28 April 2013

T-Clock 2010: Tweak your Windows Clock on Taskbar

T-Clock 2010 with my custom format for time display

T-Clock 2010 Official Website: http://www.stoicjoker.com/tclock/
Current Version installed: T-Clock 2010 (build 95)


When I choose "Use small taskbar buttons" (from Taskbar Properties), the Date/Time display on the right end of taskbar became single-lined, and date went missing.

I've tried to hack the LogPixels value under HKEY_CURRENT_CONFIG\Software\Fonts in Registry Editor, as suggested on Internet. It worked (values I used were between 84 and 72). However it led to undesirable blurry fonts in Chrome, and I found no working solution to it. Thus I reverted back to original 96 dpi.

That was when I came across T-Clock 2010.

T-Clock 2010 is able to customize the way which Time and Date displays on Taskbar. It is a simple zip download from the developer's website. Unzip x64 if you are using a 64-bit Windows, otherwise Win32 will do. Put it in any folder that is easy to access (but probably avoid Program Files or Windows). Start the Clock.exe in the folder, it is up and running.

Through T-Clock Properties (Right click on T-Clock area), much customization can be done. You should at least let this program run automatically upon starting Windows: tick the tick in the About tab of the Properties.

To re-imitate the default Windows Date/Time look, the following is to be put in Custom Format under Time Format:
TIME\nDATE
I found myself enjoying customizing the way it looks, so it took me further and I eventually came up with what you see in the screenshot at the top. The documentation in the T-Clock Help.rtf is quite comprehensive, except that it didn't tell you how to make the preceding '0' appear in hms of the system uptime. Sdd, Saa, Shh, Snn, Sss are the hhmmss corresponding version of the system uptime.

My custom format set for T-Clock 2010 is:
SaaSnnSss ddeddmmeyyyy"№"Ww"W-"hhttnn@@@.@

The font used is Calibri Light, ClearType Natural, Size 12.
For Clock size and Text Position, I have Vertical as 1.

I love the way it looks now.

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