Have a Rest Alerts User to Take Rest

Thursday, June 28, 2012

Have a Rest Alerts User to Take Rest

Few days ago I wrote about FadeTop, which was able to remind users visually to take rest from their work. Today I found another tiny freeware that does the same thing,

Have a Rest is a timed reminder software to remind users to have a rest. when the break time, it can pop up message or lock the screen for a while according to the settings to remind users.

Features & Specifications

Tiny installer (670 Kb), installs fast.
Desktop icon will not be created by default.
Opens webpage on installation finish.
Launches automatically after installation to tray. Double click on tray icon to launch the program.

Main Settings

By default the reminder comes each 60 minutes and stays for 10 minutes. The parameters can be changed of course.
By default it locks Screen and shows countdown.

Screen Locked with Countdown Timer

Alternatively it can be set to show pop-up message in a Shaking for user attention.

Shaking Pop-up

It runs on all Windows version, both 32 and 64 bit.
Light on system resources.

System Resource Usage

My Verdict

As all of you might know, I like tiny software and Have a Rest has almost suited my needs. I don't need much options in it but some things has to be tweaked.
It has Lock Screen as the default option, but there is no option to quit that. If you are doing some important work that time, you must feel annoyed. A keyboard shortcut to quit the lock screen will do.
It should have an option to launch at OS Start up.
The software should have a portable version.

For portable software lovers, I have a temporary soluton for the portable version of the software. Copy rest.exe from the installation directory of Have a Rest (For Example: C:\Program Files\Skybn\Have a Rest). You can execute rest.exe any time to launch the software, even if it has been uninstalled.