Pocket PC Hints and Tips
Default Date Format
This is normally changed under 'Settings|Regional Settings' by firstly setting your default country and secondly by overriding the default dates etc for that country.
Whilst selecting 'English (United States)' allowed long date options like 'dddd, MMMM dd, yyyy' to be selected, very annoyingly, ever since the first version of Wince, there is no option available for 'English (United Kingdom)' that includes showing the day of the week.
Unfortunately, the only way of specifying your own prefered date format is to edit the registry. You're going to need a registry editing tool as they don't come with Wince. A registry editor is usually included with Wince development tools. One is included in the StarTap http://www.startap.com/ utility.
The registry entries for the short and long date formats are under [HKEYLOCALMACHINE\nls\overrides]
- "SSDte"="dd/M/yy"
- "SLDte"="dd MMMM yyyy"
These entries are only created when the defaults have been changed. The easiest way to change them is to first modify them under 'settings|regional settings' to something other than their default. This will cause the registry entries to be created. You can them modify the registry entries to your preferred format, e.g. 'dddd, dd MMMM yyyy'.
Being Windows, you'll need to reboot (or soft reset) you device for the changes to take effect.
-- Frank Dean - 26 Mar 2003