Description of Date and Time Format Standards

ID: Q247873

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Windows 2000
Microsoft Windows NT 4.0
Microsoft Windows 95
Microsoft Windows 98
Microsoft Windows 98 Second Edition

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SUMMARY

This article describes the sources for the formats available on the Date and Time tabs in the Regional Settings or Regional Options tool in Control Panel.

The default date and time format options originate in the following ISO standard:

ISO 8601:1988 "Data elements and interchange formats -- Information interchange -- Representation of dates and times"

The remaining date and time formats are other typically used string values for a given region, based on linguistic research performed by Microsoft.

Microsoft has made extensive efforts to be culturally aware, and to limit the choices to options that users might actually want to use. For example, 12-hour time formats are not included as options in locales that do not use them.

MORE INFORMATION

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For information about how to edit the registry, view the "Changing Keys and Values" Help topic in Registry Editor (Regedit.exe) or the "Add and Delete Information in the Registry" and "Edit Registry Data" Help topics in Regedt32.exe. Note that you should back up the registry before you edit it. If you are running Windows NT, you should also update your Emergency Repair Disk (ERD).

You can override the available formats by entering your own custom values in the applicable control in the Regional Settings or Regional Options tool in Control Panel.

In Windows 95 and Windows 98, all values in the default list options are stored in the [Intl] section of of the Win.ini file. Custom values are stored under the following registry key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\International

In Windows NT and Windows 2000, all date and time format settings, whether default or custom, are stored under the following registry key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\International

For additional information, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Q58337 Windows 3.0 Win.ini [Intl] Section

Q65124 Writing International Applications for Windows

REFERENCES

For additional information about ISO standards, visit the following Web site:

http://www.iso.ch/

The third-party contact information included in this article is provided to help you find the technical support you need. This contact information is subject to change without notice. Microsoft in no way guarantees the accuracy of this third-party contact information.

Additional query words:

Keywords : kbenv kbtool win95 win98 win98se
Version : WINDOWS:95; winnt:4.0
Platform : WINDOWS winnt
Issue type : kbinfo