If you are interested in knowing how to customize the format of the built-in taskbar clock in Windows 10, then read this article. Today we will see how we can change the format of clock you see in the system try (bottom right corner).
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 but you can easily customize this.
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Open Control Panel using any of these methods.
- Locate Control Panel\Clock, Language, and Region\Region and open it.
- Click the Additional Settings button.
- Go to the Date tab. There you will see the notation of the short and long date formats and a preview of how it shows. You can type your own format there. For English (United States), the short format is M/d/yyyy. Change it to anything you want. I changed it to ddd, d MMM yyyy and clicked Apply.
- You get the new Date format in the taskbar instantly!
Before:
After:
- For changing the time you can use the same trick to change the format. For example, to switch to a 24 hour clock, type HH:mm:ss and remove the 'tt' notation:
That's it. Leave a comment if you have any question.
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Sergey, is it possible to date displayed when the icons are “small”, i.e. when the taskbar is thin? Now when the taskbar is thin – displays only the time.
no, it is not possible.
It is possible. Right click on TaskBar. Uncheck ‘Lock the taskbar’. Then move the mouse pointer to the top of task bar, it will change into a double headed arrow. Click and drag it a bit up. The size of taskbar will increase and now the Date and Time appears together.
I don’t like either option of either increasing taskbar height (that eats up way too much real estate), nor uncheckmark use small icons (that also increases the height of the task bar creating the same issue of eating up too much real estate). Why can’t there be an option to show the DoW, Date, and Time all in the same row as there is plenty of room for that on both of my 27″ monitors as the height of both monitors is much shorter than the width of both monitors.
Dodgester, I moved my taskbar to the left of the screen. My screen is wide, so I don’t need all that side real estate, and I can make the taskbar as wide as I want
These changes seem to affect how time/date are displayed throughout Windows, not just in the time/date displayed in the system tray. Right?
I want a different format in the system tray clock from what I want to see in the File Explorer. For example, seeing the year in the system tray is less than useful, but is a necessity in File Explorer. This is not supported, right? One day, maybe $10B more in research investment and they may add that. Adjusting font would be nice too. Seconds nice too. Basically, if they could build a time machine and go back to the 1990’s and bring the developer of T-clock into the present, that might work. So Microsoft, get to work on that time machine!
All of that is impossible in Win 10, right? And BTW, I bet you Microsoft has people working on a time machine, but nobody working on adding seconds to the system tray clock.
yep, you are right. These changes will affect the time format used in Windows apps.
@Ed Found your post by searching for a way to accomplish this. You are absolutely correct = it is absurd to have to see the year in the taskbar (when I obviously know what year I’m in) just to be able to see the year in file explorer (where I actually need to know the year of the file). Just another example of how after all these years Microsoft stubbornly insist on introducing new, niche features instead of improving basic functionality. It’s ridiculous this deep into the “computer age” we can’t have different time/date formats between the taskbar and file explorer! Hopefully someone at MS will read this and introduce this common sense capability.
Hiya,
It works great for the date, but not the time. My system time shows the short form is the same as long form – includes seconds, but the taskbar is still the original short form – no seconds. The same seems to be the case in the screenshot above. Is there any way of correcting this?
Thanks,
Gill.
Everything is fine in using “Winaero” for tweaking Windows 10 OS but then, there one small issue which is bothering me.
In the time format instead of having a “. or : ” between hours, minutes, seconds and AM or PM I have a small square – So how do I remove this square and put regular separators between hours, minutes, seconds and AM or PM. I have check all possible ways to get this changed but then, there is no remedy for this issue. Anyone facing this issue can relate to me, so any suggestions please!
Hi
This is a known issue.
It happens when you replace the system font with a different font.
Reset the ‘System font’ option.
Gee! Thanks! Sergey…
But is it possible to change the font/size and maintain the separators between the elements of time display in Winaero…
Hi Sergey
How can I make the time show in taskbar using long format include second “H:mm:ss” ?
I am using Win 10, Time setting done as per your instruction h:mm:ss, but it is not changing anything in taskbaar.