How to Change Time Format on Lock Screen in Windows 8

The Windows 8 users are well aware of the Lock Screen. This displays the date, time and weather. Lock Screen can be easily displayed just by pressing Windows key and L at the same time. The date and time on the Lock Screen appear in the same format as it appears in the taskbar, for instance if you use 24 hour clock format then it would show in the same format. But this is not necessary to be displayed in the same format, you can customize it according to your need.

You might be thinking that this customization came in effect by using Control Panel. This is although true but you can also customize by editing the registry.

 Using it is pretty simple, just launch the Registry Editor by typing "regedit" in the run utility using windows key + r  and move to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ SystemProtectedUserData\S-1-5-21-[unique ID]\ AnyoneRead\LocaleInfo.

Now make this key editable by right clicking on LocaleInfo. Now select Permissions >check mark both the Allow boxes > Click OK.

Here you got a number of settings and customization that you can do but this time we are concern with TimeFormat key. In the Region Control Panel with this time format you can use the basic syntax in order to modify the appearance of the time according to your interest.
For 24 hour clock format it uses HH:mm along with a leading zero, H:mm without it, hh:mm is used for 12-hour time with the zero, and h:mm to drop it. For including AM and PM indicators add tt. In this way, by editing through registry the time is displayed in a different format than that of the taskbar clock.  

 

If you want your Lock Screen to look more adorable then you can add ASCII art to your clock, this will give an entire different look to your Lock Screen. The good thing with this editing is that you don’t need to restart your system to let the changes have effect on your system; instead it will change immediately according to your new customization.