Who’s Window? Yo Window

I know I am stating the obvious here but about two weeks ago I downloaded a free desktop weather program onto The Homestead’s main page.  I didn’t write anything about it at the time because I wanted to see how it behaved on the homepage and I also wanted time to play with it to see what it was about.

I gotta say…I LOVE this program.  I’m a closet weather geek at heart so one day while searching for an answer to a technical issue I was having on the blog, I stumbled across this program and became pretty excited.

In fact, I was SO excited about this weather program after using this free blog version I became completely obsessed about  purchasing the  full screensaver version.  I didn’t care what it took either…a second mortgage on the house, draining Bear Cubs college account…none of it mattered…I had to have it.
So last night before shutting everything down and turning in for the night I caved to my obsession.   I spent the whopping one time fee of $9.99 to own it and slept like a baby.

The weather program you see here on The Homestead was designed by the clever fellows at YoWindow.   “Village”, as it’s called, is currently the only “living” weather landscape they have but according to their website are trying to have a few more up by January 2011.

I am sure whatever else they come up with will be great but I think we’ll keep this landscape.  I really like it.  It reminds me of a farm or a homestead and that’s probably why I got so excited when I saw it for the first time because it “fits” our blog theme.

If you’ve clicked on the weather window then you know it opens up into a full screen image, if you haven’t, you should.
I’ve taken some screen shots off of my computer so I can point out a few things about the program.  Some are obvious, some are not.

Click the images to enlarge them.

This image is what you see when The Homestead first appears.

If you place your cursor over the weather screen, you will see the four arrows.  Click the screen to get a full size window.

Once it’s open, most of what you see is pretty obvious.  The 5 day forecast in the upper left hand corner, the current conditions on the upper right, and the time bar at the top.

By clicking the arrow at the end of the 5 day forecast, you can expand the forecast by 3 more days.  If you want to check the weather conditions for Wed, December 1st, you would click on that box. Then you can click on the white square in the time bar and slide it to whatever time you want to see how the weather will change throughout the day.

At any time you can click on the word, “Live”, in the upper left hand corner of the screen, and this will reset the weather, date and time back to current conditions.

If you don’t want the 5 day forecast or the current conditions visible all the time, you can remove them both or individually by clicking the “View” tab at the very top left of the screen and select them from the drop down box.

So it looks like this.  You can also remove the time bar.

If you want more than just your location, you can add other cities. In the free version of the screensaver, you only get to choose two.  In the super dyna-whoppin full version, you can add many more.

If you want to know what time the sun will rise or set, hover your cursor over the sun.  My cursor is hovering over the sun in this image but when you do a screen shot, it doesn’t appear.  Or at least in my screen shots it doesn’t.  You can also hover your cursor over the time bar to reveal a shaded area that I believe shows the path the sun takes throughout the day.
Another thing you’ll notice in this image is the horse by the tree in the pasture.  Her name is Millie.  She walks around the pasture and is very realistic looking to watch.

I thought I would include a nighttime screen shot.  The lights in the house come on and shut off at different times throughout the evening.
You’d also see the moon if it weren’t covered by the clouds.

In addition to the sun and moon rising and setting at the appropriate times, Millie in the pasture and the house lights, at any given time you might see; birds flying,  clouds moving across the sky, airplanes flying during the day and night, the wind blowing the weeds around, shooting stars and smoke rising from the house in colder weather.

Because I just discovered this weather program two weeks ago, I have only seen the winter setting but as the seasons change in real life, so will the seasons on the weather program.
I guess it makes sense to refer to it as a living landscape.

Now if the landscapes YoWindow provides aren’t something you like, you can supply your own picture and apply the “living” application to it.  They also have many picture on their site to choose from as well.

If you want to learn more about this product, you can visit their site here and poke around.   Be sure to watch their promotional video.
Another cool video I found is by Miss Download on YouTube.  She gives her review of  this product plus she shows you many of the cool features I mentioned above but because it’s video, you see it in action.

I in no way have any affiliation with YoWindow so I gain nothing by writing about their product other than the satisfaction and hope that others might enjoy it as much as I do!

Tags: desktop weather, miss download, weather, yowindows