Thankfully, it is pretty easy to change the date and time formats in Windows. Moreover, you can even define your own. Let’s see how to go about it.
How to Change Date and Time Format From the Settings App
Changing the date and time format in Windows can be done either through the Settings app or through the Control Panel. While changing the formats is a bit easier with the Settings app, Control Panel gives you more options.
Let’s see how to change the date and time format through the Setting app first. You’ll find the options inside the Region panel under Time & Language.
Hit the Win key, type “Region”, and choose Region settings. In the Region panel, scroll down and click Change data formats. In the Change data formats, you’ll have the option to change the Calendar type, the First day of the week, and options to change the date and time formats.
To change the date format, click on Short date and Long date drop-down menus to display the list of available options. Choose any you like.
Windows reflects the date format change in the taskbar (Short date) and the expanded date menu when you click the date in the taskbar (Long date).
Changing the time format follows the same pattern. Click on Short time and Long time to reveal the available formats.
Once again, the Short time is displayed in the taskbar above the date while the Long time is displayed when you expand the date panel from the taskbar.
How to Change Date and Time Formats via the Control Panel
While changing the date and time formats from the Settings app differs slightly between Windows 10 and 11, changing the formats from inside Control Panel remains almost identical between the two OSes.
First, hit the Win key, type “Control Panel”, and select the appropriate option to launch Control Panel. Next, under Clock and Region, click change date, time, or number formats to open the Region panel. In the Region panel, under the Date and time formats section, you’ll find the option to select the Short date, Long date, Short time, Long time, and First day of week from the respective drop-down menus. As you cycle through different formats, you can see the preview under Examples. Once you are happy with the results, click Apply.
While the pre-available date and time formats in Windows are enough for most people, you can also define your custom formats.
How to Define a Custom Time Format in Windows
You can define a custom time format in Windows through the Region tab in Control Panel.
Open the Region tab through the Control Panel by following the steps outlined above. Once in the Region tab, hit Additional settings located at the bottom of the screen. Click Time in the subsequent panel that opens up. Before we move on to defining our own time format, read the symbol explanations listed at the bottom of the Customize Format panel.
After you understand what different symbols stand for, changing the time format under Time formats is relatively easy. You can either choose one from the available drop-down menus or define your own in Short time, Long Time, etc. You can even define custom symbols for AM/PM notations.
How to Define a Custom Date Format in Windows
In the Customize Format panel, hit the Date tab to reveal options for tinkering with the date format on Windows.
Again, read the explanation about what different notations mean in the Date Format section. You can now either set your own format for the date or choose from a set of pre-available ones from Short date and Long date dropdown menus.
Windows Customization Options Are Practically Endless
Changing the date and time format on Windows is only a drop in the bucket compared to the number of customization options available on the platform.
From tweaking the lock screen to using custom desktop icons, you can make Windows look and feel how you want. You can even make the OS look like Ubuntu if you so desire.
