A minimal WPF desktop widget that displays the current time as a fuzzy English phrase — "just a little after 11", "almost noon", "quarter past 3" — or as a minimal analog dial with hour and minute hands. It floats on the desktop as a transparent, frameless, always-on-top overlay with no background box.
| Phrase mode | Phrase + stats |
|---|---|
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| Dial mode | Dial + stats |
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- Phrase mode — time expressed as natural English, updating on 5-minute boundaries
- Dial mode — hour and minute hands on a transparent background (no face, no numbers); optional hour ticks, minute marks, and hour labels
- Stats panel — live CPU / GPU / MEM / PAG usage as horizontal bars below the phrase or dial; per-row visibility toggles; 1s / 3s / 10s update interval
- Battery row — shows battery charge percentage and
⚡when AC-connected (e.g.⚡ 87%); displaysN/Aon desktops or VMs with no battery; toggleable per-row like other stat rows - Uptime row — system uptime (
up 5h 3m), rolling 1m/5m/15m CPU load averages, and active process count (142p) in a single compact line - Date display — shows the current date below the clock phrase or dial in a muted accent color; toggleable; four format options:
- Short:
Sat, Mar 7 - Long:
Saturday, March 7 - Numeric:
3/7/2026 - ISO:
2026-03-07
- Short:
- Ghost mode — hovering the mouse over the widget automatically hides it (fully transparent and click-through) so it never blocks the desktop; moving the mouse away restores it; customize which modifier keys (Ctrl/Alt/Shift) suppress ghost fade via Settings > Behavior; defaults to Ctrl+Alt; toggleable via tray
- Auto-contrast — samples the screen color under the widget every 500ms and automatically switches text to black or white (WCAG-based) when the accent color loses contrast against the background; toggleable via tray
- Accent colors — five quick presets (White, Amber, Ice Blue, Green, Hello Kitty Pink) via Settings, or pick any custom color; applies to all text, hands, bars, and decorations
- Window opacity — 25% / 50% / 75% / 100% via Settings or scroll wheel in 10% steps
- Font size — Small (16pt) / Medium (24pt) / Large (32pt) / Extra Large (40pt) via Settings (phrase mode only)
- Hover backdrop — semi-transparent dark background covers the full widget footprint (phrase, date, stats) on hover; optional always-visible mode and configurable opacity (10%–100%) via Settings Appearance tab
- Hover fast-refresh — stats accelerate to 0.5s while the mouse is over the widget (hold configured modifier keys to hover without triggering ghost mode; defaults to Ctrl+Alt)
- Auto-launch — optionally start the widget at Windows login; toggled via the system tray
- Per-monitor position memory — position is remembered per-monitor; switching monitors restores the last-used position on each display
- Drag anywhere — left-click drag repositions freely; position saved immediately
- Persistence — all preferences saved to
%LOCALAPPDATA%\FuzzyClock\settings.json - Settings window — open from the system tray ("Open Settings..."); three tabs organize all preferences:
- Appearance — named themes, accent color, opacity, font size, clock style, phrase style, phrase wrap
- Stats — stats panel visibility, individual row toggles, update interval, process threshold, date display
- Behavior — phrase language, ghost mode, ghost override modifiers (Ctrl/Alt/Shift), auto-contrast, auto-launch, battery alert threshold
- Named themes — five one-click theme presets in the Settings Appearance tab: Midnight, Neon, Ghost, Warm, Terminal; each sets a coordinated accent color, opacity, font size, clock style, and stats visibility
- Phrase styles — four English phrase personalities: Classic (default natural), Terse (compact), Poetic (literary), Rude (irreverent); selectable in Settings Appearance tab (English locales only)
- Multilingual phrases — time phrases available in English, French, Spanish, German, Japanese, and Polish; auto-detects from Windows display language or override in Settings Behavior tab
- Phrase wrapping — when a phrase is more than 10% wider than the stats panel, it automatically splits across two lines; two split styles: Nearest Midpoint (word break closest to string center, default) and Natural Pause (split after first grammatical beat, English only); configurable in Settings Appearance tab
- Edge snapping — dragging the widget to within 8 pixels of any screen edge snaps it flush to that edge; respects the taskbar working area
- Single instance — launching the app when it is already running brings the existing window to the front instead of opening a second instance
- Battery low alert — battery stat row background turns red when charge drops below a configurable threshold (10%/15%/20%) and the device is unplugged; configurable in Settings Behavior tab
- Dark-mode Settings — the Settings window uses a dark background with light text matching the widget's minimal aesthetic
- Update notice — when a newer FuzzyClock release is published on GitHub, a one-line accent-colored "vX.Y.Z available" notice appears at the bottom of the stats panel; checked once per launch. The check can be disabled in Settings > Behavior > "Check for updates on launch" (default ON).
- Windows 10 or 11
- .NET 10 Desktop Runtime (or SDK for building from source)
Download FuzzyClockSetup-X.Y.Z.exe from the latest GitHub Release and run it. The installer places the app in %LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\FuzzyClock\ with no admin elevation required.
A standalone portable FuzzyClock-X.Y.Z.exe is also available from the same release page.
SmartScreen warning: The binary is not code-signed. Windows SmartScreen may show a warning on first run. Click More info then Run anyway to proceed.
Upgrading: run the new installer over the existing installation. Settings are preserved. If the app is running, the installer will prompt you to close it first.
Uninstalling: use Settings > Apps > Installed Apps or the Start Menu uninstaller. App files are removed; settings.json is preserved by default (an optional checkbox during uninstall lets you remove it).
dotnet build FuzzyClock.slnxdotnet run --project FuzzyClock.AppOr build and launch the executable directly:
dotnet build FuzzyClock.slnx -c Release
./FuzzyClock.App/bin/Release/net10.0-windows/FuzzyClock.exedotnet test FuzzyClock.slnx274 unit tests: phrase engine (all 5-minute buckets, noon/midnight, edge cases), dial geometry, uptime formatter, date formatter (all 4 formats), phrase wrap service, settings validation and migration, and app integration tests.
Right-click the system tray icon to access all settings:
| Item | Description |
|---|---|
| Open Settings... | Open the Settings window (Appearance / Stats / Behavior tabs) |
| Ghost Mode | Enable/disable hover-to-hide (checkmark = active) |
| Show Stats | Show/hide the stats panel (checkmark = active) |
| Auto-Contrast | Enable/disable automatic text contrast adjustment (checkmark = active) |
| Auto-Launch at Login | Enable/disable start at Windows login (checkmark = active) |
| Reset to Defaults | Restore factory settings (accent, opacity, font size, phrase style, locale, all toggles) |
| About | Show version information |
| Quit | Exit the application |
| Action | Effect |
|---|---|
| Left-click drag | Move the widget |
| Scroll wheel | Adjust opacity in 10% steps |
| Hover | Ghost mode: widget fades out and becomes click-through |
| Modifier keys + hover | Suppress ghost mode; activates hover backdrop and fast stats refresh instead (configurable via Settings > Behavior; defaults to Ctrl+Alt) |
The tray icon is the primary UI surface. Right-click it to access quick toggles (Ghost Mode, Show Stats, Auto-Contrast, Auto-Launch) and open the full Settings window. All detailed configuration (themes, phrase style, language, stats rows, date format, battery alert, phrase wrap) lives in the Settings window.
Open from the tray menu ("Open Settings..."). The window has three tabs:
Appearance — Named theme presets (Midnight / Neon / Ghost / Warm / Terminal), accent color swatches and custom picker, opacity slider, font size, clock style (Phrase / Dial), phrase style (Classic / Terse / Poetic / Rude), phrase wrap controls (enable/disable, split style), and backdrop controls (always-visible toggle, opacity slider).
Stats — Stats panel toggle, individual row visibility (CPU / GPU / Memory / Paging / Battery / Uptime), update interval, process count threshold, date visibility, and date format.
Behavior — Phrase language (Auto / English / French / Spanish / German / Japanese / Polish), ghost mode, ghost override modifiers (customize which modifier keys suppress ghost fade: Left Ctrl / Left Alt / Left Shift), auto-contrast, auto-launch at login, check for updates on launch, and battery alert threshold (10% / 15% / 20%).
FuzzyClock.slnx
├── FuzzyClock.Core/ # Pure logic (PhraseEngine, DialGeometry, UptimeFormatter, DateFormatter, PhraseWrapService, ContrastService)
├── FuzzyClock.Core.Tests/ # MSTest unit tests for Core logic
├── FuzzyClock.App/ # WPF overlay window
│ ├── MainWindow.xaml(.cs) # Main UI and event handlers
│ ├── SettingsWindow.xaml(.cs) # Three-tab settings UI (Appearance / Stats / Behavior)
│ ├── StatsService.cs # PDH performance counters (CPU/GPU/MEM/PAG)
│ ├── ContrastSamplerService.cs # BitBlt screen color sampling
│ ├── GhostModeController.cs # Win32 click-through and restore timer
│ ├── TrayMenuBuilder.cs # System tray icon and menu construction
│ ├── ContrastRefreshController.cs # 500ms auto-contrast timer
│ ├── AutoLaunchService.cs # Registry auto-launch management
│ ├── MonitorService.cs # Per-monitor identity and position tracking
│ └── SettingsService.cs # JSON settings I/O and migration
└── FuzzyClock.App.Tests/ # MSTest integration tests for App layer
FuzzyClock.Core has no external dependencies. FuzzyClock.App references System.Diagnostics.PerformanceCounter (NuGet) for PDH stats counters.
Preferences are stored at %LOCALAPPDATA%\FuzzyClock\settings.json and written atomically (temp file + rename). Safe to delete to reset all preferences to defaults.
| File | Description |
|---|---|
| .planning/PROJECT.md | Full feature list, key decisions, and architecture notes |
| .planning/ROADMAP.md | Phase-by-phase build roadmap |
| .planning/MILESTONES.md | Shipped milestone history and accomplishments |
| .planning/STATE.md | Current project state and next action |