Start menu uses mdy,12hr format, even though system wide settings use dmy, 24hr format for date and time

Question

I have clearly been using dmy format for date, and 24hr format for time. This is also the default settings for my region: India. Entire system (except Start menu), including file manager, system tray respects these settings.

The start menu, however, uses mdy format for date, and 12hr format for time.

This inconsistency must be rectified since start menu is an integral part of Windows, not some third-party add-on.

System details: Windows version 15H2, OS build 26200.7922

Answer 1

Hello Soukarya Samanta,

Welcome to Microsoft Q&A forum.

As I checked, the format of the date & time of this might be a mismatch between the regional format and the time format. The modern shell usually take effect.

In this case, can you please go to Settings > Time & Language > Language and region and try to switch to a region that use 24 hours format by default. Then restart your Explorer and the computer to see if it helps?

I'm waiting for your reply.

Answer 2

Windows uses different mechanisms for formatting date and time in various UI surfaces. Most of the system (File Explorer, system tray, apps) follows the regional “Short date/Long date” and “Short time/Long time” formats, but the Start menu has its own implementation and does not fully honor those settings in current Windows 11 builds.

From the available documentation, there is no supported setting that specifically controls the date order or 12/24‑hour format used by the Start menu tiles or search flyout. The closest configurable policy for Start is TurnOffAbbreviatedDateTimeFormat, which only switches between an abbreviated and a classic (longer) format in the system tray and requires a reboot, but it does not change MDY vs DMY or 12‑ vs 24‑hour behavior in Start:

• 0 (default): abbreviated time and date format.
• 1: classic time and date format (includes AM/PM and year).

Regional settings can still be configured under Windows “Date and time formats” and via Control Panel to use 24‑hour time (for example, HH:mm or HH:mm:ss) and DMY date order, and these will be respected by components that rely on the system formats. However, the Start menu behavior described is not adjustable through documented policies or registry values.

Given this, the inconsistency observed is a limitation/bug in the current Windows 11 Start menu implementation rather than a misconfiguration. There is no documented workaround to force Start to use DMY and 24‑hour formats beyond ensuring regional settings are correct and keeping Windows updated in case a future build aligns Start with system formats.

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References:

• Policy CSP - Start
• Switch Calendar views between a 12-hour clock and 24-hour clock
• Reference for Windows 11 and Windows 10 settings