29
11
I recently upgraded to Windows 7 and need the date displayed with the time. This works, but only if I use large icons in the taskbar settings which is quite ugly.
How do I display the time and date when only using small taskbar icons?
29
11
I recently upgraded to Windows 7 and need the date displayed with the time. This works, but only if I use large icons in the taskbar settings which is quite ugly.
How do I display the time and date when only using small taskbar icons?
15
I had absolutely no luck with the up-voted Skinny Clock utility. Instead I tried "TClock", which was mentioned in a side conversation as not being compatible with Windows 7 circa 2009. Apparently we didn't have long to wait- in 2010 an update was released that is fully compatible with Windows 2000/XP/2003/Vista/2008/7 32 & 64 bit.
TClock 2010 works like a charm for me, and has every option I could imagine needing. The original developer has since discontinued development, but others have picked up the project.
You can download the original TClock 2010 Build 95 from the author's DonationCoder forum post, or from a fan mirror; both should have an md5sum of 8bbdc9344c223ee24bafd944cecbd507. The developer also released the source code, which continues to be developed.
Note: I have only tested Build 95, the last produced by the original developer.
Aside from the clock itself, its ability to have a global hotkey open a quick calendar is especially helpful. As an added bonus the application is (mostly) self-contained and doesn't require administrative privileges.
My setup with TClock 2010 Build 95, Windows 7 Enterprise 64-bit, and small taskbar icons:
11
Consider this scenario: you have the taskbar positioned at bottom or top while using small icons. You want to see both date and time, but only the latter is displayed.
This behavior is by design.
Enlarging the taskbar to be twice as tall @techie007
While it works, the taskbar gets even bigger then the default one while using large icons.
Positioning the taskbar vertically @techie007
Some may still prefer having the taskbar at the bottom or at the top.
Reducing the Dots per Inch (DPI) setting below 100% @Molly7244
Not really an option since icons will just look bad/distorted, and text might not be rendered correctly anyway. There could be other side effects too; it's basically an unsupported registry hack.
Using a third party application - Skinny Clock @Frank
Considering the program has other features it requires some tweaking to get a no-frills experience. It has an override feature which can replace the taskbar clock and display a custom date/time format. It's an experimental feature and while it might work for some people (for whatever reason the program stopped working after some testing), the rendered text won't be positioned properly, and it will be not as sharp looking as the original one.
Using a third party application - T-Clock @Terrance
Definitely a better alternative that Skinny Clock since it's more lightweight. The default settings are not good enough but can be easily customized. The position can be adjusted too. Just like Skinny Clock, text rendering isn't perfect no matter which quality setting you choose. If the program crashes or gets terminated forcefully, the explorer shell will crash.
Adding a new toolbar and change it to display large icons @Tomas
The taskbar will be slightly bigger compared to the default one, and at the same time too small to handle two rows of applications like @techie007's solution.
The idea is to create a new toolbar pointing to a folder whose only content is a shortcut file which gets renamed depending on the system date. A taskbar toolbar, a shortcut file, a batch script, and a scheduled task: that's all it takes.
Here's the end result:
DateToolbarHack
in C:\Users\<Name>
(or wherever you like).DateToolbarHack
and name it Date
.Date
folder.Copy the following code and paste it in a new file called UpdateToolbar.cmd
inside the DateToolbarHack
folder:
@echo off setlocal enabledelayedexpansion cd /d "%~dp0\Date" call :getShortDate ren *.lnk %month%-%day%.lnk exit /b :getShortDate for /f "skip=1 tokens=1-3" %%A in ('wmic path Win32_LocalTime get day^,month^,year /value /format:table') do ( set day=00%%A set day=!day:~-2! set month=00%%B set month=!month:~-2! set year=%%C set year=!year:~-2! exit /b )
Run the batch script and make sure the link got renamed.
After setting the working directory it will retrieve the current date and then rename the shortcut file. The code to get the current date was partially borrowed from this page: http://ss64.com/nt/syntax-getdate.html
taskschd.msc
) and click Action > Create Task.DateToolbarHack
.system
in the textbox, click Check Names, and then click OK."X:\Path\to\UpdateToolbar.cmd"
in the Program/script textbox, replacing it with the actual file path.Date
folder.You can choose any icon you like for the shortcut. The date format can be adjusted by changing the following line in the batch script:
ren *.lnk %month%-%day%.lnk
In this case we have the %month%
first followed by the %day%
. The separator is -
. You can invert their order or you can add the %year%
too.
ArtOfWarfare's customized script to print out, IE, Sat Aug 2 instead:
echo off
setlocal enabledelayedexpansion
cd /d "%~dp0\Date"
call :getShortDate
ren *.lnk "%dayofweek%, %month% %day%.lnk"
exit /b
:getShortDate
for /f "skip=1 tokens=1-3" %%A in ('wmic path Win32_LocalTime get day^,dayofweek^,month /value /format:table') do (
set day=%%A
if "%%B"=="0" set dayofweek="0"
if "%%B"=="1" set dayofweek="Mon"
if "%%B"=="2" set dayofweek="Tue"
if "%%B"=="3" set dayofweek="Wed"
if "%%B"=="4" set dayofweek="Thu"
if "%%B"=="5" set dayofweek="Fri"
if "%%B"=="6" set dayofweek="Sat"
if "%%B"=="7" set dayofweek="7"
if "%%C"=="1" set month="Jan"
if "%%C"=="2" set month="Feb"
if "%%C"=="3" set month="Mar"
if "%%C"=="4" set month="Apr"
if "%%C"=="5" set month="May"
if "%%C"=="6" set month="Jun"
if "%%C"=="7" set month="Jul"
if "%%C"=="8" set month="Aug"
if "%%C"=="9" set month="Sep"
if "%%C"=="10" set month="Oct"
if "%%C"=="11" set month="Nov"
if "%%C"=="12" set month="Dec"
exit /b
)
Date
folder except for the one link you created.You can't use Windows reserved characters as separators:
< > : " / \ | ? *
Went through all that and I can't actually position it however I want. Dropbox, Symantec, Battery, Internet, and Volume all occupy the space between the date and the time, and there doesn't seem to be anything I can do about that. Further, it's kind of lame that I can't have slashes between the elements of the date. – ArtOfWarfare – 2014-07-29T21:07:39.567
I don't understand what the set day
/month/year section of your script is doing - could you explain it token by token or point me at a cmd
primer that can explain each token of it? – ArtOfWarfare – 2014-07-29T21:10:14.947
1@ArtOfWarfare Those icons are located in the notification area, and custom toolbars can't be placed there. You can't use slashes because they're reserved characters. The actual date is basically retrieved from a file name, and slashes (among others) aren't allowed. As for the script, it parses the output of the wmic path Win32_LocalTime
command which is used to retrieve the current day, month, and year. A variable is set for each, and is then padded with 0
(3
becomes 03
, and so on). Finally, each variable is trimmed to just the last two characters, thus stripping extra zeros. – and31415 – 2014-08-02T11:12:57.990
@and31415 - Thanks for that info. I went with this but changed it to instead print out 3 letters for the day of the week, 3 letters for the name of the month, and then the day of the month as an unpadded number. IE, today it says "Sat Aug 2". – ArtOfWarfare – 2014-08-02T19:42:54.293
@and31415 - I edited the answer to include my customized script for incase anyone is interested. – ArtOfWarfare – 2014-08-02T19:49:11.630
Wow... complicated, but it's better than anything else. I did it all and it works great! – oscilatingcretin – 2014-01-30T00:11:57.640
@oscilatingcretin Yeah, it does sound more complicated then it actually is. I just didn't like having to rely on third party apps; using such scheduled task will minimize the system overhead because the date is only updated when actually needed. As an added bonus, if you click the toolbar the Date and Time control panel applet gets launched. Let me know if you find any issue. – and31415 – 2014-01-30T00:24:02.410
I will add that it's important not to miss the step of 14.Enable the Run task as soon as possible after a scheduled start is missed option.
Otherwise, powering on your PC after the scheduled run time will result in the task not running. – oscilatingcretin – 2014-01-31T13:18:48.983
9
If you reduce the DPI settings below 100% (96 DPI) to 80 or 90% you should see time AND date in the task bar with 'small icons'. But since the folks at Microsoft in their infinite wisdom have set the minimum limit to 100% you will have to edit the registry for that:
If you want to use DPI settings below 96 (100%), start the Registry Editor (backup your registry first) and navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_CONFIG\Software\Fonts
LogPixels value is 96 decimal.
For 90 percent font size, set to 86 decimal.
For 80 percent font size, set to 76 decimal.
Close REGEDIT and reboot the computer.
If some text appears too small or blurry, try a different value or return to 96 DPI.
Source: Vista less than 96 DPI by registry change (works for Windows 7)
Voilá! Time AND date with small icons in the task bar (with 90% DPI settings).
2I'll give this a try tomorrow when I'm feeling braver, thanks. – kirakat – 2009-12-31T03:23:27.050
1@Molly - Do you ever sleep? – Patriot – 2009-12-31T03:48:27.843
8
With Windows 7 or Vista (32-bit or 64-bit) and small icons, you can show both the date and time using the free program Skinny Clock
from RAWOS or Softpedia.
I have version 1.15 Beta 1
, which needs tweaking for optimum results.
5
There is a version of T-Clock that is maintained by White-Tiger on GitHub and it works very well. I tested it my self on Windows 10. According to the description it is also compatible to windows 7.
https://github.com/White-Tiger/T-Clock
The program is highly customizable but in default everything works as normal. Only the context menu (right click on time and date) has some new functions and is not in windows 10 theme anymore.
1
There is a one trick. Just found it today myself.
Done! :)
1The resulting size of the task bar is as large as the task bar using large icons. – Aaron Hoffman – 2013-11-05T16:17:08.937
1@AaronHoffman Actually a bit larger. – and31415 – 2014-01-30T00:34:11.170
1
You can, but you either have to unlock the task bar and enlarge it to be twice as tall; or you can move it to one of the side edges of the monitor. Unfortunatly, both of those options make the bar bigger than just using Large Icons.
thanks for your fast response, I kinda suspected as much :( I guess I'll just start praying that a new version of TClock will appear soon that's compatible with W7. – kirakat – 2009-12-31T01:56:53.667
Hey! I forgot about TClock! oh the memories.. :) – Ƭᴇcʜιᴇ007 – 2009-12-31T02:49:04.010
0
If you are looking today to download T-Clock 2010 (build 95) which has now disappeared, there is still one website that preserves it, at:
THE EXTREMELY UNOFFICIAL WEB PAGE FOR Stoic Joker's T-Clock.
This extremely temporary web page from 2009 is still there and waiting.
The only other solution I can see would be to use one of the Windows themes found on devianART, for example, Shine 2.0 by zainadeel, or use a utility such as Ave's Windows7 Style Builder (US$22.50) to create your own theme.
1So the only way to do this is through unofficial/abandoned third party apps (of which two exist, both of which you mentioned and have already been recommended by other answerers here), using large icons (which it looks as though that Shine theme does), reducing the font size, increasing the size of the task bar, positioning the taskbar vertically, or paying money? – oscilatingcretin – 2014-01-22T16:51:35.490
I think this a good summary of the situation - not much has changed in Windows 7 since 2009. – harrymc – 2014-01-22T17:30:42.197
@harrymc why not just make this an edit on the answer that originally suggested TClock? – nhinkle – 2014-01-22T19:20:04.443
@nhinkle: I will add there this link. – harrymc – 2014-01-22T20:42:10.413
@oscilatingcretin I've just posted an alternate solution. – and31415 – 2014-01-29T23:37:22.870
@and31415: So why do you put that on my answer? – harrymc – 2014-01-30T09:40:09.270
You said @oscilatingcretin got a "good summary of the situation." Since I brought something new to the table, I thought I would let you know. – and31415 – 2014-01-30T10:25:19.157
still work on windows 10 x64 – JinSnow – 2017-07-11T14:32:57.297
1@harrymc The only thing I can obtain from that link is a bathtub. I think the URL needs updating, hehe. – Konrad Viltersten – 2018-05-07T13:23:46.390
@KonradViltersten: Which link is a bathtub? – harrymc – 2018-05-07T15:30:01.477
@harrymc I clicked the one that is in the very first comment to the answer we're subcommenting to right now - Stoic Joker's T-Clock. It redirects to https://www.thetubconnection.com/index.php?p=404. If you don't see it, perhaps it's something weird with my system?
– Konrad Viltersten – 2018-05-07T15:45:08.627@KonradViltersten: The domain has been appropriated. My google found this website, but I don't know how well it works on the latest Windows version.
– harrymc – 2018-05-07T18:33:45.813Remark: T-Clock 2010 can still be downloaded from Stoic Joker's T-Clock.
– harrymc – 2014-01-23T11:52:40.163The original website links to the DonationCoder forum, which still hosts the application. I've added your mirror and some additional version information above. Thanks! – Terrance – 2014-01-24T17:19:06.760