Setting XP to Use 24-Hour Clock

Published August 18, 2007 Technology , Windows 94 Comments

I did some hunting today to find out how to set up Windows XP to use the 24-hour clock instead of the (ugh) 12-hour clock. Here it is:

Go to Control Panel > Regional and Language Options, and click the Customize button next to the drop-down box. Go to the Time tab, and change the time format to H:mm:ss. The value you just replaced should have looked something like hh:mm:ss tt. The ‘tt’ represents AM or PM, and obviously we won’t need that anymore. Click OK, and OK again, and look at the clock in your taskbar. Hooray!

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94 Responses to “Setting XP to Use 24-Hour Clock”

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1 Deth August 18, 2007 at 11:00 am

Cool

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- 2 darklord December 23, 2009 at 10:10 am
  
  thnx dude
  
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3 marto January 14, 2008 at 10:23 am

big thax man,i was searchin this for hours

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4 DB February 8, 2008 at 6:47 am

thanks much, I too was looking for this!

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5 JF June 6, 2008 at 6:32 pm

Thanks

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6 Minde August 24, 2008 at 5:11 am

Thnx man, was googling this up

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7 smiley August 26, 2008 at 5:28 am

great! Thnx

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8 Elton September 4, 2008 at 12:26 am

Nice one. Just re-installed XP and AM was bugging me.

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9 Matt September 20, 2008 at 7:09 am

Thanks I was wondering how to do this.

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10 Anne October 9, 2008 at 7:11 pm

Wonderful. Thank you!
Now, can you let us know how to add the date to the task bar as well?

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- 11 ahos November 13, 2012 at 11:10 am
  
  u need to make your start menu ‘taller’. Right click somewhere empty on the start menu, then uncheck ‘lock the taskbar’. The move to the edge of the start menu and you should get a resize cursor, just drag it a little bigger and the date should then appear in the systray with the time.
  
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12 Roland October 24, 2008 at 2:55 pm

Thkx MAte

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13 mp October 26, 2008 at 12:28 pm

Thanks,friend…Me and a friend of mine were trying for ours to fix it……..

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- 14 ahos November 13, 2012 at 11:09 am
  
  u need to make your start menu ‘taller’. Right click somewhere empty on the start menu, then uncheck ‘lock the taskbar’. The move to the edge of the start menu and you should get a resize cursor, just drag it a little bigger and the date should then appear in the systray with the time.
  
  Reply
15 Bud Durant October 30, 2008 at 6:08 pm

Many thanks, I have been pulling out my few remaining hairs trying to figure how to select 12/24 hour format.

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16 PAUL November 22, 2008 at 7:12 pm

THANKS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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17 vaun December 30, 2008 at 2:37 am

coooooollllll thanx..dudde

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18 Ed January 4, 2009 at 12:03 pm

Very nice – i was looking for this…..

Thanks,

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19 John January 18, 2009 at 12:32 pm

Thanks, wanted to get rid of the 24 hour time… quite annoying to look at.

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20 Joe January 26, 2009 at 7:42 am

Thank you very much, I had no idea where they hid this setting!

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21 Buck-A-Roo January 27, 2009 at 12:14 pm

thank you very much

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22 Bo January 30, 2009 at 10:03 pm

was lookin’ for this for ages. Thank you

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23 Glen McNiel February 2, 2009 at 9:48 am

Thanks dude. Cut down my digging through the control panel.

Cheers!

-ZenGlen
http://twitter.com/zenglen

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24 Dorian C March 5, 2009 at 7:12 pm

Thank you so much for this enlightening post. Made my day a little easier for not having to go and change it the way I remember (restarting computer and hitting f10 to open the boot menu thing and changing it there).

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25 Peeved April 9, 2009 at 12:33 pm

Thanks heaps! Why this is not adjusdable via the “control panel – date and time” is beyond me???? Idiot programers I suppose…..

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26 GoFigure June 13, 2009 at 10:25 am

You are better than Obama and greater than Einstein!

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27 Opi July 3, 2009 at 11:59 am

Thanks a lot!!

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- 28 Rui Ferreira September 22, 2009 at 1:25 pm
  
  Thank you so much… 24h forever!
  
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29 Larry October 1, 2009 at 7:18 pm

Thanks for the info! Now I can tell what time my email actually came in during the day!

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30 damn skippy October 15, 2009 at 6:48 pm

Thanks, you da man!

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31 Muzic247 November 7, 2009 at 5:08 pm

Thanks! That’ll work for and ol’ Army guy….

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32 jpump November 13, 2009 at 1:11 pm

thanks, needed to see GMT time

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33 Martin November 24, 2009 at 3:50 pm

Thank you I can see if it AM or PM again

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34 nemesis December 9, 2009 at 8:46 pm

THANK YOU VERY MUCH!!!!!

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35 JKeegan December 17, 2009 at 3:33 pm

Thanks. I knew what panel I needed but somehow could not locate the customize button until I was told specifically it was there.

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36 lastminutedealer December 24, 2009 at 7:37 am

Bravo:

The exact dialogue box for making the change to 24-hour format (French Railroad Time) is located at:

http://www.lastminutedeals.com/24_hour_clock

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37 ethemea February 18, 2010 at 7:29 pm

epic awesome i wanted to do that for so long and i didn’t know how thanks man

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38 james March 11, 2010 at 6:29 am

perfect – i have my taskbar mounted on the left and now the time isn’t squashed.

cheers!

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39 Tony March 16, 2010 at 3:41 am

I took the AM off the end which was bugging me lol..it was past the screen and i could only see the A of AM..so i disabled the AM option , now the numbers are where they should be…but now??? if PM comes around will it display the PM..then it will have that past the screen look where u only see part of the time..how would i fix that so the time will be visible with AM and PM disabled..ty all in advance

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40 syl1101 March 16, 2010 at 6:57 am

ThankYa fella!

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41 John March 17, 2010 at 5:56 am

Thanks alot!

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42 dufus March 17, 2010 at 12:41 pm

I too was reinstalling XP (for speed-up purposes) and couldn’t remember how I had done it before. Awesome to have military time back.

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43 dufus March 17, 2010 at 12:42 pm

A quick second point… how ironic that your comment timestamps are in civvy format? ha ha

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44 pakubhai April 13, 2010 at 3:05 am

Thank you very much …now I dont have count the time when I see the time

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45 Kyle April 24, 2010 at 10:06 pm

Thanks for the information! 24-Hours just make so much more sense to me then the 12-hour type.

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46 Simon Ndunda June 2, 2010 at 6:34 am

Big Thanks, I really needed to change mine and now its done.

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47 colin August 20, 2010 at 2:33 am

Thank you,
I’ve been fed up with the 12 h clock, thank you again for the tip, finally i have the 24hrs day….
wow!!!!

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48 Clock_1 October 7, 2010 at 4:56 pm

thnx man

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49 loraine October 9, 2010 at 5:59 am

thank you very much! This is very useful tip, finally I get rid of the AMs and PMs…

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50 tehol October 14, 2010 at 11:08 am

awesomesauce. pre-adjusting for the future,

weeeeeeeh

weeeeeeeeeeeh
weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEh

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51 HelloKitty November 2, 2010 at 1:40 am

Very very helpful thanks. It was the best link I found 4 this, very clear.

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52 Bob Nelson November 9, 2010 at 2:39 am

Thanks for the tip.

It is a lot better than garbaging up my computer with another app. and is useful for Amateur Radio, where schedules are given in 24 hour time.

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53 nanri November 10, 2010 at 10:05 am

thank you. simple and helpful.

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54 muchina December 26, 2010 at 11:00 am

thanx alot. why on earth would they hide this o[ption so far. it should be right there when you right click the clock for options.

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55 Maxx January 9, 2011 at 1:17 pm

Hi, THX for your input on the net.
I was looking around in so many places.

THX a lot

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56 Shawn March 28, 2011 at 10:25 am

BIG thumbs up. This was bothering me for a LONG time

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57 John April 5, 2011 at 4:26 am

Thank you very much!!!!!!!!!!

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58 Cristian April 29, 2011 at 12:13 pm

Verry usefull – straight to the point.
keep ot going on … and on …

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59 DJ May 22, 2011 at 1:01 pm

You are the best ever man, searched on my comp for hrs trying to figure this out.

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60 Venkat June 8, 2011 at 12:09 am

Great Work Pal…. I was creating new USER ACCOUNT for this simple prob
Great work

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61 None June 22, 2011 at 5:35 pm

Couldn’t figure this out forever.. Karma point for you.. Thx

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62 tcwjr2006 October 9, 2011 at 12:33 pm

Thanks. Been looking for this for awhile.

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63 nomad October 19, 2011 at 7:04 am

Thanks sooo much! Clear and unambiguous – perfect instructions …

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64 Anri November 23, 2011 at 5:33 am

thank you very very much… this helped me a lot.

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65 Me December 26, 2011 at 5:52 pm

Thanks, pal.

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66 John in KS January 17, 2012 at 1:38 pm

Thank you! I had forgotten how to do that, it’s been too long.

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67 daskhatri January 18, 2012 at 11:09 pm

very helpful.. saved lot of time, efforts..THank u so much man.

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68 BILL March 27, 2012 at 4:18 pm

it worked great.i had tried to do it before but it did not work..

THANK YOU VERY MUCH
BILL

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69 Anna April 15, 2012 at 5:34 pm

Thank youuuuuuuuuuuuu!!!!

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70 darryl April 22, 2012 at 2:59 pm

thank youuuuuuuuuuuuu.
it was really starting to bug me.

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71 GIRISH May 27, 2012 at 1:37 am

GIRISH PATEL

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72 charles October 5, 2012 at 10:16 am

wow, that was very impresive ,thanx very much keep it up!!!!

charlie seima

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73 Ron Anstis October 14, 2012 at 4:20 pm

Thanks! I have never noticed this before, though it is explained in the window! Now I need to know how to set Windows Explorer to open with my C: drive instead of My Documents!

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74 Jim October 16, 2012 at 10:14 am

Thank you!

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75 dahir maqbul October 30, 2012 at 2:27 pm

Yeah, just make sure the “h” stays a big H or it will go back to 12 hours mode. Big “H” means = 24 hours. “h” = 12 hours.

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76 Chuck November 25, 2012 at 4:00 pm

This is fantastic!!!! Thank you!!!!

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78 PETER December 15, 2012 at 8:47 am

THANK YOU VERY MUCH

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79 Marius December 18, 2012 at 3:54 am

Thanks you very much. I can never remember where to go to change those settings.

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84 Ron C March 14, 2013 at 4:43 pm

Perfect instructions for military time formatting. Thank you

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85 RippedPants March 21, 2013 at 11:20 pm

Thanks a lot!!
I have a bit of OCD, have to see a 24-hour format. The AM/PM format drives me nuts >_<

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