How to Hide or Show Seconds in the System Tray Clock in Windows 11 Make your desktop’s clock more accurate. Here's how you can hide or show seconds on your system's tray. Clock on Windows 11. Before we begin, be sure to subscribe to NinjaOne’s IT video hub and our YouTube channel for more tech content like this. Why Add Seconds to System Tray Clock By default, Windows sets its clock configuration by displaying only the hour and minute. This behavior dates back to earlier Windows versions. and starting with Windows 11 build 22621.1776, Microsoft finally allowed users to toggle the option to show seconds. This is especially useful for those who want a more accurate reading of the time. And there are three ways to add such configuration to the system's tray clock. Three Methods to Add Seconds to System Tray Clock Let's start with the swiftest approach. Windows Settings. Open Settings, go to Personalization > Taskbar, and click Taskbar behaviors to open the dropdown menu. Look for “Show seconds in system tray clock” and check or uncheck the box to show and hide the seconds of the clock, respectively. If you can't find this tab, however, you may be using a newer Windows 11 build where this feature has been moved to the date and time section. Back at the Settings menu, navigate to Time & language > Date & Time, and click “Show time and date in the System tray” to open the dropdown menu. Find “Show seconds on system tray clock” and check or uncheck the box to match your preferred time format. If you’re applying this change per user or using a script for deployment, you can try the Registry Editor method. Open the Registry Editor, and go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows \CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advance Under the Advanced subkey, find ShowSecondsInSystemClock, double-click it, and set the value to 1 to show seconds or 0 to hide seconds. If the change does not appear, immediately restart your device or restart Windows Explorer to apply the update. For admins wanting a more straightforward way to apply this change to many endpoints, you can use PowerShell commands. Simply open PowerShell and input this command to show seconds or this command to hide seconds. And that's it. Now you can get a more accurate reading of the time on your Windows device. For more information, check out our official blog post How to Hide or Show Seconds in the System Tray Clock in Windows 11, linked in the description below.