It may seem easy. While most people don’t notice, the default time format in Windows is 12 hours, not military. For those who use the military time to tell the time, it can be extremely useful to be able to alter it on their computers.
It’s not as simple as you might think. It is different for each version of Windows. This article will show you how to convert your Windows XP, 7, 8, or 10 computer time to military format.
Windows XP Time Format
Open the Control Panel, then open Regional or Language Options. Click the Classic View link to the top of the page if you don’t recognize the icons.
Next, click on the Personalize button under the Regional Options tab.
Click on the tab to choose from any option with the H. Lower case refers to the 12-hour format, and the upper case refers to the 24-hour format.
Click OK to return to the Control Panel. It’s not an easy process. It would be much easier to place the option in the Time Properties dialog when you double-click on the time in your system tray.
Microsoft has done this in Windows 7 or higher, but it takes a few clicks to do it. It’s actually much faster to use Control Panel in Windows 7 or higher. For Windows later versions, I’ll explain the steps below.
Windows 7, 8 and 10 Time Format
Windows 7: Open the Control Panel, and click Region. It’s called Region in Windows 8 and Windows 10. Switch to Small and Large views if you’re in Category.
Windows 7 and above now have the formats tab. You can choose to change the time format using the Short Time or Long Time dropdowns.
The capital H stands for military time. To make the change appear in the taskbar’s time, you must change the Longtime format. Although I don’t know where the Short time format is used by Windows, you can modify it to make everything consistent.
Another way to do this in Windows 7/8/10 is to click the date and hour in the taskbar, then click to change the date and/or time settings.
You will see a new dialog. Click the Change date/time button at the top.
A dialog box will appear where you can manually adjust the date/time. You will need to click the Change your calendar settings button.
This will open the Customize dialog. Click on the Times tab. It is quite a long process to reach the same dialog as you can in just one click from Control Panel.
This is all you need to change the time to military format on Windows. You can ask any questions by leaving a comment. Enjoy!