AM/PM For The Time At The Lock Screen

Yea I tried that... with no success. But you've seen my earlier posts showing how I was able to show the AM in the Lock Screen? I was able to show it correctly there, yet incorrectly in the clock on the bottom right corner of the screen.

This is definitely a bug in the system. Can you please forward this thread to Microsoft so they are aware of this bug?

Thanks

Has anybody had any luck getting this to work? I haven't been able to figure out how to add AM/PM to the 12-hour clock on the lock screen either.

Kari, I realize you were trying to be helpful, but, like the OP mentioned, your steps don't work for the lock screen due to a Microsoft bug. Microsoft even admits it here (for Windows 8, but it still holds true for Windows 10 as far as I can tell):

Lock Screen - AMPM, Year, maybe TIme Zone - Microsoft Community

I was having a rough time trying to get this to work properly. I found a bunch of posts about this but they were all unhelpful essentially saying to use the tt. But then I saw this & got it working using the trick from comment #4 & a little modifications to prevent the double that make it unworkable for @pepanee

pepanee said:

wow.. so check this out: I'm messing around some more with the settings; trying new things.
I typed this for Short time: h:mm tt tt (two 'tt's)
and the Lock Screen actually SHOWS IT CORRECTLY: 7:49AM
BUT now I have another problem... apparently the clock in the bottom right corner of the screen shows 7:49 AM AM

LOL? Did the clock have a party and not invite me to get wasted with it???

I'm gonna change Short time back to: h:mm tt

So it looks like what is going on is that the Login Page is designed to ignore tt as well as yyyy so it will show the time without AM/PM & the long date without the YEAR. Why is there no option to change this? No idea. BUT there is a solution

So @pepanee had the right idea, but it led to an undesirable outcome in his Tray Clock. That's an easy fix, it just requires changing settings in the registry rather than the settings dialogue.

1. In Regedit go to HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\International\ This is the default user, not the current user, aka the one who the login screen is under
2. Change sShortTime to h:mm tt tt
   
   • I places 2 spaces between the tts as it seemed cramped to me otherwise more so than in Comment #8 adjust how looks best to you
3. (Optional) change s1159 to ᴀᴍ & s2359 to ᴘᴍ
   
   • This makes the AM & PM shorter than the numbers which I personally think looks better as the default letters make the AM/PM seem more predominant & a bit garish In my opinion.

Now the time on the Login Screen will show the AM/PM but the time in the Tray Clock will not have the doubles. If you want to use the shorter letters for AM ᴀᴍ & PM ᴘᴍ in your system tray as well that can be added to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\International\ in the same manner

It appears that the same trick does NOT work for the YEAR in the date however, but I only briefly tested it out of curiosity, more work may lead to a way to make it work if someone actually wants it, it's just not something I plan to spend time on

pepanee said:

So I was able to reach this little conclusion, which I don't have to Log Off nor Restart the computer for it to apply; it gets applied right away!

Yeah, a restart isn't necessary, I modify the Regedit & I'm using RDP so the screen is always on the login screen but I'm accessing it from my laptop, so I see it update within a minute of making the changes.

pepanee said:

(notice I added a space in front of the AMs/PMs? Adding that space, actually adds a space between the AM/PM and the number time! Because the space between the "tt tt", no matter how far apart, nor no matter if you use a unicode "tab", there would be no space between the numbers and the letters:
Example: 10:00AM

Yet that space I added in that reg file above, I placed a space before the AM & PM:
" AM"
" PM"

And...

That's a better way to do it for sure... except that will also make the taskbar clock have a bigger space. But that's definitely a better way to do it.

pepanee said:

BUT THEN.... omg my heart broke. ='(
I opened a folder, and my eyes just so happened to come across the "Date modified" section in File Explorer...



AM AM, PM PM.

This is exactly what I was talking about in my post...

Code:

HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\International\

you want to change.

But you want to leave this one with a single tt

Code:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\International\

The CURRENT_USER will change things for your logged-in use. Now, if you lock the computer without logging out there's a chance that it will use the settings of the CURRENT_USER, but as I'm currently logged-in & it uses the .DEFAULT I think it might be fine.

Think of it this way

Everything in HKEY_CURRENT_USER affects you, as the logged-in user

Everything in HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT will only affect the pre-login settings

so what you want is

Code:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\International]
"s1159"=" AM"
"s2359"=" PM"
"sShortTime"="h:mm tt"

[HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\International]
"s1159"=" AM"
"s2359"=" PM"
"sShortTime"="h:mm tt tt"

This way you will have the AM/PM on the login, but not doubled everywhere else

I currently have it like this, & I see the AM/PM on the login screen, but it is only once in the taskbar & only once in the Date Modified fields.

pepanee said:

I'm pretty much the only person who logs in this computer, and I have my computer Auto Log In to my account using AutoLogon. And once I leave the computer to go idle, it goes to the lock screen. (I'll give you a few seconds to visualize what happens when the computer goes to the Lock Screen from my account...)
Hint: "h:mm tt", where I would soooo much prefer the "tt tt" instead of only "tt".

hahaha omg I'm crying while I'm laughing at how strange this topic is programmed. It's seriously so sad. And also, keep in mind how the YYYY is impossible to show in that Lock Screen date. hahaha. Like, it's almost impossible for me to comprehend the extreme inconsistencies in this little tiny topic, which has so many similar things, yet each thingy is programmed so extremely different than the one next to it.

Yeah, if you're logged in then I guess there's nothing you can really do. Microsoft really dropped the ball with how they handle the lock screen. I personally tried forever to find a way to get a website on mine, which can be done... kinda... but edge is constantly running in the background gobbling RAM & it was a general mess. There's no reason not to give us these options, but Microsoft obviously knows better. . . Anyway, I guess my solution won't work for you, but hopefully it helps others

pepanee said:

I really appreciate you bring back this topic, I'm sure others will definitely find your registry script really useful and they can use it, since it will most likely work with their computer's configuration. I can maybe play around with the script every now and then, and maybe I will find something that works out on my end. But thanks so much for the help. I'm hoping others will find our conversation really useful.

Not a problem. I posted specifically because I was looking for a solution but couldn't find one, & here I found enough information to make it work, but it seemed that others thought that it caused a problem that I knew could be avoided for at least my case & I figured others as well. Best of luck to you on your efforts.