Change Windows Desktop Time Format

By | April 25, 2015
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Change Windows Desktop Time Format

This post shows you how to change the windows desktop time format into something a little more standard.

Since I realised that it could help me keep my date-labelled files and folders in order, I’ve been a fan, supporter and advocate of ISO 8601, which sets the standard of yyyy-mm-dd. Unfortunately by default windows 7 uses a different format, so here’s how to change it.

Open Control Panel

Open up the control panel from the start menu.

control panel - Change Windows Desktop Time Format

Search for “Region and Language” Settings

Search or browse for the “Region and Language” settings.control panel - region and language - Change Windows Desktop Time Format

Change the “Short Date” Format

This will bring up this dialogue window. The format we want to change is the “Short date”.

control panel - region and language - short date - Change Windows Desktop Time Format

Once you click OK you should find that your windows desktop date format has been changed to the yyyy-mm-dd format.