Add different time zone clock to desktop taskbar (Windows)

Table of Contents

• Installing T-Clock (app)
• Using T-Clock to add clocks to your Windows 10 taskbar
• T-Clock’s shortcomings
• Using Windows’s native world clock feature
• Did that work for you?

I have a few clients from different parts of the world and I need a clock that can be referred to easily.

I needed something which will display my time zone and another time zone on my taskbar.

A lot of tutorials teach you how to put it in the Start menu and another way is to use Windows’s native functionality, but you’d have to hover over the clock to see it.

I wanted something that will show you the time in one glance.

So, I found T-Clock, a gadget that can help you place an additional clock on your Windows 10 desktop.

Installing T-Clock (app)

T-Clock app allows you to customize the taskbar clock in many ways.

It’s the best way so far to add a digital clock without resorting to widgets.

You can add one, two or three time zones to your desktop taskbar. Multiple clocks can be synced to different time zones in the settings menu.

You can download T-Clock here.

It’s not the latest version, but if you want to use the latest version, you can download it from T-Clock’s releases page, here. Go to the latest version and click on the “Assets” dropdown arrow and then download the non-source-code ZIP file.

Unfortunately, it didn’t work for me because Windows’s anti-malware stopped it from running.

Once you’ve downloaded it, extract all the files into the folder and click on Clock64.exe. If that doesn’t work, try Clock.exe.

Using T-Clock to add clocks to your Windows 10 taskbar

Once you’ve opened T-Clock, you will notice that your Windows taskbar clock changes.

In other words, something is wrong if you haven’t seen any change.

If all is well, right click on T-Clock and go to T-Clock Options.

It’s optional but you can allow T-Clock to run on start if you tick the “Start T-Clock Redux when Windows starts” checkbox.

Now, head to the Time Format tab.

This is where you’d create your own clock.

Check the “Advanced clock format” box.

In the input box, you’re going to type a string that formats the clock.

If you live in Pacific Time and want Eastern Time, here’s the string you need:

HH:nn PT \nW+3:nn ET

HH is the current hour with leading zero.

The “:” is just a separator between the hours and minutes.

nn = current minutes with leading zero

PT is my annotation for Pacific Time.

\n creates a new line.

W+3 means your time zone plus three hours. You can change this to whatever you want. For example, W-3 is Hawaii time. W+8 is London Time.

And finally, ET is my annotation for Eastern Time.

There are many more options, viewable at T-Clock’s Wiki.

You can use any combination of strings to create a new world clock and theoretically, you can have as many different clocks as you’d like.

T-Clock’s shortcomings

I prefer the 12 hour clock but you won’t be able to use a 12 hour clock with a different timezone.

If you refer to the illustration above, you’d see why.

It’s Saturday, 1 am in London. But because it’s still Friday, 5pm, T-Clock will still output Friday and 1 pm for London even though they’re already in Saturday and it’s AM over there.

It’s the same with dates.

That’s why I use a 24 hour clock to reduce confusion.

Another shortcoming that I foresee is that T-Clock doesn’t automatically detect the time change due to the end/start of daylight savings time.

The solution to that is to get rid of the time change.

The workaround, though, is that you’re probably going to need to change the time formatting offset (W+[hours]) every time your clocks move forward and backwards.

Note that European and North American time changes occur at different times of the year.

Using Windows’s native world clock feature

In order to find out what day it is and whether it’s AM or PM, I have also enabled Microsoft’s native method to add extra clocks.

To do so, just right click on the taskbar clock and then go to “Adjust date/time”

Then, on the right sidebar, go to “Add clocks for different time zones”

Then, tick “Show this clock”, choose a time zone that you need and then enter a display name.

Now, when you hover over the clock, you will see the correct AM/PM sign and also the day of your other locations.

Did that work for you?

As always, using third-party software can be a bit different for everyone.

It doesn’t seem like T-Clock has been updated for a few years so it can be a bit problematic sometimes.

At present, it’s still the best option I have found so far so I really think this will be the best way forward even though it has some shortcomings.

If you have any questions about how to write the date formats, you can leave a comment on my YouTube video or email me.