |
Taken from here.
Minutes - To start a timer for a specified number of minutes, enter the number of minutes:
1- count down for 1 minute5- count down for 5 minutes10- count down for 10 minutes
Specifying units - To start a timer specifying the units, enter a number followed by one of the supported units: seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months and years are supported:
30 seconds- count down for 30 seconds5 minutes- count down for 5 minutes7 hours- count down for 7 hours3 days- count down for 3 days25 weeks- count down for 25 weeks6 months- count down for 6 months2 years- count down for 2 years
You can also use the short form of the supported units: s, m, h, d, w, mo and y:
30s- count down for 30 seconds5m- count down for 5 minutes7h- count down for 7 hours3d- count down for 3 days25w- count down for 25 weeks6mo- count down for 6 months2y- count down for 2 years
Combining units - To start a timer using a combination of units, simply concatenate the units:
5 minutes 30 seconds- count down for 5 minutes 30 seconds5m30s- count down for 5 minutes 30 seconds7 hours 15 minutes- count down for 7 hours 15 minutes7h15m- count down for 7 hours 15 minutes
Decimal notation - To start a timer specifying a duration that is not a full number, use decimal notation:
5.5 minutes- count down for 5 minutes 30 seconds1.5 hours- count down for 1 hour 30 minutes0.5 years- count down for 6 months
Short form duration - To start a timer for a specified duration, you can alternatively use the short form m:ss or h:mm:ss formats:
5:30- count down for 5 minutes 30 seconds7:15:00- count down for 7 hours 15 minutes
You can use . instead of : as the separator if you prefer:
5.30- count down for 5 minutes 30 seconds7.15.00- count down for 7 hours 15 minutes
Until time of day - To start a timer until a specified time of day, enter the time of day in the h am/pm, h:mm am/pm or h:mm:ss am/pm formats:
2 pm- count down until 2:00:00 pm2:30 pm- count down until 2:30:00 pm2:30:15 pm- count down until 2:30:15 pm
You can use . instead of : as the separator if you prefer:
2.30 pm- count down until 2:30:00 pm2.30.15 pm- count down until 2:30:15 pm
If the specified time of day has already passed today, the timer will count down until the specified time of day tomorrow.
Until date - To start a timer until a specified date, enter the date in the month day, day month, month day, year or day month year formats:
January 1- count down until midnight January 11 January- count down until midnight January 1January 1, 2019- count down until midnight January 1, 20191 January, 2019- count down until midnight January 1, 2019
You can use the full month name: January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December. Or you can use the short form of the month name: Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec:
Jan 1- count down until midnight January 11 Jan- count down until midnight January 1Jan 1, 2019- count down until midnight January 1, 20191 Jan, 2019- count down until midnight January 1, 2019
Or you can use the month number instead or a two-digit year, if you prefer:
1/1- count down until midnight January 101/01- count down until midnight January 11/1/19- count down until midnight January 1, 201901/01/19- count down until midnight January 1, 20191/1/2019- count down until midnight January 1, 201901/01/2019- count down until midnight January 1, 2019
Note
The order of the day, month and year depends on your system settings in some cases.
Until weekday - To start a timer until a specified weekday, enter Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday or Sunday:
Monday- count down until midnight MondayWednesday- count down until midnight WednesdaySaturday- count down until midnight Saturday
You can also use the short form of the weekday: Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu, Fri, Sat or Sun:
Mon- count down until midnight MondayWed- count down until midnight WednesdaySat- count down until midnight Saturday
To specify a day next week rather than this week, append next week. To specify the weekday after next, append next or after next:
Wednesday next week- count down until midnight Wednesday next weekWednesday next- count down until midnight the Wednesday after next WednesdayWednesday after next- count down until midnight the Wednesday after next WednesdayThu next week- count down until midnight Thursday next weekThu next- count down until midnight the Thursday after next ThursdayThu after next- count down until midnight the Thursday after next Thursday
Tomorrow - To start a timer until the next day, enter tomorrow:
tomorrow- count down until midnight tomorrow
Combining date and time - To start a timer until a specified date, specified weekday or tomorrow and specified time of day, join the date, weekday or tomorrow and the time of day and separate them with at or on as appropriate:
January 1, 2019 at 2 pm- count down until 2 pm on January 1, 20192 pm on January 1, 2019- count down until 2 pm on January 1, 201901/01/2019 at 2 pm- count down until 2 pm on January 1, 20192 pm on 01/01/2019- count down until 2 pm on January 1, 2019Wednesday at 2 pm- count down until 2 pm on Wednesday2 pm on Wednesday- count down until 2 pm on Wednesdaytomorrow at 2 pm- count down until 2 pm tomorrow2 pm tomorrow- count down until 2 pm tomorrow
You can omit the at or on separating the date, weekday or tomorrow and the time of day in most cases:
January 1, 2019 2 pm- count down until 2 pm on January 1, 20192 pm January 1, 2019- count down until 2 pm on January 1, 201901/01/2019 2 pm- count down until 2 pm on January 1, 20192 pm 01/01/2019- count down until 2 pm on January 1, 2019Wednesday 2 pm- count down until 2 pm on Wednesday2 pm Wednesday- count down until 2 pm on Wednesdaytomorrow 2 pm- count down until 2 pm tomorrow2 pm tomorrow- count down until 2 pm tomorrow
Right Click on any empty space in the timer window and select New timer.
Right Click on any empty space in the timer window and check Always on top.
To enter full-screen mode, press Alt+Enter or F11; Double Click on any empty space in the timer window or Right Click on any empty space in the Hourglass window and check Full screen.
To exit full-screen mode, press Alt+Enter or F11 again; Double Click on any empty space in the timer window or Right Click on any empty space in the timer window and uncheck Full screen.
Right Click on any empty space in the timer window and uncheck Prompt on close.
Right Click on any empty space in the timer window and check Show in notification area. Now when you minimize the timer window, it will be hidden in the notification area. To restore all the timer windows, Double Click on the Hourglass icon in the notification area.
To remove the Hourglass icon from the notification area and restore any hidden timer windows, Right Click on any empty space in the timer window and uncheck Show in notification area.
| Action | Description |
|---|---|
Double Click |
Shows/hides all the timer windows |
Ctrl+Click |
Creates a new timer window |
Shift+Click |
Shows the first timer window |
Shift+Middle Click |
Shows the recently opened timer window |
Middle Click Shift+Right Click |
Opens the timer window options menu |
Right Click on any empty space in the timer window and check Loop timer.
Right Click on any empty space in the timer window and uncheck Pop up when expired.
Right Click on any empty space in the timer window and check Close when expired.
Note
The timer window will not close until the notification sound has finished playing.
Right Click on any empty space in the timer window and check Shut down when expired in the Advanced options submenu.
Note
The Windows will not shut down until the notification sound has finished playing.
When you relaunch the Hourglass, the last duration or date and time that you entered will be automatically populated in the input text field. To start a countdown for that duration or until that date and time, simply press Enter.
To start a timer for another duration or until another date and time that you recently entered, Right Click on any empty space in the timer window and select the duration or date and time from the Recent inputs submenu.
Right Click on any empty space in the timer window and select Clear recent inputs from the Recent inputs submenu.
The Hourglass keeps track of running timers that you have closed. To resume a saved timer, Right Click on any empty space in the timer window and select the timer from the Saved timers submenu.
You can also resume all saved timers by checking Open all saved timers in the Saved timers submenu.
And you can set the Hourglass to automatically open saved timers when it starts up by checking Open saved timers on startup in the Advanced options submenu.
A not expired yet timer is saved automatically when closed. See also How do I resume a timer that I accidentally closed?
Right Click on any empty space in the timer window and select Clear saved timers from the Saved timers submenu.
Click in the text field that says Click to enter title, enter a title and press Enter.
To clear a title that you entered, click the title text field, delete the title text and press Enter.
By default, the timer window title displays the application name Hourglass. You can change it to display the time left, the time elapsed or the timer title instead.
Right Click on any empty space in the timer window and then select the appropriate option from the Window title submenu.
Right Click on any empty space in the timer window and select a color theme from the Theme submenu.
Yes. Right Click on any empty space in the timer window and select Dark theme from the Theme submenu.
Right Click on any empty space in the timer window, select Manage themes... from the Theme submenu. Pick a color theme from the drop-down menu to base the new theme on and click New.
Click on each color your want to change and select a color using the color picker. Type the theme name in the textbox at the top of the dialog and click Save to save your changes.
Right Click on any empty space in the timer window, select Manage themes... from the Theme submenu. Pick the color theme that you want to rename from the drop-down menu, type the theme name in the textbox at the top of the dialog and click Save.
The built-in color themes cannot be renamed.
Right Click on any empty space in the timer window, select Manage themes... from the Theme submenu. Pick the color theme that you want to delete from the drop-down menu and click Delete.
The built-in color themes cannot be deleted.
Right Click on any empty space in the timer window and select a sound from the Sound submenu.
Save the sound file to the folder where you installed the Hourglass (typically %PROGRAMFILES(x86)%\Hourglass) or to the %LOCALAPPDATA%\Hourglass directory or to the Sounds subdirectory.
Your sound file should then appear when you Right Click on any empty space in the Hourglass window and select the Sound submenu.
The supported formats are .aac, .m4a, .mid, .midi, .mp3, .ogg, .wav and .wma. If your sound file is not in one of the supported formats, you should convert it first.
Delete the sound file from the folder where you installed the Hourglass (typically %PROGRAMFILES(x86)%\Hourglass). Be careful not to delete any other files.
Right Click on any empty space in the timer window and check Loop sound from the Sound submenu.
By default, the Hourglass keeps the computer from going to sleep so that progress can be displayed and the notification sound can be played.
To stop the Hourglass keeping the computer from going to sleep, Right Click on any empty space in the timer window and check Do not keep computer awake in the Advanced options submenu.
If the computer goes to sleep while a timer is running, the Hourglass will try to wake the computer around the time the timer will expire so the notification sound can be played.
Right Click on any empty space in the timer window and check Show elapsed time instead of time left in the Advanced options submenu.
To create a shortcut, Right Click on your Desktop or the folder where you want to create the shortcut and select Shortcut from the New submenu. Enter the location where Hourglass.exe is (typically %PROGRAMFILES(x86)%\Hourglass\Hourglass.exe) followed by the duration or date and time for your countdown in quotes.
Then click Next, give your shortcut a name and click Finish to create the shortcut.
You can also specify additional command-line arguments to set other options for the timer.
You can launch the Hourglass and immediately start a timer by running Hourglass.exe "<duration or date and time>". For example, to launch the Hourglass and start a 5-minute timer, run Hourglass.exe "5 minutes".
You can also set any option that you can set using the user interface by specifying additional command-line arguments. To view a full list of command-line arguments, run Hourglass.exe --help or click here.
- Press
Win+R. - Execute
shell:startupto open theStartupfolder for the current user. - Drag and drop the Hourglass executable while holding
Altkey to create the shortcut for the Hourglass.
Important
Check Open saved timers on startup in the Advanced options submenu to open all the saved timers on the Hourglass startup.
Processing the Portable Hourglass with the Native Image Generator (Ngen.exe) speeds up the Portable Hourglass startup.
To run script as an Administrator press Win+X and select the Windows PowerShell (Admin) or Command Prompt (Admin). Copy script full path to the console opened and execute one of the following:
- Generate the Hourglass native image and its dependencies and install in the native image cache:
ngen-Hourglass.bat install- Delete the native images of the Hourglass and its dependencies from the native image cache:
ngen-Hourglass.bat uninstallImportant
The Hourglass writes error files in case of the crash to the %TEMP% folder (usually it is the %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Temp folder). File mask is the Hourglass-Crash*.txt.
If the Hourglass does not start or fails silently, delete the Hourglass settings.
The Hourglass settings can be located by the following command (to run it press Win+R and copy-paste command below):
cmd /k dir "C:\Users\%USERNAME%\AppData\Local\Chris_Dziemborowicz*"The settings are stored into the corresponding hourglass.EXE subdirectories.
The Hourglass Portable keeps settings next to the executable.
Some audio files could not be played for Windows with no Windows Media Player installed. To fix this, download the NAudioHourglassPack and upzip its content to the Hourglass folder.
The supported formats are:
.aiff.mp3.ogg.wav