Fix in latest stable update from April (then one bot on Path Tuesday, but later).
How to enable seconds in system clock
Title says it all.
Found this article, which had a couple suggestions: https://winaero.com/how-to-enable-seconds-for-the-taskbar-clock-in-windows-11/
" Settings > Personalization > Taskbar > Taskbar behaviors, and check the “Show seconds in system tray clock” option."
Is not there for me
Tried registry fixes, but that made it worse and actually removed the system clock all together, while also breaking the start menu completely. Had to undo that change and now back to square one.
Why on Earth would Microsoft remove the seconds from the clock? I use it quite often for a game I play.. Very frustrating when they remove common sense features like this. Really looks like MSoft put some extremely incompetent people in charge of Win 11. Reminds me of when they hired the guy from Nike to design Win 8 Metro UI. I think we all remember how that went!!
EDIT: WAS fixed for about 2 months with April update, but now it's gone again!!!
Someone from Microsoft owes me an explanation!!
Windows for home | Windows 11 | Settings
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68 additional answers
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Anonymous
2023-02-02T21:25:55+00:00 I just updated to 22H2 (OS Build 22621.1194) yesterday, which was the latest option available.
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Anonymous
2024-01-15T18:55:18+00:00 Hello everyone,
I wanted to share a simple solution I discovered (Courtesy of ChatGPT) for displaying the seconds on the Windows taskbar clock, which doesn't require any third-party software. Here's a quick method using the Registry Editor:
Steps:
- Press
Windows Key + R, typeregedit, and pressEnterto open the Registry Editor. - Navigate to the following key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced - Right-click on the right pane, select
New > DWORD (32-bit) Value, and name itShowSecondsInSystemClock. - Double-click on the new value and set its value data to
1. - Restart your computer to see the changes.
For your convenience, I've created a .reg file that automates this process. Here's the content you can copy to a new text document and save with a
.regextension:regCopy codeWindows Registry Editor Version 5.00 [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced] "ShowSecondsInSystemClock"=dword:00000001Instructions for using the .reg file:
- Copy the above text into a new text file using Notepad.
- Save the file with the
.regextension, for example,
DisplaySecondsInClock.reg. 3. Right-click on the saved file and select 'Merge' or double-click the file to run it.- If prompted by User Account Control (UAC), click 'Yes' to allow the changes.
- A confirmation dialog box will appear. Click 'OK' to apply the changes.
- Restart your computer, and you should now see the seconds on your taskbar
- Press
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Anonymous
2023-06-19T19:09:36+00:00 20/06/2023: and it's gone yet again
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EmilyS_726 29,570 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator2023-02-08T01:38:30+00:00 Hello brianp89, this is Emily.
The Windows 11 build quoted in the article is the Insider version. You can read about it from Microsoft's Insider blog here: https://blogs.windows.com/windows-insider/2022/11/18/announcing-windows-11-insider-preview-build-25247/ It does mention the feature to display second for time.
You won't get insider version of Windows via regular update. You need to be in the Insider program in order to get these preview builds. I wouldn't recommend switching to Insider version just for this feature, especially when it is still in Dev channel, there can be rough edges and it is not stable.
You can continue to use the Insider blog to stay updated on these new development, and hopefully that feature will be available to the production version soon.