change date format on Win 8.1 lock screen

Question

Is it possilble to change the date format on the Win8.1 lock screen from dayofweek, month day to dayofweek, day month?

Solution

Yes, it is possible to change the lock screen date format.

You will need Microsoft Locale Builder.

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Resources

Read about locales here:

• Custom Locales (Windows) - MSDN:
  https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/dd317785(v=vs.85).aspx

Download Microsoft Locale Builder here:

• Download Locale Builder 2.0 from Official Microsoft Download Center:
  http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/p/?linkid=96654

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Instructions

1. Locale Builder > Next > Dates > Long Date Patterns > Lock screen date pattern: dddd, d MMMM
2. Then, go to Build > Build Zip Batch File > Save.
3. Extract the ZIP file.
   • You can see that the generated LDML file contains the element msLocale:lockScreenFormat.
4. Run the CMD file within an administrator command prompt.

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Apply locale

If you do not see any changes after installing the custom locale, you may need to apply the custom locale or reset your region settings.

Windows 10 and newer:

• Settings > Time and language > Date & time > Additional date, time, & regional settings > Under "Region", click "Change date, time, or number formats" > Additional settings... > Reset > Yes > OK > OK.

Windows 8 and earlier:

• Control Panel > Under "Clock, Language, and Region", click "Change date, time, or number formats" > Additional settings... > Reset > Yes > OK > OK.

Windows:

• Start > Run > intl.cpl > Additional settings... > Reset > Yes > OK > OK.

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Notes and limitations

• If you are missing the day of the week, month, or day notation, the lock screen will discard the custom date format pattern, and the lock screen will format manually with the full month name, comma, space, and the partial month day (element msLocale:monthDay; Dates > Partial Date Patterns > Month day pattern) pattern.

  The following symbols work:

  | Symbol | Meaning         | Presentation |  Example |
  |--------|-----------------|--------------|----------|
  |    M   | Month in year   | Text, number | July, 07 |
  |    d   | Day in month    | Number       |       10 |
  |    t   | AM/PM marker    | Text         |       PM |
  |    G   | Era designator  | Text         |       AD |
  |    '   | Escape for text | Delimiter    |          |
  

  The following symbols do not work:

  | Symbol | Meaning              | Presentation | Example |
  |--------|----------------------|--------------|---------|
  |    y   | Year                 | Number       |    2009 |
  |    h   | Hour in AM/PM (1-12) | Number       |      12 |
  |    H   | Hour in day (0-23)   | Number       |       0 |
  |    m   | Minute in hour       | Number       |      30 |
  |    s   | Second in minute     | Number       |      55 |
  

• Microsoft Locale Builder only supports pattern values less than or equal to 79 characters:

  The property 'LockScreenDatePattern' must be less than or equal to 79 characters in length.

• You can have multiple repeating patterns.

• Long patterns will be wrapped onto the next line on the lock screen.

Comments

[AStopher]

@music2myear I was stating the obvious, according to Stack Overflow's FAQ, questions must be researched beforehand. It's quite evident that the user did not research beforehand. The result I linked was the first result in a Google search.

[nhinkle]

@cybermonkey first of all, you're on Super User not Stack Overflow. Second, music2myear did not "steal" anything from you; you didn't even answer the question. This site is built on collaboration and cooperation. You offered a link; he turned it into an actual useful answer. Just because a question has been answered before on other sites doesn't mean we can't also provide an answer, and perhaps even make the answer easier to read and understand.

[AStopher]

@nhinkle I disagree with you removing my first comment, at least. The bottom line is that this question asks a question that can easily be answered via a simple search on Google, so therefore it has no research effort and is off-topic.

[Ravindra Bawane]

@cybermonkey The purpose of SU is to provide one place that has an extremely high likelihood of having some of those results for Google to find when users search. Yes, we appreciate a little leg work beforehand, but it's not strictly necessary, and if the answer is easy for us to find, then so be it: easy question, easy answer.

[nhinkle]

@cybermonkey I'm not the one who deleted your first comment, but I don't disagree with whoever did.

[Honza Zidek]

Why -1: You have not answered the OP's question. He was not asking how to change the locale, but how to define a specific date format. I believe this is impossible in Windows 8.1.

[Ravindra Bawane]

Yes, it's not precisely what OP was asking, but it's the only way available to do any sort of modification to the date/time on the home screen. So, it's not what he wanted, but exactly what he wanted is currently impossible. Also, I didn't downvote the original question. I upvoted it.

[Honza Zidek]

I was explaining why I downvoted your answer :) Because it's not an answer! It starts with "Yes you can" when apparently it should be rather "Not, you cannot, but...".

[XP1]

@Honza Zidek It's possible to change only the date format. See my answer. You can create a new custom locale with only the lock screen date pattern while retaining the user's locale settings.