WakeUp

WakeUp is a lightweight and portable application that you can use to schedule an alarm clock to go off at a specific time.
In addition, it can be asked to play music and launch a program to get your day ready in the morning. It features intuitive settings that can be seamlessly configured.

Set alarm clock, play sound, and run tools

The interface is user-friendly, represented by a standard window with a neatly structured layout, where you can set the alarm time, keep the default alarm or pick a song from the computer with the Wave extension, and play the sound repeatedly.
Furthermore, you can track down the executable of a program to launch, enter command-line arguments to extend its functionality, enable the volume to fade and set the number of seconds, as well as test the alarm on the spot before applying modifications. Worth noting is that the audio alarm, program launch or both can be disabled.
WakeUp can be minimized to the system tray to make it non-intrusive and let you carry on with your normal desktop activity without any interruptions, while silently counting down to the specified time and alerting you when it stops counting.

No setup necessary

The entire tool's wrapped in a single .exe file that can be saved to a custom directory on the disk or copied to a removable storage unit, in order to directly run it on any PC with minimum effort. It doesn't need DLLs or other components to work, change the system registry configuration, or create files on the disk without your permission.

Evaluation and conclusion

It worked smoothly in our tests, without causing the operating system to freeze, crash or indicate errors. Although it hasn't been updated for a long time, we haven't experienced compatibility issues with later Windows versions. CPU and RAM usage was minimal, so it didn't hamper the machine's performance.
To sum it up, WakeUp facilitates a simple solution for scheduling an alarm clock to play sound and launch applications.