Freeware Feature: Weather Watcher

Weather Watcher
Purpose: Automatic weather updates
Web site: http://www.singerscreations.com/AboutWeatherWatcher.asp
Skill level required: Beginner

Want to scare an I.T. pro? Slowly and quietly approach him from behind, then suddenly yell, "Weatherbug!"

Weatherbug was--and maybe still is--a program that came with baggage. Consumers downloaded it rampantly, even installing it on corporate networks--where it doesn't really belong (for the most part, getting weather reports is not a work-related activity). I.T. pros quickly became annoyed with this program for two reasons: 1) it showed up in antispyware reports, 2) it showed up in network traffic reports. In other words, some security software was flagging it as spyware or adware, and the program was generating a lot of network traffic due to the frequent weather updates. When you're trying to run a clean network, those two things are vexing.

There has been much hubbub on the web about whether Weatherbug--in its current form--is indeed adware. I'm not going to try to settle the argument; I'm here to offer an alternative. (The alternative should probably still not be installed on a corporate network; I'm recommending it just because it's baggage-free.)

Weather Watcher is the program I stumbled upon one day, that is quite advanced for its price ($0). You can get the icon in your system tray, choose what it displays, launch the application, see maps, get multiple forecast formats, and more. There's just one caveat: there is an option to install some adware along with Weather Watcher. For that reason, McAfee's SiteAdvisor (which I've talked about before) gives it a bad rating. If you read SiteAdvisor's review though, you'll find that Weather Watcher users claim that SiteAdvisor's rating is unfair. It's very easy to install the ad-free version of Weather Watcher. No tricks here.

If you want weather updates on your desktop, try Weather Watcher before thinking about Weatherbug.