Microsoft is working on various improvements for Windows 11 users, and it turns out that one of the features that may soon find its way back into the operating system is support for displaying seconds as a unit of time in the system tray clock. While this isn’t necessarily a top feature request for Windows 11, in recent Windows Insider builds, seconds can be enabled. Most importantly, it can be enabled with the Vivetool utility thanks to a dedicated test ID41314201.
A dedicated option in the settings app allows the user to enable the second hand in the systray icon (after enabling the dedicated toggle said above), so it’s possible that getting the second hand back is a work in progress, and the same change may come sooner or later Available to all users in the Insider program.
Enabling this is pretty easy, although currently, you’ll find the steps below only work in Windows Server build 25246 – as said, the regression of seconds in the systray clock is probably just a matter of time for all Insiders. Once you’ve done that, in System Settings, you’ll find a new option called “Show seconds in system tray clock” under Personalization > Taskbar.
Microsoft is putting a lot of effort into improving the desktop and taskbar experience in Windows 11, so the company is updating the operating system with previously popular features. One of them is support for drag and drop, which was previously available on Windows 10 and should have been there from the beginning in Windows 11, but users were surprised to find that the taskbar functionality of the new system was greatly regressed. The feature’s return was first rolled out in Windows 11 build 22557 earlier this year as part of the Insider program and then rolled out to users with the debut of the 2022 Update.
Right now, it’s unknown when Microsoft plans to bring the seconds in the system tray clock to all users, but it might take some time since the feature isn’t even available to all Insiders.
Most likely, the software giant needs more time to test, the new Moments feature update is expected to be released in the first half of 2023, so wait for this release, or Microsoft will integrate the feature into the monthly rollout Quality Update for Windows 11 devices.
