Change Taskbar Clock to 12 Hour or 24 Hour Format in Windows 10

How To Change Taskbar Clock to 12 Hour or 24 Hour Format in Windows 10

In Windows XP and Windows Vista, the taskbar was thinner and so only the time was shown by default on the taskbar. If you made the taskbar thicker, then it showed the date, day and time. But the redesigned taskbar in Windows 10 already shows the date and time.

The date on the taskbar is shown in the short format whereas the time is shown in the long format. Depending on the system locale and language of Windows that you use, the format will be different.

For example, for Russia the defaults are set to the 24 hour time format, whereas for US it is set to the 12 hour format.

Here's how to switch between them.

To Change Taskbar Clock to 12 Hour Format in Windows 10,

1. Open Settings.
2. Navigate to Time & Language > Region.
3. On the right, click on the Change data formats link under Regional format data.
4. On the next page, change the time format to 9:40 AM if you don't need the leading zero to be displayed. Or, select the 09:40 AM entry to have the leading zero.
5. You are done.

Note: The same can be configured using the classic Control panel. You can open the classic Region applet, and set the 12 hour time format under Short time on the Formats tab under Date and time formats. Select h:mm tt , or hh:mm tt for the leading zero option.

Similarly, you can set the taskbar to show the current time in 24 hour format.

To Change Taskbar Clock to 24 Hour Format in Windows 10,

1. Open Settings.
2. Navigate to Time & Language > Region.
3. On the right, click on the Change data formats link under Regional format data.
4. On the next page, change the time format to 9:40 if you don't need the leading zero to be displayed. Or, select the 09:40 entry to have the leading zero.
5. 
6. You are done.

Note: The same can be configured using the classic Control panel. You can open the classic Region applet, and set the 24 hour time format under Short time on the Formats tab under Date and time formats. Select H:mm , or HH:mm for the leading zero option.

That's it!

Articles of interest:

• Make Taskbar Clock Show Seconds in Windows 10
• Move clock to the end of the taskbar in Windows 10
• Add Clocks for Additional Time Zones in Windows 10

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