How to change the time zone Windows 7 uses to display time in the task bar?

Question

I have my hardware clock set up in UTC. Windows 7 lets me add extra clocks to be shown when I click on the task bar clock, but the always-visible task bar clock itself remains in UTC. Can I change this without altering the hardware clock time zone?

I am interested not only in using UTC hardware clock, but using any time zone hardware clock while displaying different time zone clock in the taskbar. For example, a colleague of mine working intensively with Russian partners has hardware clock configured in CET (as everybody in the European office) but relies on MSK time in practice.

I think I wouldn't mind using a third party accessory (perhaps even reasonably paid one) but would like it to keep the original Windows 7 clock look-and-feel intact.

When you click on the task bar clock, do you get a pop-up window with a “Change date and time settings…” link? What do you get if you click on that? — Scott - Слава Україні, Dec 19 '12 at 13:38
possible duplicate of [Does Windows 7 support UTC as BIOS time?](http://superuser.com/questions/185773/does-windows-7-support-utc-as-bios-time) — Baarn, Dec 19 '12 at 16:27
@Ivan Please go back and set some of your older questions as answered. — Lee Taylor, Dec 20 '12 at 00:52
I've reviewed all my questions (on this particulat site) and approved all the answers which actuall answer respective questions. All the questions for which I haven't acceded an answer are unanswered and remain open, @LeeTaylor — Ivan, Dec 26 '12 at 20:49

Trav · Answer 1 · 2012-12-20T12:19:01.573

2

I think setting the registry entry from this article will allow your time to display properly. Per the article, create a registry file in Notepad with the following in it:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\TimeZoneInformation] “RealTimeIsUniversal”=dword:00000001

Open the .reg file you just created, answer yes, and restart your computer.

To set the time back to the default, non-UTC time calculation method, you can make a .reg file with the following and run it:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\TimeZoneInformation] “RealTimeIsUniversal”=dword:00000000

edited Dec 20 '12 at 12:19

answered Dec 19 '12 at 14:41

Trav

1,090
9
20

awesome, looks a ton better! nice answer, +1! – studiohack Dec 20 '12 at 16:16
This is very handy to know, thanks. I will plan to migrate all the computers in my power to use this. – Ivan Dec 26 '12 at 19:42

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Dec 20 '12 at 00:18

Officially there's no way to do this. You could try registry hacks but I found that it can be very buggy. Restarting your computer or resyncing the clock online causes quirks and your clock might end up being way off and more of a bother than actually just using local time.

How to change the time zone Windows 7 uses to display time in the task bar?

2 Answers2