With a simple trick, you can force the taskbar in Windows 10 to show seconds in the clock. Follow the steps below to do so.
Generally, the seconds in the taskbar clock are not shown. However, if you click on the clock, you will see the seconds appear above the calendar. No matter how you try to configure the taskbar clock in the Date and Time tool in windows, you simply cannot make the taskbar show the seconds in its default system clock. Windows will just ignore your settings.
One of the main reasons for this behavior is that in the old days (the 90s), showing seconds in the taskbar clock is resource-intensive. However, the computers now are much more powerful and the performance impact is little to nothing.
The good thing is, with a simple registry tweak, you can make the taskbar show seconds in the clock. Let me show you how.
Though I’m demonstrating this in Windows 10, the method shown below will work on Windows 7 and 8 too.
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Show Seconds in Taskbar Clock
To make things easier, I will show two methods to display seconds in the system clock.
The first method is automatic. i.e, you can just download the .reg file and enable seconds in the taskbar clock. On the other hand, if you don’t mind editing the registry manually, follow the second method.
Automatic Method with .reg File
This is the easiest method if you don’t like editing the registry manually.
1. First, download this zip file and extract the contents in it to the desktop.
2. To show the seconds, double-click on the “show seconds in taskbar clock.reg” file.
3. You will see a warning message, click on the “Yes” button.
4. Now, restart the Windows and you should see the seconds in the system clock on the taskbar.
If you ever want to hide or remove the seconds from the system clock, simply double-click on the “hide seconds in taskbar clock.reg” file and you are good to go.
Manual Method (Edit Registry Yourself)
If you are a bit more adventures, you can manually edit the registry yourself. Just make sure that you can good backup so that you can restore the registry in case of any mishaps.
1. First, open the start menu, search for “Registry Editor” and click on the result to open the Registry Editor.
2. In the registry editor, copy the below path, paste it in the address bar and press Enter. You will be instantly taken to the folder where we need to create new value.
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced
3. Right-click on the empty space on the right-panel and select “New → DWORD (32-bit) Value” option.
4. Name the new value as “ShowSecondsInSystemClock” and press Enter to confirm the name.
5. Now, double-click on the newly created value. In the Edit Value window, type “1” in the Value Data field and click on the “Ok” button to save changes.
6. Finally, reboot Windows and you will see the seconds in the taskbar clock.
If you ever want to rever back, you can either delete the “ShowSecondsInSystemClock” value or change its Value Data back to “0”.
That is all. It is that simple to make the taskbar clock show seconds in Windows 10. If you are stuck or need some help, comment below and I will try to help as much as possible.
If you like this article, you might also like how to make taskbar transparent and how to add quick launch toolbar to taskbar.
