The following guide provides you with information on how to modify time and language formats and settings in Microsoft's Windows 10 operating system.
Windows 10 includes options to change formats, e.g. short and long time and dates, date and time itself, automatic options, the interface language, and to add support for other languages to the system as well.
One of the main usability issues of Windows 10 is that preferences are divided into two interfaces.
While it was always the case that you could access some preferences and options only through backend tools like the Group Policy Editor or the Windows Registry, it was never an issue for most users as all basic configuration preferences were accessible in the Windows Control Panel.
Most time and language settings are listed in the new Settings app that Windows 10 ships with. You may know the app already if you have worked on Windows 8.x systems before but if your last operating system was Windows 7 or earlier, you may not have come in contact with it before.
Do the following to open Time & Language options in Windows 10:
Time & Language options are divided into three main areas: date & time, region & language, and speech.
Date & Time
Date & Time is the default settings page that gets opened when you open the Time & Language section of Settings. It lists the following preferences (updated for Windows 10 version 1803)
Earlier versions of Windows 10:
In addition, you find two links under related settings. The first, "additional data, time & regional settings" opens the "Clock, Language and Region" control panel applet. The second the "additional clocks" preferences of the Control Panel.
Region & Language
The region & language Settings menu enables you to change the country or region, and to add, set or remove languages from the system.
In addition to adding languages to Windows 10, you may download optional components on top of that. A click on an added language and the selection of options displays these components on a new page.
You may download handwriting and speech data, and set a different keyboard layout as well.
The link under related settings leads to the classic time, date and regional Control Panel applet.
You may use Region & Language settings to change the Windows 10 interface language to another language. The process is not straightforward, however:
Speech
The speech menu enables you to select the input language with which you speak to the device. Please note that you find only those languages listed there that you have downloaded speech packs for (only the default system language is available for selection by default because of this).
You may download language packs from the "region & language" menu for languages that you have added to the system.
You may enable "recognize non-native accents for this language" if you are a non-native speaker or if the speech recognition system has trouble understanding you even if you are a native speaker.
Lastly, you may set the default voice for apps (male and female are provided), and the talking speed.
The Settings application offers access to most time, date and language preferences of the operating system but not to all.
The following options are only found in the control panel currently:
Closing Words
Most options are accessible directly from the Settings app and those that are not, are linked from it. Still, it would be useful if Microsoft would consolidate the preferences to make them all available in a single location.
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Is there any way to get analog clock back? I mean when you click on the date on bottom-right of the application bar.
It’s the `feature` i miss most from previous windows version :(
Still no way to change the time format on the lock screen though?
In Europe, 09:12 is 09:12 AM, not PM. Very annoying.
I seem unable to get the day to display in full, tried various settings and also tried enlarging the taskbar. Weird, never an issue on previous Windows. http://someimage.com/UUSrB3t