Clock in Systray hidden

[Guest]

One of my techs mistakenly ran a Group Policy that hid all users clocks. He
corrected the group policy, but we still have many, many XP Pro workstations
that the clock is still not showing. The only fix I have executed is
deleting their profile and setting them back up, but that is too time
consuming for hundreds of users. I went out to Google groups and gave me
info on a registry key to go to and change some certain values. I am not
comfortable knowing which Byte to change or which range in the hexidecimal
code since I am not a programmer.
Can anyone shed some light as to what simple registry key to change or
setting somewhere in XP that is holding on to that old Group Policy? I want
everyone's clock to show.
Thank you,
Jayhawk

 

[Wesley Vogel]

Loo k for a HideClock value in these two registry keys.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explore
r
and/or
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explor
er
Value Name: HideClock
Data Type: REG_DWORD
Value Data: 0 or 1
0 (or entry does not exist in registry) = Show Clock
1 = Hide Clock


Remove Clock from the system notification area

Administrative Template: System
Policy Node: USER
Policy Path: Administrative Templates\Start Menu and Taskbar
Supported On: At least Microsoft Windows XP Professional or Windows Server
2003 family
Help/Explain Text: Prevents the clock in the system notification area from
being displayed. If you enable this setting, the clock will not be displayed
in the system notification area. If you disable or do not configure this
setting, the default behavior of the clock appearing in the notification
area will occur.
http://www.boyce.us/gp/gpcontent.asp?ID=389

--
Hope this helps. Let us know.

Wes
MS-MVP Windows Shell/User

In

 

[Guest]

Wes,
I went to two different PC's. I went to the registry key you specified and
the HideClock setting was not there on either one. I added the setting to
show the clock, rebooted each PC and still no clock.
This all started when my tech went to Group Policy, User config, admin
templates, start menu and taskbar and enabled the "remove clock from the
system notification area". Found this was a mistake, so he set it back to
not configured and has been that way for weeks now, but users clock is not
showing back up.
Any other suggestions to get the clock back without deleting the profile?
Thank you,
Jayhawk_71

 

[Wesley Vogel]

There are TWO different registry keys that you need to look at.

Anything in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE is machine wide, user doesn't matter.
Anything means any setting, no matter what the setting is.

Anything in HKEY_CURRENT_USER is for the current logged on user. Anything
means any setting, no matter what the setting is.

If there is a possibility of the same setting in both registry hives, the
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE setting usually takes precedent.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\
CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer
and/or
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\
CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer

Do a Search in the registry for HideClock.

Open the Registry Editor...
Start | Run | Type: regedit | Click OK |
Hit your F3 key to open Find.

Type: HideClock in the Find what box and click Find Next button.

Keep hitting F3 until you see the Finished searching through the registry
message.

--
Hope this helps. Let us know.

Wes
MS-MVP Windows Shell/User

In

 

[Guest]

Wes,

No good. I did a search on two separate workstations and there is no
"HideClock" anywhere in the registry.
Anything else we can try or do? I do have some tech support incidents I
could use, but wanted to try this resource first.

Thanks,
Jayhawk_71

 

[Wesley Vogel]

Jayhawk_71,

Are you seeing ANYTHING in the Notification Area?

This is the only other thing that I can think of.

<quote>
Hide the notification area

Administrative Template: System
Policy Node: USER
Policy Path: Administrative Templates\Start Menu and Taskbar
Supported On: At least Microsoft Windows XP Professional or Windows Server
2003 family

Help/Explain Text: This setting affects the notification area (previously
called the system tray) on the taskbar. Description: The notification area
is located at the far right end of the task bar and includes the icons for
current notifications and the system clock. If this setting is enabled, the
user’s entire notification area, including the notification icons, is
hidden. The taskbar displays only the Start button, taskbar buttons, custom
toolbars (if any), and the system clock. If this setting is disabled or is
not configured, the notification area is shown in the user's taskbar. Note:
Enabling this setting overrides the Turn off notification area cleanup
setting, because if the notification area is hidden, there is no need to
clean up the icons.
<quote>
http://www.boyce.us/gp/gpcontent.asp?ID=390


HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\
CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer
and/or
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\
CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer
Value Name: NoTrayItemsDisplay
Data Type: REG_DWORD
Value Data: 0 or 1
0 = default
1 = enable restriction


--
Hope this helps. Let us know.

Wes
MS-MVP Windows Shell/User

In

 

[Guest]

Wes,

The article you are quoting states that if the "Hide Notification area" is
enabled using group policy, everything will be hidden EXCEPT start button,
taskbar buttons, custom toolbars (if any) and the system clock. This option
was and has never been configured in group policy. However, he did
accidentally enable the "remove system clock", but is now set to not
configured.

We are seeing everything else in the tasbar area, anti-virus, sound, etc.,
just not the clock. If I call Microsoft Tech Support, are they going to be
able to assist me as well? I would hate to lose a support call if they
cannot fix it either.
Deleting the profile and setting it back up works, but again, I do not want
to do that for hundreds of employees.

If you cannot assist me any further, just let me know. Thanks for all your
help,

Jayhawk_71

 

[Wesley Vogel]

You got everything that I can think of.

--
Hope this helps. Let us know.

Wes
MS-MVP Windows Shell/User

In

 

[unowned01]

You got everything that I can think of.

Have you tried setting it to disabled instead of not configured in the
group policy?

This may over write the enabled setting and show the clock again.

 

[Wesley Vogel]

Good point!!!

--
Hope this helps. Let us know.

Wes
MS-MVP Windows Shell/User

In