Q:
Is there any way I can change the way my date and time are displayed in my system tray?
A:
There sure is! It’s always nice to change things up a little, even with your date and time display, so let’s go for it! Most computer users have the date shown as a long date format (day of the week, month, day, year) and the time usually goes by the hh:mm (hour, hour, minute, minute). Well, if you want something different, you can change the way your date and time appear with just a few quick clicks.
To get started, go to Start, Control Panel, Date Time, Language and Regional Options. Once in there, click on the Regional and Language Options link. Next, click on the Customize button. This will bring up four different tabs that you can choose from, but for this tip, we’re just going to focus on the Date and Time tabs.
Let’s start with the date. Click on the Date tab and you will see the options for a short date and a long date format. As I said before, most of you probably already have the long date version of the day of the week, the month, the day and the year. (For example, Tuesday, July 11, 2006. Notice that this shows up when you mouse over the timestamp icon in your bottom system tray). If you’d like to change the long date format, use the drop down menu to select a new version. You can have it as a dd MMMM, yyyy format, which would be 11 July, 2006 or you can change it up another way. It’s all up to you. You can also choose a short date option if you want.
Once you’re done with that, click on the Time tab. Under the Time format drop down menu, choose which time display you’d like to have. You can have everything from the hour all the way down to the exact second. You can even have the AM or PM symbol shown. There is a little time guide down at the bottom of this box as well, so refer there if you have any questions about what each letter stands for.
When you’ve changed everything to the way you want it, click OK twice and the changes will be made.
Happy date and time changing!
~ Erin