Options -- Run PatentWatcher™ at Windows^® Startup

You can set an option to make PatentWatcher™ run automatically at Windows^® startup.  This may be desirable for automation of saved searches.  Automation of saved searches is in effect only when PatentWatcher™ is running.  By making PatentWatcher™ run at Windows startup, you don't have to remember to launch the program to put automation into effect.

To set this option, open the Options dialog from the Options menu on the main window, check the option, and click the Okay button.

When this option is in effect, PatentWatcher™ launches at Windows^® startup and is available to you from the System Tray.  The System Tray is the small area on the Task Bar near the digital clock that displays the time.

PatentWatcher™ will run there out of your way.  If you want to display PatentWatcher™, either double click on the PatentWatcher™ icon, or right click on the icon to display its popup menu and then choose the Restore command.  While the icon is in the System Tray, any time you minimize the PatentWatcher™ main window, the program will minimize back to the System Tray rather than to the Task Bar.  The program continues to run in the background so that it can continue its automated functions.

With PatentWatcher™ running in the System Tray, it would be easy to forget to check whether it has retrieved new hits.  The program provides an active alert (an alert that appears by itself automatically) once a day even if PatentWatcher™ is running in the System Tray.

By default the active alert appears at or within 15 minutes after 4:00 p.m.  The Options dialog lets you set a different time that suits you and the way you work.  The active alert appears only if three conditions are met:

        1.    The system clock time is at or past, but not more than 15 minutes after, the time set in the Options dialog.

        2.    There are new hits.

        3.    Among the new hits, there are ones that you have not yet seen.  If there are new hits but you have seen all of them, the active alert will not appear.

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