How to Customize AM and PM Symbols in System Tray in Windows?

In almost all Windows versions the time is displayed in system tray. The hour and minutes are displayed along with the AM and PM symbols.

This tutorial will teach you how to customize these AM and PM symbols. You can replace them with any desired text, e.g. your name, anything you want.

To change it:

1. Type intl.cpl in Run or startmenu searchbox and press Enter. It'll open Regional Settings window. You can also open it from Control Panel.

2. Now click on "Customize" or "Customize this format" button. It'll open another window. Go to "Time" tab:

3. Now you can change the text for AM and PM symbols to your desired string. You can also completely remove the AM, PM symbols by removing "tt" from "Time format" text box. Even you can interchange between 12 hour and 24 hour time format by using "h" and "H" respectively.

Click on "Apply" button to apply the changes, then again click on "Apply" button to close the main Regional Settings window. Now the system tray will show your desired text instead of default AM and PM symbols:

4. There is a limitation in this method. You can only type 12 characters in the AM and PM symbol text boxes. What if you want to set longer string? Then you'll need to edit Registry.

5. Open regedit and go to:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\International

Now look for "s1159" and "s2359" string values. Both represent AM and PM symbols respectively.

6. Double-click on each string value and change its value to your desired text. Now you can use longer string without any problem:

7. Exit registry editor. Your changes will be saved immediately. If you don't see the new text in system tray, then you might need to log off or restart your system.

Complete list of AskVG articles

This article was posted in Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP.

Share |

15 Comments

Ron

thanks for the feed back
Ron

Dear Vishal,

I hope you don't mind me posting this here( since the program is quite old), but i found a nice application that has done exactly what I needed in regards to what I asked before.:D
It is called TClockEX, and it allows some wonderful customization of the tasktray clock. It has a calendar, which can also be undocked and placed anywhere on the desktop, similar to many of the sidebar gadgets, and that also is customizable. It uses the information you gave from this tutorial/tweak in the same manner.
It can be found here, from the programmer's webpage.
I am running Vista Home Premium and have had absolutely no problem with it. As I mentioned before, I am currently using Windows Classic theme with a few modified colors, fonts, and button/bar sizes and I am able to match my colors with the clock.
It's right click context menu incorporates the default one, with the ability to take you to the system settings menu for date/time. It also has other functionality in regards to CPU monitoring and such. I won't bother with that aspect of it, since I only needed it to display the date/time/ and even a message of indeterminate length ( like your registry tweak above ) in the tasktray when it is at it's slimmest or lowest position horizontally.
Thank you for letting me know this can't be done in Vista automagically through the registry or a hidden setting. It motivated me to find a solution. I was looking at how to do this, and met others looking to do the same and when I found the link to Dale Nurden's wonderful program.
Much love as always
Ron.
p.s. If i have over stepped some bounds by posting this here and the link to his page, please let me know. I will not do it again. :O
always here and telling people about you
R
VG

^^ No problem and thanks for sharing this nice app.
marcel_miller

Thanks!
yq.wang

great lightweight tool