Change your Windows clock’s format

There are several registry hacks that let you change the format of the Windows clock (including one that shows seconds along with hours and minutes), but you don’t need to carry out hacks to do this. Instead, use the Region settings in Control Panel (open it by typing control panel in the Start menu). Click the ‘View by’ option in the top-right corner of the Control Panel window so it reads ‘Large icons’, then click Region. In the window that opens, locate the ‘Date and time formats’ section, then click the dropdown menu next to ‘Short time’. You now have four options: 12-hour and 24-hour, along with versions of both with a ‘tt’ at the end, which means the clock will display seconds.

Click the ‘Short date’ dropdown menu and you can change how the date is formatted using similar options. When you make changes, the box at the bottom of the window updates so you can see exactly how the clock will look before clicking Apply.

You don’t have to limit yourself to the formatting options offered by Windows. To create your own, click the ‘Additional settings…’ button at the bottom. In the window that opens, select the Time or Date tab, then type your new format in the ‘Short time’ or ‘Short date’ box – the ‘What the notations mean’ section at the bottom explains what the various formatting codes mean. In our example, we’ve changed the ‘Short date’ to ddd, MMM d, yyyy (see screenshot), which means the date under the Windows clock uses the format ‘Wed, Aug 11, 2021’.