Fun With Time Zones (Windows 10)

Do you have friends or family living far, far away? Like many times zones away? Do you often find yourself trying to figure out what time it is in Bora Bora? Well it’s 9:26 AM Eastern Daylight Time USA.  I can google “Time in Bora Bora” and find out…

It’s 3:36 AM in Bora Bora.

But what if you live in Grand Rapids, Michigan and you have a boyfriend living in Sydney, Australia and another one living in Wellington, New Zealand?

Or what if you have a girlfriend living in Denver or San Francisco.

You don’t want to be googling all the time, do you? Nope!

Windows 10 lets you add two times zones to your Windows Clock so you can see that time it is in any two places in the world (three counting your place).

Right-click on your Windows Clock and choose “Adjust date/time ”

In the Time & Language Settings dialog which opens, click on “Add clocks for different time zones”

Now use the down arrow to select the first time zone you want to show on your Windows Clock & Calendar:

As far as I know, every time zone in the world are in this list (if you keep on scrolling):

There are more – but we’re not going to keep showing them – you get it, right?

OK so Darcy has bank accounts in San Diego, California, USA – Pacific Time. And she has gold in a vault in Denver, Colorado, USA – Mountain Time. She likes to hide the money so I don’t get any, but she needs to know when the banks open in San Diego and Denver so she can hide the money and gold. So she wants to know what time it is in both those places just by clicking her Windows clock (oh, she’s shrewd!). She labeled “Pacific (US & Canada)” as Pacific – but she could have named it La-la land or whatever. She labeled “Mountain Time (US & Canada)” as Mountain because she’s not very creative, but she could have called Rockies or whatever.

Now when she clicks her Windows clock she can see instantly what time it in San Diego and Denver. And the banks don’t open until 9:00 AM so it looks like she’s got to wait a while before she can stash the cash.

On the other hand, I do a lot of work with our Cloudeight Direct Computer Care service helping our friends in Australia and New Zealand. I got tired of trying to figure out the time difference so I just added them to my Windows Clocks. I don’t have any money so, unlike EB, I don’t need to know what time the banks open in San Diego or Denver. I need to know what time it is in Sydney/Canberra Australia and Wellington/Auckland New Zealand.

So I use the same way of setting it up as EB did for her clock, only I scroll and scroll until I see Canberra, Melbourne, Sydney Australia – and I call it “Australia” (I could call it Kangaroo or OZ if I wanted to!).

For the second clock I choose Auckland/Wellington and label it New Zealand. I could very well label it kiwi or NZ or “far far away”. But I don’t want to be silly or cute. Just want to know what time it is for our friends in those locations. I don’t want to be late for our sessions!

Now what I see when I click my clock is this (see below). It’s still today in Australia, but it’s tomorrow in New Zealand and all good New Zealanders are slumbering in peace.

Hey, if I wanted to find out what’s going to happy tomorrow, I could just check with you folks in New Zealand. Hey, tell me who’s going to win the game tomorrow. I need to know today so I can make a sure bet.

All kidding aside, I’m sure you can see how useful having two extra clocks at your fingertips can be.  After all this, I sure hope so!