How to Tweak the Time and Date Settings on Windows 10

One of the most useful displays that you would find in almost all Windows operating system versions that were released in the past and even in Windows 10 at present is the time and date section which is found at the bottom-right portion of the screen. WindowsTechies_1257 The portion where this display is located is called the System Tray and as you can see, it seats beside some other system icons such as the Notifications, Volume, Network Status Indicator, Battery Level Indicator and other icons of third party software and services that are allowed to appear on this area. The icons of third party applications that appear in this section actually indicates that they are running in the background so you shouldn’t be surprised to see notifications and prompts from these applications appearing in this section every now and then. WindowsTechies_1259 In our previous tutorials, we have shown the steps in how the time and date display is changed but since most are already using Windows 10, we’ve though of the need to write a new tutorial that would show the steps in how this is done since the display itself has significantly changed. So let’s start by first getting familiar with the new time and date display in your Windows 10 machine.

A Wonderful Change for Microsoft’s Latest Windows Version

If you can still remember, the old time and date display that stayed basically the same from Windows Vista down to Windows 8.1 looked exactly like the one shown on the screenshot below. As you can see, the background is just white and the dates of the month are quite small. WindowsTechies_1260 As you can see, you can configure previous Windows editions such as Windows 8 to show 2 clocks– one showing your local time and the other showing the time of another country. This is very useful especially if you want to keep track of the time in other places probably because you are watching out for a sports event or you have a relative that’s coming home soon from abroad and you want to be updated on what time and day is it in his/her place right now. However in Windows 10, these drawbacks of the previous layout were improved and now, the time and date display is made bigger and the dates are more visible even for those who have minor eyesight problems as you can see on the screenshot below. WindowsTechies_1261 Another innovation that has been done to Windows 10’s time and date display is the way on how users can jump back to previous months or move forwards to the coming months which is now done by clicking bigger top and down-pointing arrows as highlighted on the screenshot below. The time display itself which most of us are really concerned about when we are at work is made bigger in size and has been moved on the top most portion making it easily visible to anyone. WindowsTechies_1262 Everything has basically changed if you view things from this section of the time and date display but these changes doesn’t just end there and as you will see below, even the Window where the settings for the time and date display on your computer is found has now been migrated from the traditional Control Panel Window to the new modern Settings Window which Microsoft really want users to use when dealing with their Windows 10 machines.

Accessing the Settings for the Time and Date Display

Now, after learning the basic differences in the time and date display of previous Windows editions and on Windows 10, it is time to check on the section where the settings and tweaks for it are found. To get into this section in your Windows 10 machine, you will first need to click on the time and date display located at the bottom-right corner of your computer screen and once the time and calendar section displays, you will need to click on the link that is found at the bottom which says “Date and time settings” as highlighted on the screenshot below. WindowsTechies_1264 After doing so, you should be able to open the settings section for the time and date display but instead of seeing the traditional Control Panel Window as what would happen in previous Windows versions, you will not be taken to the modern Settings Window but don’t worry. Everything in here is basically the same, the settings were just arranged and simplified to make it a lot easier for you to tweak them. WindowsTechies_1266 On this settings section, you will see some links on the navigation pane at the right and the “Date & time” section is the first one that opens by default  if you opened from the “Date and time settings” link which is located at the bottom of the calendar and time display screen as we have shown earlier. The other links are “Region & language” and “Speech”. WindowsTechies_1267 Now these other links (Region & language, Speech) were actually set during Windows 10’s installation where the wizard asks you to enter your region and as well as the language that you want to use. We will not be going into the details on these two for now but we’ll discuss them in future tutorials.

How to Change Date and Time Manually

Windows 10 is set to automatically adjust time according to your time zone and in other cases, it also automatically syncs to the Internet time. Going back to the modern Settings Window where the “Date & time” settings are found, you should be able to notice that under the “Date and time” portion, the “Change” button under the “Change date and time” option is grayed-out which means that it is not clickable. WindowsTechies_1269 Changing the time according to your current time zone or having it synced with the Internet time is a quick way of getting accurate time-keeping. It also allows novice users to easily adjust date and time without getting into the complicated steps which are often confusing especially now that it is done on the modern Settings Window. However, if you want to have your custom time setting probably because you want to set your computer clock ahead of your time zone’s official time or the current Internet time then you will need to go through the more detailed process and since the “Change” button is grayed-out and therefore, not clickable, you will first need to make it clickable.

Making the “Change” Button Clickable

Since you want to set your own custom time instead of opting to the time of your time zone or the Internet time, the first move that you need to do is to make the “Change” button that is found under the “Date and time” options section become clickable. To do this, all you need to do is click on the switch that is found under the “Set time automatically” option as highlighted on the screenshot below in order to turn this setting off. WindowsTechies_1270 Once this switch is flicked to the “Off” position, you should now be able to notice that the “Change” button is now clickable and it’s all ready for clicking in order for you to make some custom tweaks to the date and time of your computer. WindowsTechies_1272 Now, try to click on it and wait for a few seconds (probably one or two) then a new modern Window will appear which now contains boxes grouped under “Date” and “Time” sections as you can see below. There are three boxes for each portion which both contains settings for the date and time. WindowsTechies_1273 Under the portion that is labeled “Date”, you will find three boxes which correspond to the Month, Date and Year. From here, simply click on the box which you want to make changes on and you will be able to open a scroll Window allowing you to select the month, date or year as you can see below where the month box is clicked. WindowsTechies_1274 The downside with this kind of way in changing the month, date and year is that you will need to do much scrolling instead of just allowing you to type the month, date or year to their corresponding boxes. However, this could not be permanent yet since Microsoft is still doing much changes, improvements and innovations to Windows 10 and they base it to the feedback being provided by users from all around the world who are now using Windows 10 being the latest Windows operating system version that is available. Now, changing the time works basically the same. If you would notice that boxes under the “Time” section, you will see three of them which correspond to the hour, minute and AM/PM. In order to change the value in each of the boxes under the “Time” section, all that you need to do is click on the box that you want to make the changes on and an options scroll box will open where you can select you desired value as shown on the screenshot below where the minute box has been clicked. WindowsTechies_1275 Once you are done making changes in each of the boxes under the “Date” and “Time” sections as what we have shown on the screenshots above, all that you need to do is click on the button that is found at the bottom-right portion of the Window which is labeled “Change”. However, if you changed your mind and you don’t want the changes to be applied to your computer’s Date and Time settings, you will need to click on the button that is labeled “Cancel”. WindowsTechies_1276

How to Change the Date and Time Formats

After manually making tweaks with the Date and Time settings on your Windows 10 computer, it is time to learn how you can make tweaks with the format of both. As we all know, the date and time format in differs in varied countries. There are countries that places the date first before the month and year and there are others that place the month first before the date and year. To avoid being confused in this aspect, you will need to learn how to change the format of the date and time in your computer and again, doing this is very simple. First, while you are on the “Date & Time” section of the modern Settings Window, you  will simply need to scroll down until you see all the contents of the “Format” portion of this Window and from here, look for a link that says “Change date and time formats” as highlighted below then click on it. WindowsTechies_1278 After the “Change date and time formats” link is clicked, you will then be able to open the “Change Date and Time Formats” section of the modern settings Window and from here, you will be able to see five (5) input boxes under the “First day of week”, “Short date”, “Long date”, “Short time” and “Long time” items respectively. Again, each of these boxes can actually be clicked and once you do so, a scroll options box will appear which displays all available format options in each section as you can see below. WindowsTechies_1280

What’s the Difference Between Short Date and Long Date; Short Time and Long Time?

Now, you might be wondering what Short date and Long date and as well as Short time and Long time mean. Well, the difference between these format options is the location on which they are displayed. The Short date and Short time are what you can actually see on the Time and Date display that is readily displayed on the System Tray at the extreme-right end of the Taskbar as you can see being highlighted on the screenshot below. WindowsTechies_1257 While the Long date and Long time are the type of date and time formats that you will see on the bigger time and date display screen which appears after you click on the time and date display of the Taskbar as shown below. WindowsTechies_1281 So that’s basically how they differ and as you can see, both the Short date and Short time are partners in the location where they are found which is on the System Tray while the Long date and Long time are also partners in the larger time and date display that pops out of the screen when the time and date display of the Taskbar is clicked.

Related Settings

Now, if you scroll lower until you reach the bottom-most portion of the “Date & Time” section of the modern Settings Window, you will actually be able to find two more links under “Related settings” which says “Additional date, time, & regional settings” and “Add clocks for different time zones”. If you click on any of these links, you will be able to open the traditional Control Panel Window where the “Date and Time” settings are found. WindowsTechies_1282

Adding Additional Clocks for Different Time Zones

Now, you can click on the “Add clocks for different time zones” link which is the last one on the “Date and Time” section of the modern Settings Window in order to add additional clocks and set them on a different time zone. WindowsTechies_1283 After this link is clicked, the traditional Control Panel Window where the “Additional Clocks” option is found will open. From here, you will see two boxes and on top of each box, you will see an option that says “Show this clock” as highlighted below. WindowsTechies_1285 If you want to show two clocks that are set on different time zones, all you need to do is check both “Show this clock” options in each of the two boxes and after doing so, the “Select time zone” and “Enter display name” option under them will now become clickable. From here, just select the time zone that you want to set for each of the clock and enter the display that you want for both. In order to avoid confusion, we recommend that you use the name of the country that you are setting the clock for to make it easier for you to know what clock you are actually looking at. WindowsTechies_1286 Once both additional clocks are already activated, you will be able to see them on the bigger time and date display screen which appears when you click on the time and date display found on the System Tray of the Taskbar as you can see on the screenshot below. WindowsTechies_1287 So that’s all that you basically need to learn about the time and date display feature in Windows 10 and the tweaks that are available for it. If you had some troubles while making tweaks on this very important section of Windows then please feel free to let us know and we’ll do our best to help you get through and solve the problem.